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(My name is David Carr, and I am a professor of Hebrew Bible at Union Theological Seminary in New York, father of four, cyclist, and organ player. 
  
I am the author, most recently, of The Hebrew Bible: A Contemporary Introduction to the Christian Old Testament and Jewish Tanakh (Wiley Blackwell, 2021). This book provides a historically-oriented introduction to the rich diversity of perspectives in the Hebrew Bible and diversity of methods used to study it. 
     In addition, I recently published a commentary on Genesis 1-11 (International Exegetical Commentary on the Old Testament; Kohlhammer, 2021) and accompanying monograph on the formation of those chapters, The Formation of Genesis 1-11: Biblical and Other Precursors (Oxford University Press, 2020). 
    My most recent trade book for a wide audience is Holy Resilience: The Bible's Traumatic Origins (Yale University Press, 2014; order here), which retells the story of the emergence of the Bible and of Judaism and Christianity as a story of survival of trauma. This book is a culmination of other research that I've done over the last twenty-five years. Use the buttons to the left for more information on Holy Resilience, that research, and links to online lectures that I've prepared on the origins of the Bible, with a focus on the formation of the Torah/Pentateuch.  

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Videos and Web Articles (click on the links below)

For a brief intro to my work on trauma and the Bible see this well-produced, three-minute long Union video. 

Links to a preview and parts, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 and 6 of an extended interview on Trauma and Biblical Origins with Dr. Yeshaya Gruber of the Israel Bible Center. 

A brief (less than 4 minute) video summary of how the Bible gained its lasting power by being formed in the crucible of suffering. 

A 42 minute video interview about Holy Resilience with Robert Wright on Meaningoflife.tv. 

An interview with Jonathan Petersen about Holy Resilience on the Bible Gateway blog site.  

A review in Marginalia of two important recent works on the formation of the Old Testament/Hebrew Bible. 

5 Lessons the Bible Teaches about Trauma for the On Faith Website 

Article assembled for the Huffington Post by my students in the Bedford Hills Prison-UTS class -- "Incarcerated Women Reflect on Jesus' Seven Last Words on the Cross" 

Bible Odessey article  on “The Cry of Abel’s Blood”

Valentines Day and the Bible on the History News Network

A New Years Day piece for Time.com and History News Network on "Are We More Like the Roman Empire Than We Care to Admit?"

Interview about the current state of biblical scholarship on Alan Brill's Book of Doctrines and Opinions. 

My Time.com and History News Network piece on the Traumatic Origins of Hanukkah

Huffington Post Op-Ed on Ferguson, Staten Island and Ferguson

An Excerpt from my book on Crucifixion published in Salon.com

A brief video done by Oxford University Press on my views of Bible and some tools they produce

Long and Short Versions of a Video Interview about my Book for Union’s Webpage

A brief blog post on a Writers Site about what I’m reading

Another blog post on the p. 99 test (what is on p. 99 of my book Holy Resilience: The Bible's Traumatic Origins (2014)