Faculty

Fields of interest: New Testament/ Early Christianity/ Early Judaism.
Teaching: New Testament Studies; the Letters of Paul; Christianity in the 1st-4th centuries; Hellenistic and Biblical Greek; ritual practices of early Christianity; Suffering, Pain, and Death in the New Testament and Early Christianity.
Research interests: Early Christianity in Hellenistic and Roman contexts; The Epistle to the Hebrews; Greek hero cult and early Christianity; early Christian meals; literature of the Second Sophistic and the interpretation of Homer.

Harvard University, Th.D., New Testament and Early Christianity. Dissertation: The Morphology of the Passion Narrative. (1997).
The University of the South, Sewanee, Tennessee, M.Div. (1986).
Harvard University, A.B. summa cum laude, Folklore and Mythology (Ancient Greek). (1982).

Professor Ellen Aitken is Dean of the Faculty of Religious Studies. She has been a member of the Faculty of Religious Studies at McGill since 2004, teaching in the area of Early Christian History and Literature. Prior to coming to McGill, she was on the faculty of The Divinity School, Harvard University. She holds degrees from Harvard University and the University of the South, with training in Folklore and Mythology, the Classics, and Religious Studies. Her current research, funded by SSHRC, investigates the relationship between Greco-Roman hero cult and ancient Christianity. At McGill, Professor Aitken has served on numerous committees, including chairing the B.Th. Committee in the Faculty of Religious Studies and as a member of search committees for the Classics Program. She is a member of McGill's Centre for Research on Religion (CREOR) and an honorary faculty member of the Montreal Diocesan Theological College. She was ordained in the Episcopal (Anglican) Church in 1986 and has been recognized widely as a leader in both scholarly and ecclesial communities. She has also received two awards for teaching excellence.

Fields of interest: New Testament/ Early Christianity.
Teaching: Gospels, Historical Jesus Research, New Testament Exegesis; Early Christianity.
Research interests: Historical Jesus and Gospel Traditions; Greco-Roman and Modern, Rhetorical Theory and Poetics; Religious Discourse in the Greco-Roman World; Synoptic Literary Criticism.

Oxford, D. Phil. New Testament Studies. (1989).
Heidelberg, DAAD research fellowship New Testament Studies. (1987-88).
McMaster, M.A. Judaism and Christian Origins. (1983).
St Andres, B.D. Hon. New Testament Studies. (1982).
Manitoba, B.A. Latin/Greek. (1979).

Fields of interest: Hebrew Bible, Old Testament Studies, Biblical Historiography, Feminist Biblical Studies.
Teaching: Literature of Ancient Israel, Ancient Historiography, Archaeology of Ancient Israel, Women and the Christian Tradition.
Research interests: Oral Narrative Composition and Transmission, Folklore Studies, Historiography in the Biblical Text, Jewish Christian Dialogue, Gender and the Church.

Montreal Diocesan Theological College, D.D. (H.C.). (2008).
M.I.M., Ordination Training. Ordained, Anglican Diocese of Montréal. (1985).
Oxford University, D.Phil., Old Testament Studies. Dissertation: The Oral Composition and Transmission of the Patriarchal Narratives. (1984).
London, England, M.Th. Dissertation (with distinction): The Passover in Early Jewish and Christian Writings (70CE-200CE). (1980).
Hebrew University, Jerusalem, Graduate courses, Jewish History.
1977 McGill University, B.A. Hons., Religious Studies. (1977-1978).

Professor Kirkpatrick has spent the past 25 years teaching both in the academy and the Anglican Church here in Montreal and abroad. She has contributed to the educational formation of those pursuing academic careers in Old Testament / Hebrew Bible and those entering the ordained ministry of the Christian Church. She has pursued her research and teaching interests with an eye on both the academy and the ecclesial communities as she was asked to serve on a number of national and international theological commissions.. Her interdisciplinary interests extend to feminist and gender studies where as chair of the Women’s Studies Program, and Chair of the Board of the M.C.R.T.W. at McGill, she was instrumental in creating and maintaining several administrative programs in the area. She has also spent a number of years as a member of the Quebec Provincial Education Ministry Committee on Religious Education in the schools.

As a founding member of the Ancient Historiography Seminar of the CSBS her present interests and research in historiography follow immediately as a consequence to her initial research on the influence folklore studies had on reconstructing the history of Ancient Israel.

(R) Ed., vol.1, The Function of Ancient Historiography in Biblical And Cognate Studies. (The Library of Hebrew Bible/Old Testament Studies: T&T Clark, 2008).

(R) “The Jacob Narratives: From Form to Function” in The Function of Ancient Historiography in Biblical and Cognate Studies. (LHBOTS:T&T Clark, 2008).

Archways, editor and Graphic Designer. (2008).

(R) Oecumenisme, De la mémoire des morts à l’engagement pour la vie. (2006).

(Co-authored) Éduquer à la religion à l'école: enjeux actuels et piste d'avenir. Comité des Affaires Réligieuses, Gouvernement du Quebec. CAR. (2004).

(Co-authored) Rites et Symboles religieux a l’école Défis éducatifs de la diversité.(CAR) CAR. (2003).

(Co-authored) La Formation des maitres dans le domaine du développement personal: une crise symptomatique November. CAR. (2003).

(Co-authored) The Virginia Report. (Inter-Anglican Theological and Doctrinal Commission ACC, London, England). The Lambeth Conference. (1997).

“Legend” and “Saga” in Dictionary of Biblical Interpretation, eds. R. Coggins & L. Houlden (SCM Press). (1990).

The Old Testament and Folklore Studies (Sheffield Academic Press) (Nominated as Book of the Year, Folklore Society of Great Britain). (1988).

Fields of expertise: Hebrew Bible, Greco-Roman Judaism and Christian Origins.
Teaching and Research: Hebrew Bible (Religion of Ancient Israel / Exilic and Post-Exilic Period / Literature of Ancient Israel / Prophets); Second Temple Period (Apocalypticism, Qumran Scrolls, Pseudepigrapha and Christian Origins in the Greco-Roman Period).
Research interests: Second Temple Period (Qumran Scrolls, Pseudepigrapha and Christian Origins in the Greco-Roman Period); Christian Origins (Pauline Epistles and Theology / Synoptic Gospels and Historical Jesus).

Gerbern S. Oegema studied Biblical Studies, Jewish Studies and New Testament and Early Judaism from 1977 to 1989 at the Vrije Universiteit in Amsterdam, the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, the Freie Universität Berlin and the Universität Tübingen. From 1986 to 2001 he taught as lecturer, assistant professor and privatdozent at universities in Amsterdam, Berlin, Münster, and Tubingen. In 2002 he came to McGill University and joined the Faculty of Religious Studies, where he is now Professor of Biblical Studies. In 2003 and 2004 he was a scholar in residence at the Center for Theological Inquiry in Princeton, from 2004 to 2007 he held a SSHRC grant on “Non-Canonical Writings and Biblical Theology”, and from 2003 to 2007 he was the founder and first director of the McGill Center for Research on Religion (CREOR). He is an honorary faculty member of the Presbyterian College in Montreal, served on many committees and was the chair of the Graduate Committee for several years. His research focuses on Second Temple Judaism, apocalypticism, the Pseudepigrapha, and Christian origins. He is the author and co-editor of more than twenty books as well as the co-editor of three book series.

University of Tübingen, PD. Habilitation: Zwischen Hoffnung und Gericht. Untersuchungen zur Rezeption der Apokalyptik im frühen Christentum und Judentum. (1997).

Freie Universität Berlin, Dr. Phil. Dissertation: Der Gesalbte und sein Volk. Untersuchungen zum Konzeptualisierungsprozeß der messianischen Erwartungen von den Makkabäern bis Bar Koziba. (1989).

Freie Universität of Berlin, M.A. (1988).

Vrije Universiteit of Amsterdam, Drs. Theol. Dissertation: The Use and Interpretation of Explicit Pentateuchal Quotations in Galatians 3:6-14 and Other Jewish and Christian Writings Between 1 and 150 of the Common Era (doctoraalscriptie), Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam. (1985).

Der Gesalbte und sein Volk. Untersuchungen zum Konzeptualisierungsprozeß der messianischen Erwartungen von den Makkabäern bis Bar Koziba (Schriften des Institutum Judaicum Delitzschianum, Vol. 2), Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht 1994 (351 Pp.; = Univ. Diss. Freie Universität Berlin 1989/90).

The History of the Shield of David: The Birth of a Symbol (Judentum und Umwelt, Vol. 62, ed. J. Maier), Frankfurt/M-Bern u.a.: Peter Lang 1996 (XI + 223 Pp.; 50 Ill).

The Anointed and His People. Messianic Expectations from the Maccabees to Bar Kochba (Supplements to the Journal for the Study of the Pseudepigrapha, Vol. 27), Sheffield: Sheffield Academic Press 1998 (356 Pp.).

Für Israel und die Völker. Studien zum alttestamentlich-jüdischen Hintergrund der paulinischen Theologie (Novum Testamentum, Supplements, Vol. 95), Leiden: E.J. Brill 1998 (XVIII + 306 Pp.).

Zwischen Hoffnung und Gericht. Untersuchungen zur Rezeption der Apokalyptik im frühen Christentum und Judentum (Wissenschaftliche Monographien zum Alten und Neuen Testament, Vol. 82), Neukirchen-Vluyn: Neukirchener Verlag 1999 (XXXIII + 454 Pp.).

Apokalypsen (Jüdische Schriften aus hellenistisch-römischer Zeit VI.1.5.), Gütersloh: Gütersloher Verlagshaus 2001 (209 Pp.).

Das Heil ist aus den Juden. Studien zum historischen Jesus und seiner Rezeption im Urchristentum, Hamburg: Verlag Dr. Kovac 2001 (XV + 285 Pp.).

Poetische Schriften (Jüdische Schriften aus hellenistisch-römischer Zeit VI.1.5.), Gütersloh: Gütersloher Verlagshaus 2002 (110 Pp.)

Unterweisung in erzählender Form (Jüdische Schriften aus hellenistisch-römischer Zeit, Vol. VI.1.2), Gütersloh: Gütersloher Verlagshaushaus 2005 (X + 209 Pp.).

1. Charlesworth, J.H.; Lichtenberger, H.; Oegema, G.S. (ed.), Qumran-Messianism. Studies on the Messianic Expectations in the Dead Sea Scrolls, Tübingen: J.C.B. Mohr (Paul Siebeck) 1998 (co-editor) (240 Pp.).
2. Lichtenberger, H.; Oegema, G.S. (ed.), Studien zu den Jüdischen Schriften aus hellenistisch-römischer Zeit , Gütersloh: Gütersloher Verlagshaus 2001 - 2006.
3. Lichtenberger, H.; Oegema, G.S. (ed.), Jüdische Schriften aus hellenistisch-römischer Zeit. Neue Folge, Gütersloh: Gütersloher Verlagshaus 2002 -.
4. Lichtenberger, H.; Oegema, G.S. (ed.), Die Jüdischen Schriften aus hellenistisch-römischer Zeit in ihrem antik-jüdischen und neutestamentlichen Kontext (Studien zu den Jüdischen Schriften aus hellenistisch-römischer Zeit, Vol. 1), Gütersloh: Gütersloher Verlagshaus 2002 (499 Pp.).
5. Mittmann-Richert, U.; Avemarie, F.; Oegema, G.S. (ed.), Der Mensch vor Gott. Festschrift für Hermann Lichtenberger zum 60. Geburtstag, Neukirchen-Vluyn: Neukirchener Verlag 2003 (240 Pp.).
6. Henderson, I.; Oegema, G.S. (ed.), The Changing Face of Judaism, Christianity and Other Religions in Greco-Roman Antiquity (Studien zu den Jüdischen Schriften aus hellenistisch-römischer Zeit, Vol. 2), Gütersloh: Gütersloher Verlagshaus 2006 (XII + 563 Pp.).
7. Oegema, G.S.; Charlesworth, J.H. (eds.), The Pseudepigrapha and Christian Origins. Essays from the Studiorum Novi Testamenti Societas, Edinburgh: T. & T. Clark 2008 (xvi + 295 pages).