Virginia Burrus | |
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Nationality | American |
Occupations |
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Title | Bishop W. Earl Ledden Professor of Religion and Director of Graduate Studies |
Academic background | |
Education | |
Academic work | |
Institutions | Syracuse University |
Virginia Burrus is an American scholar of Late Antiquity and expert on gender,sexuality and religion. She is currently the Bishop W. Earl Ledden Professor of Religion and director of graduate studies at Syracuse University. [1]
Originally from Texas,Burrus attended Yale University where she gained a BA in Classical Civilization in 1981,before studying theology at the University of Göttingen,Germany (1981–1982). [1] [2] She then went on to gain an master's degree in 1984 in the History of Christianity from the Graduate Theological Union in Berkeley,CA. [1] Her dissertation was entitled Chastity as Autonomy:Women in the Stories of the Apocryphal Acts. [3] She received her PhD in 1991 from the same institution. Her doctoral thesis was entitled The Making of a Heresy:Authority,Gender,and the Priscillianist Controversy. [4] Her PhD was supervised by Rebecca Lyman,Professor Emerita of History at University of California,Berkeley. [5] [6]
Burrus was professor of early church history at Drew University from 1991 to 2013 (assistant professor,1991–1996;associate professor,1996–2003;chair of the Graduate Division of Religion,2009–2013). [1] On joining Syracuse University as the Bishop W. Earl Ledden Professor of Religion,Burrus was the third person to be appointed to the position and succeeded Patricia Cox Miller,professor emerita at Syracuse University. [7] [8] Burrus was appointed director of graduate studies at Syracuse University in 2016. [9]
Burrus is a member of several academic societies,including the American Academy of Religion (1985–present) and the Society of Biblical Literature (1985–present),and has sat on steering committees for both associations. [10] She has been elected as a member of the American Theological Society (2002),the American Society of the Study of Religion (2005) and the International Association of Patristic Studies (2010). From 2009 to 2010 she served as the president of the North American Patristics Association,of which she remains a member. Burrus has served as an associate editor for the Journal of Early Christian Studies (2008–2014),and is the founding co-editor of the University of Pennsylvania Press Series Divinations:Rereading Late Ancient Religion (2001–present). [11]
Burrus specializes in the literary and cultural history of Christianity,and has a wide range of interests including gender,sexuality,orthodoxy and heresy,martyrdom,asceticism,hagiography and histories of theology within Late Antiquity. [1] Burrus engages with a variety of theoretical discourses within her work,including feminism and post-colonialism,applying and critiquing the approaches of 20th century philosophers and theorists such as Baudrillard,Cixous,Foucault and Irigaray. [12] Her 2004 publication The Sex Lives of the Saints has been translated into French,Italian and Czech. [1]
In April 2021,Burrus was elected member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. [13] [14]
Titus Flavius Clemens,also known as Clement of Alexandria,was a Christian theologian and philosopher who taught at the Catechetical School of Alexandria. Among his pupils were Origen and Alexander of Jerusalem. A convert to Christianity,he was an educated man who was familiar with classical Greek philosophy and literature. As his three major works demonstrate,Clement was influenced by Hellenistic philosophy to a greater extent than any other Christian thinker of his time,and in particular,by Plato and the Stoics. His secret works,which exist only in fragments,suggest that he was familiar with pre-Christian Jewish esotericism and Gnosticism as well. In one of his works he argued that Greek philosophy had its origin among non-Greeks,claiming that both Plato and Pythagoras were taught by Egyptian scholars.
Theology is the systematic study of the nature of the divine,or more broadly of religious belief. It is taught as an academic discipline,typically in universities and seminaries. It occupies itself with the unique content of analyzing the supernatural,but also deals with religious epistemology,asks and seeks to answer the question of revelation. Revelation pertains to the acceptance of God,gods,or deities,as not only transcendent or above the natural world,but also willing and able to interact with the natural world and to reveal themselves to humankind.
Priscillian was a wealthy nobleman of Roman Hispania who promoted a strict form of Christian asceticism. He became bishop of Ávila in 380. Certain practices of his followers were denounced at the Council of Zaragoza in 380. Tensions between Priscillian and bishops opposed to his views continued,as well as political maneuvering by both sides. Around 385,Priscillian was charged with sorcery and executed by authority of the Emperor Maximus. The ascetic movement Priscillianism is named after him,and continued in Hispania and Gaul until the late 6th century. Tractates by Priscillian and close followers,which were thought lost,were discovered in 1885 and published in 1889.
Priscillianism was a Christian sect developed in the Iberian Peninsula under the Roman Empire in the 4th century by Priscillian. It is derived from the Gnostic doctrines taught by Marcus,an Egyptian from Memphis. Priscillianism was later considered a heresy by both the Eastern Orthodox Church and the Roman Catholic Church.
Macrina the Younger was an early Christian consecrated virgin. She is regarded as a saint in the Roman Catholic,Eastern Orthodox,and Anglican churches. Macrina was elder sister of Basil the Great,Gregory of Nyssa,Naucratius and Peter of Sebaste. Gregory of Nyssa wrote a work entitled Life of Macrina in which he describes her sanctity and asceticism throughout her life. Macrina lived a chaste and humble life,devoting her time to prayer and the spiritual education of her younger brother Peter.
Peter Robert Lamont Brown is an Irish historian. He is the Rollins Professor of History Emeritus at Princeton University. Brown is credited with having brought coherence to the field of Late Antiquity,and is often regarded as the inventor of said field. His work has concerned,in particular,the religious culture of the later Roman Empire and early medieval Europe,and the relation between religion and society.
Debora Kuller Shuger is a literary historian and scholar. She studies early modern,Renaissance,late 16th- and 17th century England. She writes about Tudor-Stuart literature;religious,political,and legal thought;Neo-Latin;and censorship of that period.
Birger A. Pearson is an American scholar and professor studying early Christianity and Gnosticism. He currently holds the positions of Professor Emeritus of Religious Studies at the University of California,Santa Barbara and Professor and Interim Director of the Religious Studies Program at the University of California,Berkeley.
Neoplatonism was a major influence on Christian theology throughout Late Antiquity and the Middle Ages in the West. This was due to St. Augustine of Hippo,who was influenced by the early neoplatonists Plotinus and Porphyry,as well as the works of the Christian writer Pseudo-Dionysius the Areopagite,who was influenced by later neoplatonists,such as Proclus and Damascius.
Lewis Ayres,a lay Catholic theologian,is Professor of Catholic and Historical Theology at Durham University in the United Kingdom. Between 2009 and 2013 he served as the inaugural holder of the Bede Chair of Catholic Theology at Durham.
Christian denominations have a variety of beliefs about sexual orientation,including beliefs about same-sex sexual practices and asexuality. Denominations differ in the way they treat lesbian,bisexual,and gay people;variously,such people may be barred from membership,accepted as laity,or ordained as clergy,depending on the denomination. As asexuality is relatively new to public discourse,few Christian denominations discuss it. Asexuality may be considered the lack of a sexual orientation,or one of the four variations thereof,alongside heterosexuality,homosexuality,bisexuality,and pansexuality.
Karla Pollmann is the President at the University of Tübingen in Germany,an office she has held since October 1,2022. Previously she was the Dean of Arts at the University of Bristol,where she worked in both the department of Classics and Ancient History and the department of Religion and Theology. Her research covers Classical to Late Antiquity,patristics,the history of exegesis and hermeneutics,and the thought of Augustine of Hippo and its reception.
Edith Gillian Clark is a British historian,who is Professor Emerita of Ancient History at the University of Bristol. She retired from the University of Bristol in 2010. Clark is known for her work on the history,literature,and religion of late antiquity.
Marianne Sághy was a Hungarian expert on the religious and social culture of Late Antiquity,with an especial focus on the cult of saints and hagiography. She was associate professor at the Department of Medieval Studies,Central European University,and at the Department of Medieval and Early Modern Universal History,Eötvös Loránd University,Budapest.
Elizabeth Ann Clark was a professor of the John Carlisle Kilgo professorship of religion at Duke University. She was notable for her work in the field of Patristics,and the teaching of ancient Christianity in US higher education. Clark expanded the study of early Christianity and was a strong advocate for women,pioneering the application of modern theories such as feminist theory,social network theory,and literary criticism to ancient sources.
Patricia Cox Miller is the (Bishop) W. Earl Ledden Professor Emerita of Religion at Syracuse University. She researches religious imagination in late antiquity,religion and aesthetics in late antiquity,early Christian asceticism,women and religion in late antiquity,early Christian and pagan hagiography and ancient art.
Ilaria L. E. Ramelli is an Italian-born historian,academic author,and university professor who specializes in ancient,late antique,and early mediaeval philosophy and theology.
Angela Kim Harkins is a Professor of New Testament and Professor Ordinaria at Boston College School of Theology and Ministry.
Heidi Marx is a Professor of Religion at the University of Manitoba in Winnipeg,Canada. Since July 2016,Marx has served as an Associate Dean in the Faculty of Arts. She is currently the Associate Dean of Undergraduate Studies,but has also filled two other portfolios.
Nicola Denzey Lewis is a Canadian academic of lived religion,early Christians,material culture of late antique Roman Empire,and women studies. She is a professor at Claremont Graduate University as the Margo L. Goldsmith Chair in Women's Studies in Religion.