It's my pleasure to introduce Professor Gary Anderson, one of the world's leading Old Testament

scholars. He serves as the Hesberg Professor of Catholic Theology at the University of Notre Dame.

He's been a Henry Luce Fellow, a Fellow at the Institute for Advanced Studies at Hebrew

University in Jerusalem, a star fellow in Jewish Studies at Hebrew University in Jerusalem,

a star fellow in Jewish studies at Harvard University,

and the Strauss Tikva Fellow at the Law School at New York University.

Currently, Professor Anderson is the president of the Catholic Biblical Association, and will be presenting his presidential address at Providence College this summer.

His area of specialty is the Old Testament and early Judaism and the reception of the Bible

in the rabbis and the church fathers.

One of the strong points of his research is the use of the Syriac fathers in particular,

and he's also conversant with modern Israeli scholarship

and encourages his students to read modern Hebrew.

His first book was Sacrifice and Offerings in Ancient Israel, 1987.

And his most recent books are Sin, A History, 2010, and Charity, 2013.

The subtitle here, The Place of the Poor in the Biblical Tradition.

Looking at all of Professor Anderson's works, I think we could say that God is really at the heart of his work,

what separates us from God, namely sin, personal, and original, and what joins us to God,

namely sacrifice, law, covenant, grace, purgatory, and charity.

Professor Anderson's been teaching so many future Dominicans in Notre Dame, I think we have to put him on the payroll if he keeps going, but a lot of his former students

are here today, and his son, Matthew Tobias, his youngest son, is now a member of the Dominican

province of St. Albert the Great in formation studying for the priesthood.

We're delighted that Professor Anderson could be with us this weekend.

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