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Vol. 27 No. 2 (2025)
Creeds, Confessions and Contexts in the Uniting Church in Australia

Book Forum

Book Forum: Julia M. O’Brien’s Prophets Beyond Activism: Rethinking the Prophetic Roots of Social Justice

Published 2025-12-22

  • Elenie Poulos
    • ,
  • Brian Fiu Kolia
    • ,
  • Matthew Anslow
    • ,
  • Julia M. O'Brien

Abstract

This form engages Julia M. O'Brien's Prophets Beyond Activism: Rethinking the Prophetic Roots of Social justice. the three respondents are Elenie Poulos, Brian Fiu Kolia and Matthew Asnlow. In turn, O'Brien offers a response to their comments. 

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Author Biography

Elenie Poulos

Elenie Poulos is an ordained Minister of the Uniting Church and an Adjunct Fellow in Politics and International Relations at Macquarie University and past Visiting Fellow at Harris Manchester College at the University of Oxford. Her research on religion and politics is interdisciplinary, drawing from politics, sociology of religion and critical studies in religion. She was the director of the UnitingJustice Australia for 15 years and is a former Commissioner of the World Council of Churches’ advisory body on international affairs.

Brian Fiu Kolia

Brian Fiu Kolia is a second-generation Australian-born Samoan. He is a lecturer in Hebrew Bible/Old Testament at Malua Theological College. He holds a PhD from the University of Divinity, in Naarm/Melbourne, Australia. He is the author of Carrying Qoheleth’s Maota (House): An Australian-Samoan Diasporic Reading (SBL Press, 2024) and co-editor with Michael Mawson on Unsettling Theologies: Memory, Identity and Place (Palgrave Macmillan, 2024). More importantly, he is a husband to Tanaria and a father to Elichai.

Matthew Anslow

Matthew Anslowis Educator for Lay Ministry with the Uniting Church’s NSW/ACT Synod and Lecturer at United Theological College. He is the author of Fulfilling the Law and the Prophets: The Prophetic Vocation of Jesus in the Gospel of Matthew (2022). Matt has published numerous articles in the areas of biblical studies and theology, philosophy, peacemaking, direct action and civil disobedience, preaching, and agriculture. He was a co-founder of Love Makes a Way, Australia's largest ever church-based civil disobedience campaign. He lives with his wife, Ashlee, and their three children in Blackheath, New South Wales.

Julia M. O'Brien

Julia M. O’Brien (B. A., Wake Forest, 1981; M. Div., Duke, 1984; Ph. D., Duke, 1988) is Professor Emerita at Lancaster Theological Seminary (USA). Publications include Challenging Prophetic Metaphor (2008), three commentaries on the Minor Prophets, Encyclopedia of the Bible and Gender Studies (Editor-in Chief, 2014), and Oxford Handbook of the Minor Prophets (Editor, 2012). Isaiah 40-66 (Interpretation Bible Commentaries) and New Oxford Annotated Bible, sixth edition (Associate Editor) will be published in 2026.