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TEACHING, COURSE WEBSITES & GRADUATE ADVISING
- Undergraduate courses:
- Fall 2008, RELS 135, Christian Origins, University of Pennsylvania
- 2005/2006 and 2006/2007, Arts & Science 1A03, Introduction to Western Civilization, McMaster University - 2005/6 Course website, 2006/7 Course website (co-taught with Sara Mendelson)
- Spring 2005, RS 3R03, Death and the Afterlife in Early Judaism and Early Christianity, McMaster University - Course website
- Fall 2004, RS 2DD3, The Five Books of Moses, McMaster University - Course Website
- Spring 2004, COMP LIT 2G03/RS 2VV3, The Bible as Story, McMaster University - Course Website
- Fall 2003, RS 2B03, Women in the Biblical Tradition, McMaster University - Course Website
- Fall 2001, REL 212, Religions of the Western World: Judaism, Christianity, and Islam, Rutgers, the State University of New Jersey - Course Website
- Graduate seminars:
- Fall 2008, RELS/HIST/JWST 533, Jews and Christians in Late Antique Syria, University of Pennsylvania - This course will explore the early history of Jewish/Christian relations through a focus on Syria. We will consider evidence for contacts, conflicts, and competitions between Christians and Jews from the first to the sixth centuries. Readings will include selections from the New Testament, Patristic writings, “pseudepigrapha” and “apocrypha,” and classical Rabbinic literature. Areas of special interest will include the question of whether “Jewish-Christian” traditions may have flourished in Roman Syria (esp. Edessa) and how interactions between Babylonian Jews and Syriac Christians in the Persian Empire may have differed from those of their counterparts in the Roman Empire.
- Spring 2008, RELS 411, Angels and Demons in the Greco-Roman World, University of Pennsylvania - Syllabus (PDF)
- Spring 2007, RS 744 - Rabbinic Views of the "Other", McMaster University - This seminar will explore the dynamics of early Rabbinic self-definition by focusing on images of non-Jews and non-Rabbinic Jews in the classical Rabbinic literature. Traditional accounts of Jewish history depict Rabbinic Judaism as forged in self-imposed isolation from its surrounding Greco-Roman, Christian, and Persian environments. Recent correctives, however, have begun to shed doubt on such activities, exploring evidence for Rabbinic interactions with non-Jews and non-Rabbis. In this seminar, we will survey this evidence with an eye to interreligious interactions in Roman Palestine and Sassanid Babylonia. We will consider laws about interactions with “pagans” as well as tales about Rabbinic encounters with “heretics,” philosophers, emperors, matrons, Christians, and others. Special attention will be given [1] to the question of whether Rabbinic literature attests any non-Rabbinic forms of Judaism and [2] to the question of how the depiction of Jesus and Christianity speaks to the changing relationships between Jews and Christians in Late Antiquity. By means of this focus, this seminar will introduce students to the main texts of classical Rabbinic Judaism, the tools for their study, and recent trends in research. No knowledge of Hebrew and no background in Rabbinic Judaism are thus required. - Syllabus (PDF)
- Fall 2006 and Fall 2005, RS 701 - Issues in the Study of Religions, McMaster University - This seminar is required of all incoming students and offers a forum for the discussion of issues central to the field of Religious Studies. This year's seminar will focus on the question "What is Religion?" Towards mapping the range of ways that "Religion" has been defined, defended, and delineated as a meaningful and/or heuristic topic for academic inquiry, we will survey a broad variety of methodological approaches to investigating religious traditions, institutions, texts, ideas, experiences, and practices. We will focus on thinkers and theorists who have had a formative and enduring influence on the field of Religious Studies, exploring the place of this field within the study of human history, society, and culture more broadly. - 2005 Course Website, 2006 Course Website (co-taught with Travis Kroeker)
- Spring 2006, RS 743 – Enochic Texts and Traditions, McMaster University - This seminar will focus on ancient texts and traditions associated with the biblical figure of Enoch. We will begin by considering the Second Temple Jewish literature now preserved in 1 Enoch: the Astronomical Book, Book of the Watchers, Book of Dreams, Epistle of Enoch, and Similitudes. Then, we will turn to investigate their influence in Judaism and Christianity, both by examining later Enochic books (such as 2 Enoch and the Hekhalot text commonly called 3 Enoch) and by considering Early Christian transformations of Enochic texts and traditions. In the process, we will consider broader issues such as the origins and early history of apocalyptic literature, the significance of the Christian adoption of so-called “Old Testament Pseudepigrapha” for our understanding of early Jewish/Christian relations, the formation of biblical canons in Judaism and Christianity, and the relationship between Second Temple Jewish apocalyptic traditions and later forms of Jewish mysticism. - Syllabus (PDF)
- Spring 2005, RS 730 - Jewish Christianity, McMaster University - This seminar will investigate ancient texts and groups that have defied modern scholarly attempts at categorization as exclusively "Jewish" or "Christian." Rather than assuming a single "Jewish-Christianity" that defined itself against a monolithic Judaism and a monolithic (Gentile) Christianity, we will examine the sources anew, drawing on recent insights into the broad range of biblically-based forms of belief and practice in Late Antiquity, the continued complexity of Jewish-Christian relations "on the ground," and the role of inter-religious interchange in Jewish and Christian self-definition. Texts to be considered include the Gospel of Matthew, Testaments of the 12 Patriarchs, Didascalia apostolorum and Pseudo-Clementine Homilies and Recognitions, as well as second-hand accounts from both Patristic and Rabbinic writings. - Course Website
- Fall 2004, RS 744, Midrash, McMaster University - This seminar will explore classical Rabbinic biblical interpretation in its socio-historical, literary, and theological contexts. We will consider the emergence of a distinctively Rabbinic approach to exegesis and the development of literary forms for its expression, while also investigating the place of Torah in the ideology of Rabbinic Judaism and in the evolving self-conception of the Sage. We will focus on primary sources, reading selections from a variety of late antique and medieval midrashim, but we will also touch on some trends in recent scholarship, including comparisons with Second Temple Jewish and early Christian exegesis as well as theoretical discussions about indeterminacy, intertextuality, and the nature of interpretation. A language component is available for students with background in Hebrew. - Course Website
- Fall 2003, RS 709 - History and Literature of Rabbinic Judaism, McMaster University - This seminar will survey the literary genres, socio-historical contexts, and characteristic beliefs of the classical Rabbinic literature, together with the main research tools, methodologies, and debates in the modern study thereof. Special attention will be given to the continuities and discontinuities between Second Temple Judaism(s) and Rabbinic Judaism, on the one hand, and the profits and pitfalls of comparisons with early Christianity, on the other. Proficiency in Hebrew and/or Aramaic is not required, but arrangements will be made so that those with some background in one or both can study the assigned texts in their original language(s). - Course Website
- Post-doctoral project supervised:
- Michael Kaler (Ph.D. Laval), “Paul at Nag Hammadi," McMaster University, 2006-2008
- Graduate theses supervised:
- Shaun House (M.A. McMaster 2006) “Mesopotamian Influences on 1 Enoch”
- Pauline Hogan (Ph.D. McMaster 2007), “No Longer Male and Female: Interpreting Galatians 3:28 in Early Christianity” (co-supervisor with Peter Widdicombe)
- Karl Shuve (M.A. McMaster 2007), "The Doctrine of the False Pericopes in the Pseudo-Clementine Homilies"
- Lily Vuong (Ph.D. McMaster), "Assessing the Virgin: Menstrual Purity and Mary in the Protevangelium of James," in progress
- Undergraduate theses supervised:
- Noah Frank (B.A. McMaster 2004), “The Interpretation of Bal Tashchit in Early, Medieval, and Modern Judaism”
- Kate Connolly (B.A. McMaster 2005), “Images of Gender and Dress in the Book of Revelation”
- Courtney Wilson (B.A. McMaster 2006), “The Correspondence between. Jerome and Augustine: View of Scripture and Authority in. the Disagreement over Galations 2:11-14”
- Directed reading courses:
- Spring 2008, "The Reception of Paul and Pauline Epistles in Late Antiquity," University of Pennsylvania
- Fall 2007, "Food and Religious Identity in Late Antiquity," University of Pennsylvania
- Summer 2005, “Polemics and Religious Identity in Late Antiquity,” McMaster University
- Summer 2005, “Orality and Textuality in Late Antiquity,” McMaster University
- Spring 2005, “Methods in the Study of Religion," McMaster University
- Fall 2004, “Sacred Space and Sacred Geography in Late Antiquity,” McMaster University
- Other:
- Summer 2005, Faculty supervisor for Karl Shuve, Undergraduate Student Research Award (USRA), “Scripture and Prophethood in the Pseudo-Clementine Homilies”
- Study Group Facilitator, Princeton Rosh Hodesh Women's Group, 2000-2001 - Daniel and Judith: Gender and Jewish Identity in Second Temple Judaism, Wisdom/Hokmah/Sophia: Feminine Images of the Divine in the Judaism
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