The conference had three aims:

- To help to put Psalms Studies back on the map within British scholarship It comes at a time when much of what is being written and discussed on the Psalms is taking place on the Continent or in South Africa or in the United States. This is the first international symposium on the Psalms to be held in Oxford, and the first major conference on psalmody to be hosted by any British University which will result in the publication of papers.

- To offer an international setting where an array of different academic approaches to the Psalter can be presented and discussed. Each of the invited speakers and respondents has an international reputation in a specific area of Psalms Studies.

- To provide a collaborative forum for Jewish and Christian scholars. Very     different interpretations of the Psalter have divided Jews and Christians for centuries, and it is only recently, within the academy, that the two traditions have begun to converge by focusing more on what unites them. Each of the papers will be offered by a Jewish or Christian scholar, and the respondent will be, where possible, from a different tradition.