Faculty Published
Boston University released its list of recent publications, acknowledging the hard work of Department of Religion Director of Undergraduate Study, Jonathan Klawans. Ancient Jewish sacrifice has long been misunderstood. Some find in sacrifice the key to the mysterious and violent origins of human culture. Others see these cultic rituals as merely the fossilized vestiges of primitive superstition. Some believe that ancient Jewish sacrifice was doomed from the start, destined to be replaced by the Christian eucharist. Others think that the temple was fated to be superseded by the synagogue. In Purity, Sacrifice, and the Temple: Symbolism and Supersessionism in the Study of Ancient Judaism (Oxford University Press), Klawans demonstrates that these supersessionist ideologies have prevented scholars from recognizing the Jerusalem temple as a powerful source of meaning and symbolism to the ancient Jews who worshiped there.
Also making his mark was Core Curriculum instructor Bradley L. Herling, who achieved his PhD from the Division of Religion and Theological Studies in 2004. Herling published The German Gita: Hermeneutics and Discipline in the German Reception of Indian Thought, 1778–1831 for Routledge. … Jennifer Knust, a School of Theology assistant professor of New Testament and Christian origins, penned Abandoned to Lust: Sexual Slander and Ancient Christianity for Columbia University Press. Knust taught Ancient Varieties of Christian Origins for the Department of Religion in Spring 2006.