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The Awards Committee is pleased to announce the winners of the 2011 Templeton Award for Theological Promise.
Daniel Castelo  Current Position
Associate Professor of Theology
School of Theology Seattle Pacific University
3307 3rd. Ave. West, Suite 204
Seattle, WA 98119-1950
USA Phone: 206/281-2336
Fax: 206/281-2771
Email:
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Award Winning PublicationThe Apathetic God: Exploring the Contemporary Relevance of Divine Impassibility (Paternoster Theological Monographs, Eugene, OR: Wipf & Stock, 2009).
The book seeks to create a via media between the tradition of divine impassibility and the contemporary preference for divine passibility within formal theological reflection. Rather than dismissing divine impassibility as a Hellenized and antiquated notion, he seeks to reconfigure how this axiom functioned for the early church as a way to complement and deepen the present discussion. At stake in this task is not only the coherence of God-talk over time but also what Christians take to be their guiding vision of God's character and action in the world.
Current ProjectI am working on an introductory text to theodicy in part as an overture to a more elaborate work that would frame dogmatics as a theodical practice. Also, I am coauthoring two books that would display sensibilities associated with the theological interpretation of Scripture. Jan Dietrich Current Position
Assistant professor and post-doctoral research fellow at the Institute for Old Testament Studies, Faculty of Theology, University of Leipzig, Germany Theologische Fakultät Institut für Alttestamentliche Wissenschaft Otto-Schill-Straße 2 04109 Leipzig Germany Email:
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Award Winning DissertationKollektive Schuld und Haftung: Religions- und rechtsgeschichtliche Studien zum Sündenkuhritus des Deuteronomiums und zu verwandten Texten (Orientalische Religionen in der Antike 4, Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck, 2010). The ‘scapecow’ ritual in Deuteronomy 21:1-9 is a central but almost unknown type of scapegoat ritual of the Hebrew Bible. In the case of a homicide caused by an unknown perpetrator, the parallels from ancient Near Eastern legal texts demand collective legal liability, while in the Deuteronomy passage, a young cow is ritually killed as a substitute for the liability of the community. This is, compared to Leviticus 16, the genuine form of a scapegoat ritual, since the heifer is ritually killed, not merely sent into the wilderness. Is the violence of this ritual meant to resolve the violence of the homicide to unburden Israel from the demands of collective guilt? To answer this question, the author provides a comprehensive history and analysis of this text, comparing it to its religious and judicial parallels from both the Ancient Near East and the Bible, using historical methods from exegesis, cultural anthropology and comparative law.
Current ProjectEssays on Old Testament and Ancient Near Eastern anthropology, especially a post-doctoral dissertation on the interpretation of suicidal acts in Ancient Israel, as well as in Ancient Egypt, Mesopotamia, and Syria. This book-project focuses on the religious, cultural and sociological types of suicidal acts and especially on the interpretation of their meanings. Jonathan Edelmann  Current Position
Assistant Professor of Religion at Mississippi State University in the Department of Philosophy and Religion
Mississippi State University
Department of Philosophy and Religion
53 Morgan Ave
Mississippi State MS 39762
USA
Office Phone: 662 325 2382
Home Phone: 662 325 9363
Fax: 662 325 3340
Email:
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Award Winning DissertationWhen Two Worlds Meet: A Dialogue Between the Bhāgavata Purāna and Contemporary Biological Theory My D.Phil. (Oxford University, 2008, to be published in Fall 2011, Oxford University Press) was in the area of science and religion, comparing and contrasting the issues of self and knowledge in the early medieval Hindu text called Bhāgavata Purāna, and in British and American Christian theological literature on Darwinism.
Current ProjectI am planning an analysis of the Bhāgavata Purāna commentator named Viśvanātha Cakravartin (circa 1660-1754). My aim will be to raise awareness not only of the rich and sophisticated history of Hindu theology, but also to explore the scope for a contemporary Hindu theological voice with the academy. Emiliano Fiori  Current Position
Post-doctoral researcher at the Vrije Universiteit of Amsterdam, Faculty of Theology. Vrije Universiteit Faculteit der Godgeleerdheid De Boelelaan 1105 1081 HV Amsterdam Netherlands Award winning DissertationDionigi l'Areopagita e l'origenismo siriaco: Edizione critica e studio storico-dottrinale del trattato sui Nomi divini nella versione di Sergio di Reš¡`aynā (Dionysius the Areopagite and Syriac Origenism: Critical Edition and Historical-Doctrinal Study of the Treatise On the Divine Names according to Sergius of Resh`ayna's Translation), 557 pp. (PhD, 2010 Universita di Bologna - École Pratique des Hautes Études, Paris). This doctoral dissertation presents the editio princeps of the first Syriac version of the Areopagitic treatise On the Divine Names. The translation is ascribed to a bilingual chief physician of the 5th-6th centuries, Sergius of Resh`ayna, who in some respects was to the subsequent Syriac culture what Boethius was to the Latin Middle Ages. This critical edition will be shortly published by Peeters, Leuven within the CSCO series (Scriptores Syri) along with that of the treatise on the Mystical Theology and of Dionysius' Epistles. The dissertation also consists of a monographic study on the meaning of Dionysius' work in the context of Syriac Christology and heresiology at the beginning of the 6th century. This research led me to conclude that the Areopagite was actively concerned with the emerging extremist Origenism of the Syriac monk Stephen bar Sudaili, and that the Neoplatonic form of his thought also aimed at neutralizing the dangers which that doctrine implied from an ecclesiological standpoint. An English translation of this monographic section is also to be published in the same collection (section Subsidia). Current Project My current research, within the frame of an ERC project led by Dr. Hagit Amirav (Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam) is intended, on a first stage, to reconstruct the Syriac version of Theodore of Mopsuestia's commentary on the epistles to the Ephesians. This commentary is preserved in Latin and, only in short fragments, in Greek. Nonetheless, Theodore's exegetical works were translated into Syriac already in the 5th century. These versions are not preserved as such, but had often been cited in later commentaries by different Syriac authors since the 9th century. It is then on these later works (mostly still unpublished) that my work of reconstruction will focus. This work of edition will be followed by an assessment of the meaning of Theodore's exegetical position within the wider context of the overall Patristic reception of Ephesians. Jörg Haustein Current Position
Research and Teaching Fellow in History of Religions and Mission Studies, Faculty of Theology, University of Heidelberg University of Heidelberg, Faculty of Theology Dept. of History of Religions and Mission Studies Kisselgasse 1 69117 Heidelberg Germany +49-6221-543360 E-Mail:
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Homepage: http://theologie.uni-hd.de/rm/personal/joerg-haustein Award Winning DissertationWriting Religious History: The Historiography of Ethiopian Pentecostalism
This pioneering dissertation studies Pentecostal and Charismatic movements in Ethiopia, which in recent years have driven much of the unprecedented increase of Protestantism in this traditionally Orthodox country. Coming from a religious studies perspective, the author details the history of this movement from its inception at the time of Emperor Haile Selassie to the end of the Derg regime, and uncovers the historical, political, and religious dynamics of its growth and spread to mainline Protestant churches. The thesis’ main theoretical contribution lies in its application of post-structuralist theories of discourse to the historical study of a New Religious Movement, establishing the genealogical analysis of historiography as a central ground for understanding the identity, politics, and theology of a given religious group. The study is based on extensive fieldwork and numerous previously unexplored sources, thus making an original contribution to Ethiopian Studies, Pentecostal Studies and Church History in the non-Western World. It will be published by Harrassowitz (Wiesbaden, Germany) in 2011.
Current ProjectMy current research project is a historical study of colonial rule and Islam in German East Africa. The conflicting interests of missionaries, colonial authorities, settlers, local traders, and Muslim schools form an interesting historical laboratory for analyzing the production of religious identities in 19th century colonialism. Detailing the dynamics of different debates about Islam in German East Africa as well as the political positions and religious aspirations of Muslim scholars, the project seeks to map out religious identity politics in a specific colonial setting and their interrelation to the globalization of religion in the 19th century. Benjamin King  Current Position
Assistant Professor of Church History at the School of Theology of the University of the South, Director of the Advanced Degrees Program (D.Min., S.T.M.) School of Theology University of the South 335 Tennessee Avenue Sewanee TN 37383 Phone: 931-598-1619
Email:
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Award Winning DissertationNewman and the Alexandrian Fathers: Shaping Doctrine in Nineteenth Century England (Changing Paradigms in Historical and Systematic Theology, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2009).
The book examines the influence of the earliest Christian theologians on the most prominent of nineteenth-century English theologians, John Henry Newman. In this inter-textual project, it becomes clear that the teachings of the early Church about God's Trinitarian persons and works need as much interpreting as the Scriptures on which the teachings were grounded - just as those who interpret the fathers in turn require interpretation. This project therefore recognizes the reconstruction of orthodoxy that takes place in each generation, while also drawing confidence from Newman about the reasonableness of making a "real assent" to God's existence in the face of rationalist opposition.
Current ProjectI am co-editing a book on the reception of the life and work of John Henry Newman, as well as researching the prehistory of Newman's idea of "consensus fidelium" (from the early Christian era onwards) to see how this has influenced subsequent views of the laity. Donna Lazenby  Current Position
Ordinand in the Church of England, Diocese of Southwark. Training at Westcott House Theological College, Cambridge. Westcott House Theological College Jesus Lane Cambridge CB5 8BP United Kingdom Email:
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Award Winning DissertationAn Atheist's Mystical Vision: Exploring the Cataphatic and Apophatic Dimensions of Virginia Woolf's Literature (PhD thesis submitted to Cambridge University's Divinity Faculty) My doctoral thesis explored points of contact between the language and metaphysics of Christian mysticism and Virginia Woolf's literary aesthetics. Through an examination of the grounds of engagement between Woolf's aesthetics and the insights of traditional mystical literatures I illustrated the need to rectify prevalent misapprehensions of mysticism where these are responsible for disguising (a) the contribution of a `non-theological' writer such as Woolf to a mystical conversation where the latter is recognised for its theological significance, and (b) the relevance of mystical perspectives for contemporary theological attention to the sacredness of everyday dimensions of human experience. One achievement of this thesis was the location of a lens through which to recognise the apophatic dimension of human experience which is - not least today - too often confused with nihilism, and interpreted as grounds for atheism.
Current ProjectI hold a book contract with Cascade (Wipf and Stock) for a monograph on Christian apologetics and spiritual themes in contemporary literature, and have contributed a chapter entitled 'Apologetics, Literature and Worldview' to SCM's forthcoming collection Imaginative Apologetics: Theology, Philosophy and the Catholic Tradition. I recently organised an Apologetics Conference at Westcott House for academics, clergy and ordinands (speakers included Alister McGrath, Alison Milbank and Graham Ward). Within my current research I continue to explore the particular potential of Christian mysticism to respond to the contemporary crisis in Western spirituality. I am also researching, within philosophical theology, the ability of literary thinkers such as Virginia Woolf and Iris Murdoch to illustrate how any attempt to grasp the mystical content of experience and knowledge must balance a belief in the referential accuracy of language alongside an awareness of a reality which transcends such neat conceptualisation and description: thereby providing a crucial epistemological critique of contemporary efforts to locate and convey the divine. To this end, I hold a further book contract for a monograph with I. B. Tauris entitled A Mystical Philosophy: Transcendence and Immanence in the Works of Virginia Woolf and Iris Murdoch. Michael Legaspi  Current Position
Instructor Department of Philosophy and Religious Studies Phillips Academy 180 Main Street Andover, MA 01810 Email:
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Award Winning DissertationThe Death of Scripture and the Rise of Biblical Studies (Oxford Studies in Historical Theology, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2010).
During the Enlightenment, scholars guided by a new vision of a post-theological age did not simply investigate the Bible, they remade it. In place of the familiar scriptural Bibles that belonged to Christian and Jewish communities, they created a new form: the academic Bible. Beginning with the fragmentation of biblical interpretation in the centuries after the Reformation, this book shows how the weakening of scriptural authority in the Western churches altered the role of biblical interpretation. In contexts shaped by skepticism and religious strife, interpreters increasingly operated on the Bible as a text to be managed by critical tools. These developments prepared the way for scholars to formalize an approach to biblical study shaped by classical philology and oriented toward the statist vision of the new universities and their sponsors.
Current ProjectI am working on a book that examines scriptural interpretation as a wisdom-seeking endeavor. What was involved in reading and interpreting the Bible, not as a critical, academic exercise, but rather as an attempt to order culture within a particular, traditional form of life and thought? The book begins by drawing a sharp contrast between wisdom as it was understood by biblical writers and the possibility of wisdom in late modern thought. Given the incompatibility of wisdom with late modern metaphysical frameworks, the book turns to Aquinas, Calvin, Chrysostom, and rabbinic interpreters to discover how these particular interpreters understood wisdom and its relation to scriptural interpretation. The final chapter, drawing on these studies, considers how we might (or might not) reengage wisdom as contemporary interpreters. Nicholas Lombardo, O.P. Current Position
Visiting Fellow
St. Thomas Aquinas Institute for Theology and Culture
University of Fribourg, Switzerland
Institut S. Thomas d'Aquin pour la théologie et la culture
Université de Fribourg
Av. Europe 20
1700 Fribourg
Switzerland
Email:
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Award Winning DissertationThe Logic of Desire: Aquinas on Emotion (Washington, DC: The Catholic University of America Press, 2010).
This study seeks to advance the recovery, reconstruction, and critique of Thomas Aquinas's account of emotion. Aquinas's influence on medieval and early modern philosophy was enormous, overshadowing every other medieval author on the topic of emotion. Nonetheless, although emotion is emerging as a focus of interest in many disciplines, his philosophy and theology of emotion remains neglected. Working in dialogue with contemporary analytic philosophy and the Thomist tradition, The Logic of Desire considers Aquinas's thought on emotion in its historical context and inner logic, shows how it bears on larger issues in his anthropology and ethics, and then offers an appraisal of its enduring value.
Current ProjectMy current research concerns Thomas Aquinas, especially his theology of the Trinity. I am also preparing a monograph for publication, tentatively titled, The Ethics of Redemption: God's Will and Christ's Crucifixion. It draws on analytic philosophy and contemporary scripture scholarship to evaluate theological interpretations of the crucifixion.
Candida Moss  Current Position
Assistant Professor of Theology University of Notre Dame
Department of Theology
130 Malloy Hall
University of Notre Dame
Notre Dame, IN 46556
USA
Email:
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Award Winning DissertationThe Other Christs: Imitating Jesus in Ancient Christian Ideologies of Martyrdom (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2010).
The Other Christs offers a new perspective on the importance of early Christian martyrdom stories for our understanding of the early church. Beginning from the premise that martyrs are imitators of Christ, the book traces out the way in which the deaths of the martyrs are modeled on and consciously interpret the death of Jesus. It follows the path of the martyrs from their trials and imprisonment to their deaths, their heavenly ascent, and, finally, to the throne of God. The martyr's mimetic journey to God is informative for the scholar's understanding of martyrdom, the reception of Biblical traditions about the death of Jesus, the construction of the afterlife in early Christian communities, and the development of the doctrines of soteriology and Christology.
Current ProjectI am currently completing a monograph on the diverse forms of martyrdom in the early church entitled Cultures of Death: A History of Martyrdom in Early Christianity (Anchor Yale Reference Library; New Haven, Conn: Yale University Press, expected publication date 2012). Whereas previous histories of martyrdom have treated it as a homogenous phenomenon that emerged in the second century, this work traces the development of various ideologies of martyrdom in different geographical, intellectual, and social locations around the Ancient Mediterranean. My next project will focus on corporeality and ideas about the afterlife in the early church. It will examine the intersection of ancient medicine, aesthetics, physiognomy, and philosophy in artistic depictions and theological discussions about the shape and features of resurrected bodies.
Andrew Radde-Gallwitz  Current Position
Assistant Professor of Theology, Loyola University Chicago
Loyola University Chicago
Dept. of Theology
1032 W Sheridan Rd
Chicago, IL 60660
Award Winning DissertationBasil of Caesarea, Gregory of Nyssa, and the Transformation of Divine Simplicity (Oxford Early Christian Studies, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2009).
The book shows how early Christians, especially Basil of Caesarea and Gregory of Nyssa, used the philosophical notion of divine simplicity in disputes about Christian doctrine and in works on Christian virtue and practice. This was not detached philosophical speculation, since, for Basil and Gregory, to know God required participating in a transformative ascetic spirituality. Beginning with the debates around Marcion in the second century and ending with the Trinitarian controversies of the fourth century, the book charts the rise of the classical Christian doctrine of God and the origin of an ascetic approach to theology. It argues that Basil and Gregory's work has ongoing, ecumenical relevance for the task of interrelating Christian doctrine and spirituality today.
Current ProjectCurrently, I am finishing a monograph which introduces Basil of Caesarea's Trinitarian theology within its historical context: Saint Basil and the Trinity: A Guide to His Life and Thought (Eugene, OR: Cascade). My next project, Gregory of Nyssa on the Trinity and the Mystery of Christ, will analyze his younger brother Gregory of Nyssa's contributions to Christian doctrine, with particular focus on his Christology and Pneumatology. This study will challenge modern caricatures of Gregory's "Platonism" and will place his work into the context of a wide body of understudied (and, in many cases, untranslated) Christian writing from the late fourth century. I am also involved with translating various early Christian writings into English; future projects will include a collaborative translation of Didymus of Alexandria's On the Trinity.
Elisha Russ-Fishbane
 Current Position
Current Position:
Tikvah Postdoctoral Fellow in Jewish Thought, Princeton University
Elisha Russ-Fishbane
Princeton University
011 Scheide Caldwell House
Princeton, NJ 08544 Email:
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Award Winning DissertationBetween Politics and Piety: Abraham Maimonides and his Times For the Jewish communities of the Arab world, the thirteenth century was at once a period of socio-economic tumult and profound spiritual transformation. In the midst of devastating natural disasters and increasing economic strain, Egypt witnessed the rise of a Jewish pietist revival that drew heavily upon traditions of Islamic devotion and Sufi mysticism. The Egyptian Jewish pietists established fraternal circles under the leadership of spiritual masters and pursued a regimen of ascetic renunciation, supererogatory prayer, and solitary meditation inspired by the growth of Sufi piety throughout the region. This study examines the rise of the Jewish-Sufi movement in Egypt under the central leadership of Abraham Maimonides, the spiritual and temporal head of Egyptian Jewry during the first four decades of the thirteenth century. It likewise explores the controversial career of this seminal Jewish figure, who vigorously defended the legal and philosophical legacy of his father, Moses Maimonides, while pursuing his own spiritual agenda of reform and revival. Current ProjectFor a variety of Jewish mystics and philosophers of the Middle Ages, prophecy was perceived as the pinnacle of human perfection and the culmination of the spiritual path. The goal of prophetic revelation coalesced around two movements of philosophical mysticism in the thirteenth century, Jewish-Sufism in Egypt and prophetic Kabbalah in Spain. Both traditions were profoundly influenced by the thought of Moses Maimonides, on the one hand, and the doctrines of Sufi mysticism, on the other. The goal of my study is to provide the intellectual and spiritual background to the revival of individual prophecy in medieval Jewish piety and the renaissance of philosophical mysticism that it inspired.
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Winners 
