Catherine Playoust
Major teaching areas
- The Gospels of the New Testament, especially Luke and John
- The rise of Christianity in the cities of the Roman world
- New Testament Greek
Research Interests
- The heavens and heavenly ascent as understood in the ancient Mediterranean world; doctoral dissertation 'Lifted Up From the Earth: The Ascension of Jesus and the Heavenly Ascents of Early Christians'
- Early Jewish and Christian apocalypticism, mysticism, and religious experience
- The diversity of early Christianity and the emergence of the category of heresy
- Early Christian narratives, dialogues, and liturgical texts, especially the Ascension of Isaiah, the Apocryphon of James, the Acts of Thomas and the Odes of Solomon
Publications
- Catherine Playoust and Ellen Bradshaw Aitken, 'The Leaping Child: Imagining the Unborn in Early Christian Literature', in Imagining the Fetus: Embryology and Mythology from Around the World, ed. Jane Marie Law & Vanessa R. Sasson (AAR Religion and Culture Series; New York: Oxford University Press, forthcoming)
- 'The Beauty of Jesus and His Twin: Redirected Erotics in the Acts of Thomas', in the Proceedings of the colloquium, 'Late Antique Crossroads in the Levant: Space, Ritual, Texts, and Daily Life', (Montreal, 1–4 Nov 2006); volume under compilation
- Short book reviews in Religious Studies Review (2007-2008)
Community and professional service
- Member of the Society of Biblical Literature (1998-)
- Member of the American Academy of Religion (2006-)
- Member of the New Testament Mysticism Project (2007-)
- Editorial assistant, Harvard Theological Review (2000–2007)
- Liturgical ministries (music, reading, preaching, eucharistic, planning) in many parishes and educational settings (1981-)
Major positions previously held
- Part-time faculty, Boston College (2006)
- M.Div. senior thesis co-supervisor and seminar leader, Harvard Divinity School (2004-2006)
- Teaching Fellow, Harvard Divinity School (1998-2003)
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