FACULTY
David Brakke
- Professor, Department of Religious Studies
- Department Chair, Department of Religious Studies
- Adjunct Professor, Department of History
- Adjunct Professor, Department of Classical Studies
Education
- Ph.D. at Yale University, 1992
Research Interests
- Ancient Christianity
- Late Antiquity
- Coptic and Syriac Studies
Contact Information
| dbrakke@indiana.edu |
| Sycamore Hall, Rm. 217 |
| 855-5117 |
Background
I study the history and literature of ancient Christianity from the New Testament period through the fifth century. My research focuses on individual and communal self-definition, the ways in which people construct and reshape identity through ascetic behaviors, ritual, and the production and interpretation of scripture.
My first book, Athanasius and the Politics of Asceticism, describes how an ascetic program of self-formation functioned also as a political program for the formation of a dominant "catholic" church in fourth-century Egypt. I have co-edited books that explore biblical interpretation and communal life in the early church, religion and the self in the ancient Mediterranean world, and the ways in which early Christians related to their pagan and Jewish neighbors. My most recent book, Demons and the Making of the Monk: Spiritual Combat in Early Christianity (Harvard University Press, 2006), studies how early monastic identity was formed through conflict with demons. I continue to work on Egyptian monasticism by editing and translating works by Evagrius Ponticus and Shenoute of Atripe, but I am also beginning a new monograph on the position of the Gnostic sect within early Christian diversity.
I serve as editor of the Journal of Early Christian Studies, which is sponsored by the North American Patristics Society and published by Johns Hopkins University Press.
In addition to a course on images of Jesus in western culture for undergraduates, I teach introductory and advanced courses in early church history, asceticism, and Gnosticism for undergraduates and graduate students.
Selected Awards
- Alexander von Humboldt Research Fellowship
- National Endowment for the Humanities Research Fellowship for University Teachers
- American Council of Learned Societies Fellowship
- Indiana University Outstanding Junior Faculty Award (1996)
Courses Recently Taught
- Jesus in Popular Culture
- Christianity 50-450
- Early Christian Monasticism
- Readings in Syriac
Publication Highlights
Books
Beyond "Reception": Mutual Influences between Antique Religion, Judaism, and Early Christianity. Co-editor with Anders-Christian Jacobsen and J. Ulrich. Early Christianity in the Context of Antiquity 1. Frankfurt: Peter Lang, 2006.
Demons and the Making of the Monk: Spiritual Combat in Early Christianity. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 2006.
Religion and the Self in Antiquity. Co-Editor with Michael L. Satlow and Steven Weitzman. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 2005.
Reading in Christian Communities: Essays on Interpretation in the Early Church. Co-editor with Charles A. Bobertz. Christianity and Judaism in Antiquity. Notre Dame, Ind.: Univ. of Notre Dame Press, 2002.
Pseudo-Athanasius On Virginity. 2 vols. Corpus Scriptorum Christianorum Orientalium 592-93 (Scriptores Syri 232-33). Louvain: Peeters, 2002.
Athanasius and Asceticism. Baltimore/London: The Johns Hopkins Univ. Press, 1998. Originally published as Athanasius and the Politics of Asceticism. Oxford Early Christian Studies. Oxford: Clarendon Press; New York: Oxford Univ. Press, 1995.
Articles
"Self-Differentiation among Christian Groups: The Gnostics and their Opponents." In Origins to Constantine, vol. 1 of The Cambridge History of Christianity, 245-60. Ed. Margaret M. Mitchell and Frances M. Young. Cambridge, Eng.: Cambridge Univ. Press, 2006.
"Making Public the Monastic Life: Reading the Self in Evagrius Ponticus' Talking Back." In Religion and the Self in Antiquity (see above), 222-33.
"The Seed of Seth at the Flood: Biblical Interpretation and Gnostic Theological Reflection. " In Reading in Christian Communities: Essays on Interpretation in the Early Church, 41-62 (see above).
"The Lady Appears: Materializations of ‘Woman’ in Early Monastic Literature." Journal of Medieval and Early Modern Studies 33 (2003): 387-402.
"The Early Church in North America: Late Antiquity, Theory, and the History of Christianity. " Church History 71 (2002): 473-91.
"Ethiopian Demons: Male Sexuality, the Black-Skinned Other, and the Monastic Self. " Journal of the History of Sexuality 10 (2001): 501-35.
"Jewish Flesh and Christian Spirit in Athanasius of Alexandria. " Journal of Early Christian Studies 9 (2001): 453-81.
