Stewart Lester Book
Stewart Lester Explores Ancient Voices in New Volume on Sibylline Oracles
The volume also highlights the lasting importance of the sibyl as a female voice in religious history
Olivia Stewart Lester, PhD, associate professor of theology in Loyola University Chicago’s College of Arts and Sciences, is the editor of Listen to the Sibyl: Jewish and Christian Sibylline Oracles in Context, a newly published volume from Brill.
The book is the first collection devoted entirely to the Jewish and Christian Sibylline Oracles, ancient poetic prophecies written in Greek over nearly a thousand years. Bringing together scholars from around the world, the volume explores how these texts connect across cultures, including Jewish, Egyptian, Greek, Roman, and Christian traditions.
“Dr. Stewart Lester’s scholarship demonstrates how the study of ancient texts continues to inform our contemporary understanding of culture, religion, and history,” said Peter J. Schraeder, PhD, Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences. “This volume brings important attention to voices and traditions that remain deeply relevant today.”
At the center of the book is the sibyl, an ancient female prophet whose voice became a powerful way for Jewish and Christian writers to share ideas, interpret scripture, and engage with the world around them. Over centuries, her voice helped shape religious thought while connecting it to broader literary and cultural traditions.
“Overall, the volume demonstrates that the Sibylline Oracles are as integral to the history of ancient Judaism as they are to the study of Greek literature,” said Stewart Lester. “They deserve a central place within the study of ancient Rome and Ptolemaic Egypt, and their influence extends through the history of Christianity, illuminating the commitments and contestations of early modern humanist scholars.”
The book highlights the Sibylline Oracles as both religious texts and works of Greek poetry, showing how Jewish and Christian writers participated in classical literary traditions. It also offers insight into the political and cultural history of the ancient world, including the Roman Empire and regions such as Egypt and Syria.
The volume also highlights the lasting importance of the sibyl as a female voice in religious history. Her influence continued to shape how these traditions were understood well into the early modern period.
At Loyola, Stewart Lester’s research focuses on prophecy in Hellenistic Judaism, early Christianity, and the broader ancient Mediterranean. She co-chairs the John’s Apocalypse and Cultural Contexts Ancient and Modern Section and serves on the Steering Committee for the Greco-Roman Religions Section of the Society of Biblical Literature. She also serves on the editorial boards of the Journal of Biblical Literature, Catholic Biblical Quarterly, and Revue de Qumran.
Learn more about Stewart Lester and her book.
About the College of Arts and Sciences
Founded in 1870, the College of Arts and Sciences is the oldest and largest of Loyola University Chicago’s 13 schools and colleges, serving as the academic home for nearly 8,000 students (roughly 50 percent of Loyola’s total student population). It is academically diverse with twenty academic departments that span an array of intellectual pursuits, ranging from the natural sciences and computational sciences to the humanities, the social sciences, and the fine and performing arts. It is also highly interdisciplinary with thirty-one interdisciplinary programs and seven interdisciplinary centers, including the mission-centric Jesuit Heritage Research Center and the Hank Center for the Catholic Intellectual Heritage. The College is home to over 450 full-time, award-winning faculty, who are committed to teaching and research excellence. They teach nearly 2,000 classes each semester, including 88 percent of all Core Curriculum classes taken by undergraduate students across the university. They also contribute to eleven doctoral programs whose graduates have helped propel Loyola starting in 2025 to R-1 research status (the highest research status a university can achieve). Our students and faculty are engaged internationally at our John Felice Rome Center in Italy, as well as at dozens of university-sponsored study abroad and research sites around the world. Home to the departments that anchor the university’s Core Curriculum, the College seeks to prepare all of Loyola’s students to think critically, to engage the world of the 21st century at ever-deepening levels, and to become caring and compassionate individuals. Our faculty, staff, and students view service to others not just as one option among many, but as a constitutive dimension of their very being. In the truest sense of the Jesuit ideal, our graduates strive to be “individuals for others.”
Olivia Stewart Lester, PhD, associate professor of theology in Loyola University Chicago’s College of Arts and Sciences, is the editor of Listen to the Sibyl: Jewish and Christian Sibylline Oracles in Context, a newly published volume from Brill.
The book is the first collection devoted entirely to the Jewish and Christian Sibylline Oracles, ancient poetic prophecies written in Greek over nearly a thousand years. Bringing together scholars from around the world, the volume explores how these texts connect across cultures, including Jewish, Egyptian, Greek, Roman, and Christian traditions.
“Dr. Stewart Lester’s scholarship demonstrates how the study of ancient texts continues to inform our contemporary understanding of culture, religion, and history,” said Peter J. Schraeder, PhD, Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences. “This volume brings important attention to voices and traditions that remain deeply relevant today.”
At the center of the book is the sibyl, an ancient female prophet whose voice became a powerful way for Jewish and Christian writers to share ideas, interpret scripture, and engage with the world around them. Over centuries, her voice helped shape religious thought while connecting it to broader literary and cultural traditions.
“Overall, the volume demonstrates that the Sibylline Oracles are as integral to the history of ancient Judaism as they are to the study of Greek literature,” said Stewart Lester. “They deserve a central place within the study of ancient Rome and Ptolemaic Egypt, and their influence extends through the history of Christianity, illuminating the commitments and contestations of early modern humanist scholars.”
The book highlights the Sibylline Oracles as both religious texts and works of Greek poetry, showing how Jewish and Christian writers participated in classical literary traditions. It also offers insight into the political and cultural history of the ancient world, including the Roman Empire and regions such as Egypt and Syria.
The volume also highlights the lasting importance of the sibyl as a female voice in religious history. Her influence continued to shape how these traditions were understood well into the early modern period.
At Loyola, Stewart Lester’s research focuses on prophecy in Hellenistic Judaism, early Christianity, and the broader ancient Mediterranean. She co-chairs the John’s Apocalypse and Cultural Contexts Ancient and Modern Section and serves on the Steering Committee for the Greco-Roman Religions Section of the Society of Biblical Literature. She also serves on the editorial boards of the Journal of Biblical Literature, Catholic Biblical Quarterly, and Revue de Qumran.
Learn more about Stewart Lester and her book.
About the College of Arts and Sciences
Founded in 1870, the College of Arts and Sciences is the oldest and largest of Loyola University Chicago’s 13 schools and colleges, serving as the academic home for nearly 8,000 students (roughly 50 percent of Loyola’s total student population). It is academically diverse with twenty academic departments that span an array of intellectual pursuits, ranging from the natural sciences and computational sciences to the humanities, the social sciences, and the fine and performing arts. It is also highly interdisciplinary with thirty-one interdisciplinary programs and seven interdisciplinary centers, including the mission-centric Jesuit Heritage Research Center and the Hank Center for the Catholic Intellectual Heritage. The College is home to over 450 full-time, award-winning faculty, who are committed to teaching and research excellence. They teach nearly 2,000 classes each semester, including 88 percent of all Core Curriculum classes taken by undergraduate students across the university. They also contribute to eleven doctoral programs whose graduates have helped propel Loyola starting in 2025 to R-1 research status (the highest research status a university can achieve). Our students and faculty are engaged internationally at our John Felice Rome Center in Italy, as well as at dozens of university-sponsored study abroad and research sites around the world. Home to the departments that anchor the university’s Core Curriculum, the College seeks to prepare all of Loyola’s students to think critically, to engage the world of the 21st century at ever-deepening levels, and to become caring and compassionate individuals. Our faculty, staff, and students view service to others not just as one option among many, but as a constitutive dimension of their very being. In the truest sense of the Jesuit ideal, our graduates strive to be “individuals for others.”