This dissertation is largely a project of redescription and taxonomy. In it, I redescribe, reclassify, and recontextualize the divinatory practices of the apostle Paul. Throughout …
Perhaps no single biblical verse has been more quoted in the history of Black religious thought than Psalm 68:31. Known widely as “the Ethiopian prophecy,” …
"'Inflamed by Daily Practices': John Cassian and Ethical Formation" is the first inter-disciplinary treatment of the ethical program fostered by the fifth-century Christian ascetic John …
This dissertation is a detailed study of ethics in the second-century BCE text Huainanzi, and its implications for our understanding of classical Daoist ethics in …
In "'You Divided Sea by Your Might': The 'Conflict Myth' and the Biblical Tradition," I analyze the ancient west Asian theme of divine combat between …
Interpreters of Thomas Hobbes take two distinctive approaches to his views on religion, either rendering God foundational to his vision or giving primacy to human …
This study investigates how and why Tunisia’s 2014 Constitution describes the nation as both an Islamic and civil state, and what effect this duality has …
"Apostolic Memories: Religious Differentiation and the Construction of Orthodoxy in Syriac Missionary Literature" is a dissertation project on Syriac hagiography and apocryphal narrative. I argue …
This study examines evidence from approximately the mid-1C BCE − 1C CE for varieties of freelance religious experts at Rome, a period within which they …
This thesis examines the rituals surrounding Christian relics and reliquaries of the Early and High Middle Ages. I argue that relic rituals engaged both the …
This dissertation examines the category of “human” in an ancient West Asian context in order to better define the term. Many scholars have studied nonhuman …
This work seeks to explain the recurrent doubt and misunderstanding of, and hostility towards, naturalistic, Darwinian evolutionary accounts of the origins and development of living …
Abstract of “Early Intertextual Uses of Parallels with the Laozi and Their Role as Source of Authority” by Larson Di Fiori Ph.D., Brown University, May …
In this dissertation, I argue that in climate literature and the popular imagination common affects—in tandem with an under-interrogated acceptance of what I call the …
This dissertation explores how Israelites regarded foreign lands, relates this to the debate about biblical categorizations of pollution and purification, and points to larger questions …
This dissertation draws attention to the religious lives of Ming eunuchs, who, despite their active engagement in religious activities during the late Ming era, have …
