Duke's Hays takes full term as dean

DURHAM -- Richard B. Hays has been appointed to a full term as dean of Duke Divinity School, university officials announced Monday.

Hays had been dean for two years and was named to the position permanently after a national search.

Hays has been a professor at Duke since 1991 and is a scholar of the letters of Paul and New Testament ethics. Previously, he was on the faculty of Yale Divinity School, where he had received a master of divinity degree. He also holds a doctorate from Emory University.

His book, "The Moral Vision of the New Testament: Community, Cross, New Creation," was selected by Christianity Today as one of the 100 most important religious books of the 20th century. His other influential books include "Echoes of Scripture in the Letters of Paul" and "The Conversion of the Imagination."

Hays succeeded L. Gregory Jones, who served as divinity dean from 1997 to 2010.