| Bio
Paula Fredriksen is the Aurelio Professor of Scripture at Boston
University. She has also held visiting professorships in Jerusalem
(Lady Davis, Hebrew University 1994-1995) and at Tel Aviv University
(Sackler, 2005 through 2007). A graduate of Wellesley College (1973),
Oxford University (1974), and Princeton University (1979), she has
published widely in the social and intellectual history of ancient
Christianity from the late Second Temple period to the fall of the
Roman Empire in the West. Besides translating two of Augustine’s
early commentaries on Paul (Augustine on Romans, Scholars
Press 1982), she has written From Jesus to Christ: The Origins
of the New Testament Images of Jesus (Yale, second edition
2000), for which she won the 1988 Yale Press Governors’ Award
for Best Book, and Jesus of Nazareth, King of the Jews: A Jewish
Life and the Emergence of Christianity (Knopf 1999),
for which she won a National Jewish Book Award. Together with Adele
Reinhartz, she edited and contributed to Jesus, Judaism, and
Christian Anti-Judaism: Reading the New Testament After the Holocaust
(Westminster/John Knox 2002). She has also edited and contributed
to a collection of essays about Mel Gibson’s controversial
film, On ‘The Passion of the Christ’ (University
of California Press 2005). Her most recent study, Augustine
and the Jews, is forthcoming from Doubleday.
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Books
Courses
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RN 104 World Religions: Western
RN 202 From Jesus to Christ: Origins of Christianity
RN 301/601 Varieties of Ancient Christianity
RN 498/798: Topics in Ancient Christianity: Augustine on God, Time
and the Bible
STH TT/TH 720 Development of Christian Thought (lecture/seminar)
STH TN 823 Jesus of Nazareth and Current Research (research seminar)
Articles
 “Mandatory Retirement: Ideas in the Study of Christian Origins whose Time Has Come to Go”
Studies in Religion/Sciences Religieuses 35 (2006) 231-246.
“Christianity and Anti-Judaism in Late Antiquity: Polemics and Policies, from the Second to the Seventh Centuries”
With Oded Irshai. The Cambridge History of Judaism, Volume 4: The Late Roman-Rabbinic Period, edited Steven T. Katz (Cambridge: The University Press 2006) 977-1035.
“Compassion Is to Purity as Fish Is to Bicycle. Thoughts on the Construction of ‘Judaism’ in Current Research on the Historical Jesus”
Apocalypticism, Anti-Semitism, and the Historical Jesus: Subtexts in Criticism, ed. J.S. Kloppenborg and J.W. Marshall. Journal for the Study of the New Testament, Supplement Series 275 (London: T & T Clark International 2005) 55-68.
“Preface,” “Gospel Truths: Hollywood, History, and Christianity”
On THE PASSION OF THE CHRIST, ed. P. Fredriksen (Berkeley: University of California Press 2005) xi-xxiii; 31-47.
“Paul, Purity, and the Ekklesia of the Gentiles”
The Beginnings of Christianity, ed. R. Pastor and M. Mor (Jerusalem: Yad Izhak Ben-Tzvi 2005) 205-217.
“Christians in the Roman Empire in the first three centuries AD”
Companion to the Roman Empire, edited David Potter (Oxford: Blackwell 2006) 587-606.
"Christian
Theology and Judaism"
The First Christian Theologians, ed. G.F. Evans (Blackwell Publishing
2004) p85-101
"What
'Parting of the Ways?' Jews and Gentiles in the Ancient Mediterranean
City"
The Ways that Never Parted: Jews and Christians in Late Antiquity
and the Early Middle Ages, ed. A.H. Becker, and A. Yoshiko Reed
(Tubingen: Mohr 2003): p35-63
"What
Does Jesus Have To Do With Christ?"
Christology: Memory, Inquiry, Practice, ed. A.M. Clifford and
A.J. Godzieba (Maryknoll N.Y.: Orbis Press 2003) p3-17
"Gods
and the One God"
Bible Review (February 2003) 12, 49
“Augustine on God and Memory”
Obliged by Memory : literature, religion, ethics , ed. Alan Rosen (Syracuse: University of Syracuse Press 2005)
“Why was Jesus Crucified, but his Followers were not?”
Journal for the Study of the New Testament 29.4 (2007): 415-419
“The Birth of Christianity and the Origins of Christian Anti-Judaism”
Jesus, Judaism, and Christian Anti-Judaism: Reading the New Testament after the Holocaust, ed. P. Fredriksen and A. Reinhartz (Westminster/John Knox Press 2002) 8-30.
“Paul at the Races”
Bible Review (June 2002) 12, 42
"Dining
with the Divine"
Bible Review (October 2002) p14,62
"Augustine
and Israel: Interpretatio ad litteram, Jews, and Judaism in Augustine's
Theology of History"
Studia Patristica XXXVIII (2001): p119-135
"Lambs
Into Lions"
Constantine and the Bishops: The Politics of Intolerance by
H.A. Drake, The New Republic (Johns Hopkins University Press 2001
p35-38)
"Ultimate
Reality in Ancient Christianity: Christ and Redemption"
Ultimate Realities: A Study of the Comparison of Religious Ideas,
ed. Robert C. Neville, John Berthrong and Peter Berger, (S.U.N.Y.
Press 2000) p133-156
"Patristic
Prama and Pramana: Augustine and the Quest for Truth"
Religious Truth: A Study in the Comparison of Religious Ideas,
ed. Robert C. Neville et al. (S.U.N.Y. Press 2000) p109-126
"Allegory
and Reading God's Book: Paul and Augustine on the Destiny of Israel"
Interpretation and Allegory, ed. Jon Whitman (Leiden: E.J. Brill
2000) 125-149
"Embodiment
and Redemption: The Human Condition in Ancient Christianity"
The Human Condition: A Study of the Comparison of Religious
Ideas, ed. Robert C. Neville, John Berthrong and Peter Berger, (S.U.N.Y.
Press 2000) p133-156
"Secundum
Carnem: History and Israel In The Theology of St. Augustine"
The Limits of Ancient Christianity. Essays on Late Antique Thought
and Culture in Honor of R.A. Markus (Ann Arbor: Univ. of Michigan
1999) p26-41
Entries
and essays on "Apocalypticsm," "Propositiones ex
ep. ad Romanos," "Inchoata Expositio," "Massa,"
"Paul," "Tyconius"
Saint Augustine through the Ages: An Encyclopedia, A. Fitzgerald,
general editor (Grand Rapids: Eermans 1999)
“My Quest for the Historical Jesus”
Bostonia Magazine (Summer 1999) 87-90
“‘Who Do You Say I Am?’ The Modern Quest for the Ancient Jesus”
The World and I, December 1999, 285-299
“MAD MEL. The Gospel according to Gibson”
The New Republic, July 28 & August 4, 2003: 25-29
“Responsibility for Gibson’s Passion of Christ”
The Responsive Community 14.1 (2004) 59-63
“History, Hollywood, and the Bible: Some thoughts on Gibson’s Passion” (online)
SBL Forum Feature web site March 2004; republished in Journal of Religion and Film. Vol. 8
“GOSPEL TRUTHS: Hollywood, History, and Christianity”Perspectives on the Passion (New York: Miramax 2004): 31-48
“No Pain, No Gain?"
Mel Gibson’s Bible, ed T. Beal and T. Linafelt (Chicago: University of Chicago Press 2005): 91-98
"Augustine"
Guide to the Late Antique World, ed. Peter Brown, G. Bowersock,
and O. Grabar (Cambridge: Harvard University Press 1999)
"The Holy City in Christian Thought”
THE CITY OF THE GREAT KING: Jerusalem from David to the Present, ed. Nitza Rosovsky (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1996) 74-92.
"Two
Souls and the Divided Will"
with G.G. Stroumsa, Self, Soul and Body in Religions Experience, ed. A Baumgarten (Leiden: Brill 1988) p198-217
"Excaecati
Occulta Iustitia Dei: Augustine on Jews and Judaism"
Journal of Early Christian Studies 3 (1995) p299-324
"Did
Jesus Oppose Purity Laws?"
Bible Review XI.3 (1995) p18-25, p42-47
“Torah Observance and Christianity: The Perspective of Roman Antiquity,”
Modern Theology 11 (1995) 193-202.
"What
You See is What you Get: Context and Content in Current Research
on the Historical Jesus"
Theology Today, 52.1 (1995) p75-90
"From
Jesus to Christ: The Contribution of Apostle Paul"
Jews and Christians Speak of Jesus (Minneapolis: Augsburg/Fortress
1994) p77-90
Entries on “Law,” “Love,” “Repentance”
The Oxford Companion to the Bible(New York: Oxford University Press 1993)
"Vile
Bodies: Paul and Augustine on the Resurrection of the Flesh"
Biblical Interpretation in Historical Perspective. Studies in
Honor of Karlfried Froehlich, ed. M. Burrows and P. Rorem (Grand
Rapids: Eerdmans 1991) p73-85
“The Dangling Conversation"
Review essay on Alan Segal, Paul the Convert; A. Malherbe, Paul and the Popular Philosophers; and Studies in Paul and John, ed. R. T. Fortna and B. Gaventa, in Books and Religion, Spring 1991.
"Judaism,
the Circumcision of Gentiles, and Apocalyptic Hope: Another Look
at Galatians 1 and 2"
Journal of Theological Studies, N.S. 42 (1991) p532-64
"Apocalypse
and Redemption in Early Christianity: From John of Patmos to Augustine
of Hippo"
Vigiliae Christianae 45 (1991) p151-83
“Jesus and the Temple, Mark and the War,”
Society of Biblical Literature Seminar Papers 29 (1990) 293-310.
"Beyond
the Body/Soul Dichotomy: Augustine on Paul against the Manichees
and the Pelagians"
Recherches augustiniennes XXIII (1988) p87-114
"Paul
and Augustine: Conversion Narratives, Orthodox Traditions, and the
Retrospective Self"
Journal of Theological Studies, N.S. 37 (1986) p3-34
"Tyconius
and the End of the World"
Revue des etudes augustiniennes XXVIII (1982) p59-75
"Hysteria
and the Gnostic Myth of Creation"
Vigiliae Christinae 33 (1979) p287-290
"Augustine
and his Analysts: The Possibility of a Psychohistory"
Soundings LVI, No. 2 (1978) p206-227
"Gospel
Chronologies, the Scene in the Temple, and the Crucifixion of Jesus"
Review essay on five books of feminist theology
SIGNS: Journal of Women in Culture and Society, Vol. 6, No. 2 (1980) 328-34
“Who Do You Say I Am?”
M. Casey, From Jewish Prophet to Gentile God; J. D. Crossan, Jesus: The Life of a Jewish Mediterranean Peasant; and J. P. Meier, A Marginal Jew, in Books and Religion, Spring 1992
"Thank Goddess!”
The Myth of the Goddess: Evolution of an Image, by Ann Baring and Jules Cashford; In the Wake of the Godesses: Women, Culture, and the Biblical Transformation of Pagan Myth, by Tikva Frymer-Kensky; and Her Share of the Blessings: Women's Religions among Pagans, Jews, and Christians, by Ross Shepard Kraemer, in The National Review, March 1, 1993: 54-56
“Desert Storm”
Understanding the Dead Sea Scrolls, ed. Herschel Shanks; Jesus and the Dead Sea Scrolls, ed. James H. Charlesworth; and The Dead Sea Scrolls Uncovered by Robert Eisenman and Michael Wise: The New Republic, March 7, 1994: 41-45
“Lambs into Lions”
Constantine and the Bishops: The Politics of Coercion, by Hal Drake: The New Republic, June 18, 2001: 35-39
“Who He Was”
The Changing Faces of Jesus, and Providential Accidents: An Autobiography, by Geza Vermes. The New Republic October 15, 2001: 48-54.
“Like Father, Like Son”
Christ. A Crisis in the Life of God, by Jack Miles. The New Republic, March 18, 2002: 38-41
“Everywhere at Home”
DIASPORA. Jews amidst Greeks and Romans, by Erich Gruen. The New Republic. July 8 & 15, 2002: 37-41
Lord Jesus Christ: Devotion to Jesus in Earliest Christianity, by Larry Hurtado.
Journal of Early Christian Studies 12.4 (2004): 537-41
“Just Like Everybody Else, Only More So”
The Cultures of the Jews, ed. David Biale. The Jewish Quarterly Review. 95.1 (2005) 119-130
“Beautiful People”
The Invention of Racism in Classical Antiquity, by Benjamin Isaac. The New Republic, March 21, 2005: 25-29
“Textual Healing”
Augustine: A new Biography, by James J. O’Donnell. The New Republic, July 11 and 18, 2005: 27-33
“The Prophet in History”
Jesus and Judaism, by E.P. Sanders. The New Republic 26 May 1986: 39-41
Studies in Paul and John, ed. R. T. Fortna and B. Gaventa. Interpretation, Spring 1992
Paul's Gospel in an Intercultural Context: Jew and Gentile in the Letter to the Romans by William S. Campbell.
Interpretation, April 1993
The Religion of Jesus the Jew by Geza Vermes
Journal of Jewish Studies xliv, no. 2 (1993) 319- 22
Conversion and Text
The Cases of Augustine of Hippo, Herman-Judah, and Constantine Tsatsos, by Karl F. Morrison. The Catholic Historical Review 79 (1993) 41-45
A Noble Death. Suicide and Martyrdom Among Christians and Jews in Antiquity, by Arthur Droge and James D. Tabor.
The Journal of Religion 73.4 (1993) 638-39
Savoir et Salut. Traditions juives et tentations dualistes dans le christianisme ancien by Gedaliahu Guy Stroumsa.
The Jewish Quarterly Review 85.1 (1995)
Augustine, CONFESSIONS.
Text and Commentary, 3 vols., by J. J. O'DonnellJournal of Religion 74.3 (1994) 390-92
Judeophobia. Attitudes toward Jews in the Ancient World by Peter Schäfer.
Church History, Summer 1998
Early Christian Thought in its Jewish Context, edited by John Barclay and John Sweet, and Paul and the Mosaic Law: The Third Durham-Tübingen Research Symposium on Earliest Christianity and Judaism, edited by J.D.G. Dunn
Journal of Jewish Studies 48.2 (1997) 374-76
The Human Christ. The Search for the Historical Jesus, by Charlotte Allen.
National Review, July 20, 1998, pp. 47-49
The Immerser: John the Baptist within Second Temple Judaism, by Joan Taylor.
Journal of Jewish Studies 50.1 (1999) 160-161
Augustine: Christian Truth and Fractured Humanity, by Carol Harrison.
Speculum 77 (2002) 927-30
Jewish Law in Gentile Churches. Halakhah and the Beginning of Christian Public Ethics, by Markus Bockmuehl.
Journal of Religion 83 (2003) 128-129
Befriending the Beloved Disciple. A Jewish Reading of the Gospel of John, by Adele Reinhartz.
Horizons.Journal of the College Theology Society. 2002
Augustine’s Commentary on Galatians, ed. Eric Plumer.
Journal of Religion 84 (2004) 480-81
Christianity and Roman Society, by Gillian Clark.
Journal of Early Christian Studies 13 (2005) 530-532 |
