Dr. Norman Habel

Dr. Norman Habel hails from Yulecart, near Hamilton in Victoria, Australia. He was professor of Biblical Studies in the USA from 1960-1973. In 1974 he returned to Australia and established the first Religion Studies Dept in Australia. From 1984-87 he was Principal of Kodaikanal International School in South India. During his time in India, he and his wife Janice Orrell established the Grihini program, a school and community health programme for oppressed Tribal and Dalit women in the remote hills around Kodaikanal.

Norman Habel is currently Professorial Fellow at Flinders University.
He has long been involved in issues of biblical interpretation and social justice. His research includes The Earth Bible, a five volume international project with other scholars reading the Bible from the perspective of justice for Earth. A sequel to these volumes is the Earth Bible Commentary series which was launched in 2011, the first volume of which is his work entitled: The Birth, the Curse and the Greening of Earth.

He is concerned that we, as Earth beings, re-connect with Earth as a sanctuary and a living planet. As part of this concern he has led the move to include The Season of Creation as part of the church year. His latest publications are entitled Exploring Ecological Hermeneutics, An Inconvenient Text and A Rainbow of Mysteries.

He is a long term student of the Book of Job, having written the commentary on Job in the OT Library series (1985) and produced a healing manual based on Job entitled Job Jennifer and Jesus. He is also widely known for his sets of children’s books called The Purple Puzzle Tree, published in the early 70s. A DVD of the first 12 of the Purple Puzzle Tree stories is now available.

His most recent works are a biographical novel entitled Tree Whisperer and memoirs entitled Why on Earth are you still a Lutheran?