Jonathan Klawans
147 Bay State Road, Suite 409
Boston, MA   02215
T: 617.353.4432; F: 617.358.5441
E: jklawans@bu.edu
Fall 2007 Office Hours: Monday 3-4pm, Wednesday 2-3:30pm, Friday 11:30-12:30pm

Bio
Associate Professor of Religion. Ph.D., Columbia University (1997); M. Phil., Columbia University (1996); M.A., New York University (1993); B.A., Columbia University (1991); B.A., Jewish Theological Seminary (1991).

Professor Klawans joined the Department of Religion and the Elie Wiesel Center for Judaic Studies in the fall of 1997. Professor Klawans is a specialist in the religion and religious literature of Judaism in late antiquity. He teaches courses in Western Religion, the Hebrew Bible, the Dead Sea Scrolls, ancient Jewish history, and Rabbinic literature. He has published articles in journals such as AJS Review, Harvard Theological Review, Journal of Jewish Studies, New Testament Studies, and Religious Studies Review. Professor Klawans's first book, Impurity and Sin in Ancient Judaism was published by Oxford University Press in 2000, and received awards as a best first book for that year from both the American Academy of Religion and the American Academy for Jewish Research. This book explores varied attitudes toward impurity and sin as expressed in the Hebrew Bible, the Dead Sea Scrolls, Rabbinic literature and the New Testament. Professor Klawans’s second book was published in 2006, also by Oxford University Press: Purity Sacrifice and the Temple: Symbolism and Supersessionism in the Study of Ancient Judaism. This book hopes to correct a number of misconceptions about the practice of sacrifice in the ancient world, and the understanding of it in the modern world.

Complete CV

Courses (Click for class materials)
CAS RN 104 World Religion West
CAS RN 201 The Hebrew Bible
CAS RN 324/624 Rabbinic Literature
CAS RN 334/634 The Dead Sea Scrolls
CAS RN 335/635 Judaism in the First Century
CAS RN 495 Theory of Religion