The Graduate Theological Union (GTU) is pleased to announce Dr. Anathea Portier-Young (GTU MA, ’98) as the winner of the 2025 Borsch-Rast Book Prize and Lectureship for her groundbreaking work, The Prophetic Body: Embodiment and Mediation in Biblical Prophetic Literature (Oxford University Press).

Lecture Topic: Re-Embodying Biblical Prophecy

What is biblical prophecy? We are often taught that a prophecy is a message from God - an utterance, or words on a page. But biblical narratives paint a richer picture. Healing and restoring life, providing food and water, dramatic symbolic actions - with or without accompanying words: these too are prophecies. And the prophet's own bodily experiences of encounter with God, transformation, movement, and emotion are also integral to what we call prophetic mediation. In this lecture, Portier-Young makes the case that biblical prophecy is not words alone, but a synergy of word and body.