Fall 2007 - Department of Religious Studies - McMaster University

http://www.socsci.mcmaster.ca/relstud/
Religious Studies
Fall Newsletter 2007
From the Chair . . .
As Readers of the Department Newsletter over the years, you will be
surprised to see my name here again – but let me assure you that it is only
temporary. I am serving as Acting Chair this year as Travis Kroeker is
away on research leave; he will be returning on July l, 2008 for the
remaining three years of his term as Chair.
As always, there is much that is happening in the life of the
Department. This September we welcomed twenty-one graduate students:
fifteen for the M.A., six for the Ph.D. With the twenty students that entered
the program last year, we are bursting at the seams (quite literally in terms
of finding space in the basement offices)! We are especially pleased to
welcome five students into the Asian field, including two for the Ph.D.
program. As Dr. Benn describes in his article in the Newsletter, the field has
been rebuilt with our strong contingent of new faculty and an increasing
number of students. This fall we received a donation from the Sringeri
Vidya Bharati Foundation Canada to fund a second-level Sanskrit course for
both graduate and undergraduate students in the winter term.
On July 1, 2007, Dr. James Benn, Dr. Dana Hollander and Dr.
Celia Rothenberg, received tenure and promotion to Associate Professor –
many congratulations! In the summer, Dr. Annette Reed has left us to take
up a position in Early Judaism at the University of Pennsylvania. We are
grateful for all that Dr. Reed contributed to the Department during her four
years here: she introduced new courses on Rabbinic Literature for our
graduate students, taught in the Arts & Science Program, and last year took
the lead in a revision of our undergraduate program. We are now in the
process of a search for a new appointment in Early Judaism; on-campus
interviews will be held in January and an appointment will be made for July
1, 2008.
For January to April, we are looking forward to having Dr. Aaron
Hughes here as the Herb Schreiber Visiting Professor in Jewish Studies.
During his time here, Dr. Hughes will be offering an undergraduate course
on Mysticism, a graduate seminar (with Dr. Dana Hollander) on Creation,
Revelation, Redemption, and will be giving various public talks. We are
very grateful to the Schreiber family for making possible this special
opportunity.
This has been a very busy fall with many activities and visitors – as
you will read about in the Newsletter. It is only with the hard work and
cooperation of everyone involved that we are able to manage the increasing
number of students, both graduate and undergraduate, in this time of
university expansion. We especially acknowledge the contribution of our
staff (Sheryl Dick, Doreen Drew and Jennifer Nettleton), our contractuallylimited
professors (Dr. Philippa Carter and Dr. Ann Pearson), and our many
expert and committed sessional lecturers.
Eileen Schuller, Acting Chair
Department of Religious Studies, McMaster University

Department of Religious Studies December 2007
Dr. Mark Rowe was awarded a generous 07/08 Academic Innovation
Grant from Experiential Education, valued at approximately $18,500, to
create a digital archive of materials relating to the teaching of Asian
Religions. The grant covered hardware (Imac, professional scanner, HD
video camera, and analog conversion box) and salary for two research
assistants. Dr. Rowe’s assistant, Richard Huang, has been instrumental
to the project, spending countless hours digitizing video and slides,
editing film clips, and creating web pages to display the finished
material. The project has also relied heavily on the technical expertise
of Nick Marquis, Learning Technologies Consultant for the Faculty of
Social Sciences. Slides, negatives, and old video from the collections of
scholars in numerous countries have now been converted. In addition
to digitizing these materials, Dr. Rowe has also been doing his own filming of rituals, religious sites, festivals,
and other cultural practices for use in the classroom. So far, half a terabyte of digital material has been
gathered, much of which will be made available online. The project is currently being implemented in Dr.
Rowe’s undergraduate course on Japanese Religions and will be a central feature of a course to be offered
next semester on Religion and Popular Culture in Japan. Dr. Rowe presented a paper on the project at a panel
he co-organized, titled “Screening and Streaming Japanese Religions,” at the 2007 AAR conference in San
Diego. After his presentation, the University of Western Michigan has agreed to fund a mirror project and Dr.
Rowe has received inquiries for detailed information and access from faculty at universities from around the
world: SOAS (London), Princeton, Columbia, Doshisha (Kyoto), and Harvard, to name but a few.
Meet our Visiting Ph.D. Student
Mika Pajunen is a Finnish Ph.D. student from the University of Helsinki visiting
McMaster University for the Fall term of 2007. His main research interest is the Dead Sea
Scrolls. He did his Master’s thesis on one of the scrolls and is now working on his
dissertation, which has the working title: “Collections of Apocryphal Psalms from Qumran”.
When he had just started his work on the dissertation, he had the opportunity to meet Dr.
Eileen Schuller several times while she was on her research leave in Göttingen, Germany
(2005-2006). Her questions and comments were a great help to him, so he applied for and received a grant from the
Academy of Finland to come and visit McMaster for a term. During his stay he is mainly concentrating on his thesis, and
translating some of the Dead Sea Scrolls into Finnish for a Finnish translation project. To round out his experience here at
McMaster, Mika is also participating in Dr. Runesson’s seminar on the ancient synagogue, and he took part in a Dead Sea
Scrolls symposium that was held at the Trinity Western University in early October. Of course, on the side he is trying to
see as much of North America as possible with his family and taking every opportunity to meet new interesting people.

Department of Religious Studies December 2007
Asian Field Update
2005 represented somewhat of a “year zero” for the Asian field. The need to rebuild the field from scratch meant that the
three members of the field had to spend considerable time last year reshaping our graduate and undergraduate offerings
to match our research interests. At the graduate level, we now have two areas—Buddhism and East Asian Religions—and
a host of new seminars. These administrative changes required a lot of form‐filling (thanks Doreen!) and they had to be
approved by a committee in the School of Graduate Studies (thanks to Dr. Widdicombe for representing our interests
there). There are also a number of new courses at the undergraduate level, two of which are being taught this year:
2K03 Introduction to Buddhism,
2TT3 Religion and Popular Culture in Japan.
We had a healthy crop of graduate applications this year and are delighted to welcome these incoming students:
Kimberly Beek (PhD), Randy Celie (PhD), Aurelius Rego (MA), Brigitte Robert (MA), Lawrence Yamada (MA). Chih‐mien
Adrian Tseng was promoted to the PhD from the MA level.
On the research front, Dr. Benn continued with his SSHRC‐funded project on Buddhism and Tea, giving talks at
Princeton and Columbia and traveling to libraries in the US and Europe for archival research. Dr. Clarke has been
revising his dissertation for publication, and putting together an exciting new project that will examine Sanskrit drama for
data on Buddhist monks and nuns in India. Dr. Rowe was in Japan this summer where he started laying the groundwork
for ambitious new research that will survey the training and daily lives of Buddhist priests in contemporary Japan.
… from the Field
Two of our graduate students were abroad in the summer of 2007, engaged in various stages of field work.
Émilie Roy spent two months at the Yemen Institut for Arabic Language (YIAL) in Sana’a, Yemen studuing Modern
Standard Arabic with qualified tutors who also facilitated her introduction into Yemeni society. Through formal
instruction and everyday life interaction with Yemenis, she learned enough Arabic to engage in conversation with any
Arabic‐speaker. This language acquisition will facilitate her PhD field research on the topic of Malian Islamic schooling.
Katie Riddell traveled to Paris, France with a grant from the Institute for Globalization and the Human Condition. She
collected ethnographic data in Paris and the surrounding area for her MA thesis, which will focus on the community of
people who travel to Paris every July to commemorate the death of 1960s era Doors front man, Jim Morrison, who died in
Paris in 1971. She visited locations frequented by Morrison, as well as the Père‐Lachaise cemetery where he is buried.
Biblical Field — Position Advertised
Our Department is very pleased to advertise a full-time tenure-track position in Early Judaism,
beginning July 1, 2008. The advertisement describes the position in this way: Early Judaism is
a component of the Biblical field in our department, in which Judaism and Christianity in the
Greco-Roman era are studied in conjunction with one another at both the undergraduate and
graduate levels. A range of methodologies and approaches is employed (philological, literary,
social historical, archaeological, philosophical, and theological). Interviews for the position
will take place in January, 2008.

Department of Religious Studies December 2007
It’s difficult to believe that I have been working at
McMaster for over a year now; it seems like I’ve just
arrived here, and already more than a year has gone by—
a productive and enjoyable year though, to be sure, made
more so by the warmth and friendship of the people here.
I arrived in August 2006, as a SSHRC postdoctoral fellow,
having received my Ph.D. from Université Laval, Quebec.
My task was to analyze the reception and use in the Nag
Hammadi corpus of the figure and writings of Paul,
working under the supervision of Dr. Annette Yoshiko
Reed.
Much of my first half year was spent on a thorough survey
of the Nag Hammadi collections, seeking a coherent
overview of the varied uses of Paul in these texts and
plotting future work. I presented the results of this survey
at public conferences at McMaster and the University of
Ottawa in the winter of 2007. Contrary to the stereotype
of Paul as “the heretics’ apostle,” I found no
overwhelming invocation of his figure or writings,
although uses of him did crop up everywhere, even in
texts affiliated with Sethianism, an allegedly non‐Christian
gnostic movement. Certainly his authority was respected:
several writings are named for him, and one finds as well
both exegetical and patently eisegetical uses of his letters.
In addition to the general overview, I have been
researching more specific uses of Paul, including an
analysis of the brief prayer attributed to him in Nag
Hammadi Codex I (article forthcoming, Harvard
Theological Review), a survey of the use of Pauline
“powers and authorities” language to describe the
oppressive heavenly powers that make up so prominent a
part of the gnostic mythological landscape (article
forthcoming, Archaeus), and further research into the use
made of Paul in the Apocalypse of Paul, which has been
Congratulations to Faydra Shapiro, one of our PH.D. graduates now
teaching at Laurier University, whose book Building Jewish Roots:
The Israel Experience (Montreal/Kingston: McGill-Queens’
University Press, 2006)has won a National Jewish Book Award!
Meet our SSHRC Post-Doctoral Fellow:
Michael Kaler
incorporated into my considerably revised dissertation
(forthcoming in the ESCJ Series from Wilfrid University
Press).
I have also been attempting to come to a better
understanding of the Sitz im Leben of the Nag Hammadi
collection itself, with the help of the sociological theories
of Colin Campbell (who developed the concept of the
“cultic milieu”) 1 as well as translating and examining
roughly contemporary Coptic monastic literature, due to
the common association of the Nag Hammadi collection
with monasticism. 2
In the coming months I plan to continue in this direction,
as it seems to me that if I am to understand the Paulinism
of this collection, I must first understand what makes it a
collection, what unifies its disparate contents. I will also
be looking at the use of Pauline language and ideas in
gnostic discussions of resurrection. In his Against the
Heresies, Bishop Irenaeus of Lyons tells us that, when
speaking of resurrection, gnostics always cite 1 Cor 15:50.
I am looking forward to finding out whether or not he was
right.
1 Preliminary research presented as “The Cultic Milieu, Nag
Hammadi and Gnosticism,” Canadian Society of Patristic
Studies, Saskatoon, May 27 2007.
2 Preliminary research presented as “Shenute’s Against the
Origenists and Nag Hammadi,” Nordic Nag Hammadi and
Gnosticism Network Meeting, Cairo, Oct. 29, 2007.

Department of Religious Studies December 2007
The Lillian and Marvin Goldblatt
Jewish Lecture Series
October 22, 2007
Marking the centenary of the birth of Abraham Joshua
Heschel, our department invited Susannah Heschel to
deliver this year’s Lillian and Marvin Goldblatt Lecture
in Jewish Studies, The lecture, “Moral Grandeur and
Spiritual Audacity: Reflections on the Life and Thought
of Abraham Joshua Heschel,” took place on October 22
at 8 p.m.
Abraham Joshua Heschel (1907–1972) was a renowned
Jewish theologian and social activist who inspired
many with his religious thought, his contributions to
Jewish-Christian understanding and his compassionate
concern for the other. An émigré from wartime Europe
who taught at Hebrew Union College in Cincinnati and
later at the Jewish Theological Seminary in New York
City, Heschel was noted for his participation in the civil
rights movement and his outspoken protest against the
Vietnam War. His most famous works include Man is
Not Alone (1951), The Sabbath (1951), God in Search of Man
(1952) and Man’s Quest for God (1954).
Susannah Heschel holds the Eli Black Chair in Jewish
Studies at Dartmouth College. Her publications include
Abraham Geiger and the Jewish Jesus (1998) and The Aryan
Jesus: Christians, Nazis and the Bible (forthcoming). While
visiting McMaster, in addition to delivering the
Goldblatt Lecture, Professor Heschel participated in a
workshop discussion of a paper growing out of her
research on the history of Jewish-Christian relations,
“From Jesus to Shylock: Christian Supersessionism and
‘The Merchant of Venice.’”
McMaster University’s annual lecture in Jewish Studies
was initiated in 2002, largely through the initiative and
support of Herb Schreiber. In 2004, the lecture series
was renamed in honour of the Goldblatt family, whose
generous contributions now support the lectures in
perpetuity. Past speakers have been Reuven Firestone,
Michael Marrus, Judith Baskin, David Biale, and Elliot
Wolfson.
Conferences and Colloquia
Hooker Distinguished Visiting Professor
October 17-18, 2007
The Department of Religious Studies was delighted to
welcome back Professor Gregory Schopen (University
of California, Los Angeles) as a Hooker Distinguished
Visiting Professor. Dr. Schopen graduated from
McMaster with an MA in the History of Religions in 1975
before moving to the Australian National University to
complete a doctorate under Professor J.W. de Jong.
Professor Schopen has taught at the Universities of
Michigan, Washington, Indiana, Texas, Stanford, and
California. He was awarded a prestigious MacArthur
“genius” fellowship (1985-1990) in recognition of his
work in Buddhist Studies, which has been described as
“Unquestionably the freshest, most exciting scholarship
to have emerged in the field in half a century.”
Acclaimed by art historians, anthropologists,
epigraphists and historians of South Asia, Professor
Schopen’s work is also highly influential outside the
world of Buddhist Studies.
The program began with a lively and intimate talk in UH
122 on October 17 titled “The Life and Times of Buddhist
Nuns in Early North India.” A large crowd packed the
CIBC Hall on October 18 for a formal lecture on the topic
of child oblation in Buddhist and Benedictine
monasticism: “Benedict, the Buddha, and the Gift of Boys
to Monasteries and Monks.” Friday morning saw two
events. The first may very well have made departmental
history. Professor Schopen joined Professor emeritus
Paul Younger, Drs. Rowe and Clarke, and a strong
contingent of graduate students for a full-court, 5-on-5,
no-holds- barred basketball game. The events concluded
with an informal meeting with the graduate students.
Dr. Schopen was presented with souvenirs of his visit in
the form of an illustrated book about McMaster
University, as well as a McMaster Athletics Department
t-shirt, which we imagine will be much admired on the
basketball courts of Southern California.
The Department thanks Professor Schopen for a truly
enjoyable and inspirational visit and we hope to see him
again soon.

Department of Religious Studies December 2007
Recent & Upcoming Talks
October 4, 2007 Kurtis Schaeffer (University of Virginia) “The Biographer’s Art in
Tibet”
October 17-18, 2007 Hooker Distinguished Visiting Professor
Gregory Schopen (UCLA) “Benedict, the Buddha, and the Gift of Boys to Monasteries and
Monks”
October 22, 2007 Lillian and Marvin Goldblatt Jewish Studies Lecture:
Susannah Heschel (Dartmouth College) “Moral Grandeur and Spiritual Audacity:
Reflections on the Life and Thought of Abraham Joshua Heschel”
October 23, 2007 Susannah Heschel (Dartmouth College) Seminar on pre-circulated paper: “From Jesus
to Shylock: Christian Supersessionism and ‘The Merchant of Venice’”
November 28, 2007 Alan Milchman (Queen’s College of the City University of New York) “A
Political Theory of the Holocaust: State-Orchestrated Mass Death in the Modern World”
January 25, 2008 David Drewes (University of Manitoba) Reading Group: “Revisiting the Phrase 'sa
prithivipradesas caityabhuto bhavet' and the Mahayana Cult of the Book,” Indo-Iranian Journal
49.2 (forthcoming)
February 6, 2008 Koichi Kawakami (Consul-General of Japan) “Soft Power: From Japonisme to
Anime”
February 27, 2008 Satsuki Kawano (University of Guelph) Contemporary Japanese Religion
March 12, 2008 Mark Nanos (Rockhurst University) Paul and Jewish Christian Relations
March 13, 2008 Vesna Wallace(University of California at Santa Barbara) “Why is the Absolute
Gnostic Body still called the ‘Body’?”
March 28, 2008 Richard Salomon (University of Washington) Reading Group: “An Unwieldy Canon:
Observations on Some Distinctive Features of Canon Formation in Buddhism
April 4, 2008 Jinhua Chen (Canada Research Chair in East Asian Buddhism at the
University of British Columbia) Reading Group: “Pancavarsika Assemblies in Liang
Wudi’s Buddhist Palace Chapel,” Harvard Journal of Asiatic Studies 66.1 (2006): 43-103
April 11–13, 2008 Numata Buddhist Studies Conference
University of Toronto/McMaster University
Numata Program in Buddhist Studies
The University of Toronto/McMaster University Numata Program in Buddhist Studies is in the early stages of
planning a conference to be held at McMaster April 11 th –13 th 2007. The title of the conference is “Buddhism’s
Occult Technologies.” The participants will be exploring the spells, charms, diagrams, potions, and seals that
Buddhists employ for every kind of goal from good health to the swift attainment of enlightenment. Invitations
have been extended to leading scholars in Buddhist Studies at universities in North America and beyond. Details
of the conference will be posted here: http://www.chass.utoronto.ca/buddhiststudies/numata/index.html and
on our department website.

Department of Religious Studies December 2007
Badone, Ellen, “Illness, Biomedicine and Alternative
Healing in Brittany, France,” in Medical Anthropology:
Cross-Cultural Studies in Health and Illness
(forthcoming)
“Echoes from Kerizinen: Pilgrimage, Narrative and the
Construction of Sacred History at a Marian Shrine in
Northwestern France” in Journal of the Royal
Anthropological Institute (2007), 453–470
Benn, James, Burning for the Buddha: Selfimmolation
in Chinese Buddhism, Kuroda Institute
Studies in East Asian Buddhism 19. Honolulu: University
of Hawai‘i Press, 2007
“Written in Flames: Self-immolation in Sixth-century
Sichuan,” T’oung Pao 92 (2006), 410–465
“Spontaneous Human Combustion: Some Remarks on a
Phenomenon in Chinese Buddhism,” in Heroes and
Saints: The Moment of Death in Cross-cultural
Perspectives, edited by Phyllis Granoff and Koichi
Shinohara, Newcastle: Cambridge Scholars Press, 2007,
101–133
“Fire and the Sword: Some Connections between Selfimmolation
and Religious Persecution in the History of
Chinese Buddhism” in The Buddhist Dead: Practices,
Discourses and Representations, edited by Bryan Cuevas
and Jacqueline Stone, Kuroda Institute Studies in East
Asian Buddhism 20 Honolulu: University of Hawai‘i
Press, 2007, 234–65
“Introduction,” in Buddhism and Peace, Issues of
Violence, Wars and Self-sacrifice, edited by James Benn
and Jinhua Chen, Hualien: Tzu Chi University Press,
2007, 1–11
“Self-immolation in the Context of War and Other
Natural Disasters,” in Buddhism and Peace, Issues of
Violence, Wars and Self-sacrifice, edited by James Benn
and Jinhua Chen, Hualien: Tzu Chi University Press,
2007, 51–83
Buddhism and Peace: Issues of Violence, Wars and Selfsacrifice,
edited with Jinhua Chen. Hualien: Tzu Chi
University Press, 2007
Publications by the Faculty
September 2006–September 2007
Review of Eugene Wang, Shaping the Lotus Sutra:
Buddhist Visual Culture in Medieval China, Journal of
the Royal Asiatic Society 17 ( 2007), 351–52
Review of Vincent Goossaert, ed. Sanjiao wenxian:
Materiaux pour l’étude de la religion chinoise, (Revue
Annuelle, no. 4), Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society 17
(2007), 352–53
Review of Robert E. Florida, The Buddhist Tradition:
Volume Five of Human Rights and the World’s Major
Religions, Studies in Religion/Sciences Religieuses 36
(2007), 169–70
Review of Alan Cole, Text as Father: Paternal
Seductions in Early Mahāyāna Buddhist Literature,
Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society 17 (2007), 95–97
Review of S. A. M. Adshead, T’ang China: The Rise of
the East in World History, Journal of the Royal Asiatic
Society 16 (2006), 332–33
Carter, Philippa, “Appeasing the Inquiry Gods: A
Story of Failure in the Inquiry Classroom” in Experiences
with Inquiry Learning: Proceedings of a Symposium at
McMaster University, October 1-3, 2004, editedy by
Christopher Knapper, Centre for Leadership in Learning,
McMaster University, 2007, 89–93
Clarke, Shayne, “Vinaya Manuscripts: State of the
Field” in Indica et Tibetica: Festschrift für Michael Hahn
zum 65. Geburtstag von Freunden und Schülern
überreicht, Wiener Studien zur Tibetologie und
Buddhismuskunde 66, edited by Konrad Klaus and Jens-
Uwe Hartmann, Wien: Arbeitskreis für Tibetische und
Buddhistische Studien Universität Wien. [A translation of
Yamagiwa Nobuyuki’s “Ritsuzō kankei shahon kenkyū
no genjō 律蔵関係写本研究の現状,” Journal of Indian
and Buddhist Studies [Indogaku bukkyōgaku kenkyū
印度學佛教學研究], 52/1 (2003), 333-339]—role is of
translator only, 607-616
Kroeker, Travis, “Messianic Freedom and the
Secular Academy: Educating the Affections in a
Technological Culture,” Consensus 31 (2007) 41–57

Department of Religious Studies December 2007
“Sexuality and the Sacramental Imagination: It All Turns
on Affection,” in Wendell Berry: Life and Work, edited by
Jason Peters, The University Press of Kentucky, 2007,
119–36
Review of Oliver O’Donovan and Joan Lockwood
O’Donovan, Bonds of Imperfection: Christian Politics
Past and Present, in Political Theology 8 (2007) 123–25
Review of George Pattison, Thinking About God in an
Age of Technology, in Studies in Christian Ethics 20
(2007) 438–40
Rothenberg, Celia, “New Age Jews,” co-edited with
Anne Vallely for Jewish Culture and History 8 (2006)
“New Age Jews: Jewish Shamanism and Jewish Yoga,”
in Jewish Culture and History 8 (2006)
Review of Haideh Moghisse, ed. Muslim Diaspora:
Gender, Culture and Identity in Choice (April 2007)
Review of Jill Dubisch and Michael Winkelman, eds.
Pilgrimage and Healing in American Anthropologist 108
(2006) 894–895
Rowe, Mark, “Natural Funerals and the Grave Free
Promotion Society in Contemporary Japan,” in The
Buddhist Dead: Practices, Discourses, and
Representations edited by B. Cuevas and J. Stone,
University of Hawai‘i Press 2007, 405–37
Runesson, Anders, Donald D. Binder, and Birger
Olsson, The Ancient Synagogue From its Origins to 200
C.E.: A Source Book, Ancient Judaism and Early
Christianity 72, Leiden: Brill, 2007
“Re-Thinking Early Jewish/Christian Relations: Matthean
Community History as Pharisaic Intra-group Conflict” in
Journal of Biblical Literature 127 (forthcoming)
“From Where to What? Common Judaism, Pharisees, and
the Changing Socio-Religious Location of the Matthean
Community,” in Common Judaism Explored: Second
Temple Judaism in Context. Essays in Honour of E.P.
Sanders, edited by Wayne McCready and Adele
Reinhartz. Minneapolis: Fortress, (forthcoming)
“Architecture, Conflict, and Identity Formation: Jews and
Christians in Capernaum From the 1 st to the 6 th Century,”
in The Ancient Galilee in Interaction: Religion, Ethnicity,
and Identity, edited by Harold W. Attridge, Dale Martin,
and Jürgen Zangenberg, Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck, 2007,
231–57
“Praktisk sanning och svenskkyrklig religionsteologi”
[“Praxis-oriented Definitions of Truth and the Theology
of Religions of the Church of Sweden”], in
Religionsteologi och religionsmöten [Theology of
Religion and Interfaith Encounters], Studia Missionalia
Svecana, edited by Aasulv Lande and Carl Sundberg,
Uppsala: Svenska Institutet för Missionsforskning, 2007,
96–107
“Kvinnligt ledarskap i den tidiga kyrkan: Några exempel
och en tolkningsram” [“Women Leadership in the Early
Church: Some Examples and an Interpretive Frame”] in
Svensk Teologisk Kvartalskrift 82 (2006) 173–83 [English
summary]
Schuller, Eileen, “Penitential Prayer in Second
Temple Judaism: A Research Survey,” and “Afterward”
in Seeking the Favor of God, Vol. II:The Development of
Penitential Prayer in Second Temple Judaism, edited by
Mark Boda, Daniel Falk, and Rodney Werline, SBLEJL,
Atlanta: Society of Biblical Literature, Leiden: Brill,
2007, 1–15, 227–37
“Hodayot” and “Apocryphal Psalms” in Dictionary of
Early Judaism, edited by John J. Collins and Daniel C.
Harlow, Eerdmans, (in press)
“Prayers and Psalms from the pre-Maccabean Period,” in
Dead Sea Discoveries, 13 (2006) 306–18
Review of Daniel Stoekl Ben-Ezra, The Impact of Yom
Kippur on Early Christianity: The Day of Atonement from
Second Temple Judaism to the Fifth Century, in Catholic
Biblical Quarterly 68 (2006) 782–84.
Westerholm, Stephen, “Paul’s Anthropological
‘Pessimism’ in its Jewish Context,” in Divine and Human
Agency in Paul and His Cultural Environment, edited by
John M. G. Barclay and Simon J. Gathercole, London:
T&T Clark, 2006, 71–98
“Forbearance,” “Forgiveness,” and “Grace,” in The New
Interpreter’s Dictionary of the Bible, Vol 2, Nashville:
Abingdon, 2007, 477–78, 480–485, and 655–660.
Review of David G. Horrell, An Introduction to the Study
of Paul, in RBL (2007)
Widdicombe, Peter, “The Two Thieves of Luke
23:32-43 in Patristic Exegesis,” Studia Patristica XLII
(2006), 273-80

Department of Religious Studies December 2007
Badone, Ellen, “Pilgrimage, Tourism and the Da
Vinci Code at Les Saintes-Maries-de-la-Mer, France.”
Presidential Address, (60 minutes) at the Biennial
Meeting of the Society for the Anthropology of Religion,
Phoenix, AZ, April 14, 2007
Benn, James, “Buddhist Laymen and Tea during the
Tang Dynasty,” invited lecture, sponsored by the
Buddhist Studies Seminar, Columbia University, April
12, 2007
“Buddhist Laymen and Tea during the Tang Dynasty,”
invited lecture, sponsored by East Asian Studies and the
Buddhist Studies Workshop, Princeton University, April
11, 2007
“The Sense of Smell in Medieval China: Some
Preliminary Remarks,” conference on The Senses of
Religion: Knowledge, Miracles, Worship and Sensory
Experience in the World’s Religions, Yale University,
October 27–29, 2006
Carter, Philippa, “A ‘Displaced Grudge’: Anti-
Judaism, the Gospel of John and the Historical-Critical
Method,” Scripture and Skepticism: The Use of Doubt in
Biblical and Qur’anic Studies, University of California at
Davis, January 2007
Clarke, Shayne, “Creating Nuns Out of Thin Air:
Problems and Possible Solutions concerning the
Ordination of Nuns according to the Tibetan Monastic
Code,” 1 st International Congress on Buddhist Women’s
Role in the Sangha: Bhikshuni Vinaya and Ordination
Lineages, Hamburg, July 18–20, 2007
“Locating the Family in Homelessness: On Monastic
Families in Indian Buddhism,”American Academy of
Religion Annual Meeting (AAR), Washington, DC,
November 18–21, 2006
Greenspan, Louis, “Hegel and Rousseau on Virtue
and Terror,” Hegel Society of Canada, York University
“Philosphy and Religious Resurgence,” (updated version)
Philosophy Society, Birk Beck College University of
London, May 15, 2007
“Philosophy and Religious Resurgence,” Philosophy Club
McMaster University, March 30, 2007
“Search for lost family” based on Daniel Mendelsohn’s
The Lost, Anshe Shalom Temple, March 15, 2007
Faculty Papers, Talks
September 2006–September 2007
Hollander, Dana, “Derrida on ‘Philosophical
Nationality’,” at the Following Derrida: Legacies
conference organized by journal Mosaic, University of
Manitoba, October 2006
Kroeker, Travis, “The Ethics of ‘As If Not’: Pauline
Messianism and Continental Philosophy,” McMaster
Philosophy Speakers Series, January 2007
Planinc, Zdravko, “Equivalences of Experience and
Symbolization in Homer and Plato,” Eric Voegelin
Society, American Political Science Association,
Chicago, August 2007
“Reading The Merchant of Venice with Adorno,”
Midwest Political Science Association, Chicago, May
2007 and conference on The Merchant of Venice and
Contemporary Theory and Philosophy, Pomona College,
Claremont, November 2006
Rothenberg, Celia, Discussant for the panel
“Towards a Definition of Islam,” Society for the
Anthropology of Religion, Phoenix, Arizona, April 2007
Guest speaker for the course “Women in Islamic Society”
and guest of the Middle East Studies Program, Wellesley
College, Wellesley, Massachusetts, April 2007
“Virtual Jinn: A Consideration of Jinn in Virtual and
Local Spaces,” Deus in Machina: Exploring Religion and
Technology in Comparative Perspective, SSHRC funded
workshop, Hamilton, January 2007
Rowe, Mark, “Praying at and Preying on Japanese
Buddhist Altars,” Society for the Anthropological Study
of Religion, Phoenix, April 2007
“Themes in the Memorialization of Pets in Japan,”
Respondent, Japan Anthropology Workshop, Oslo,
Norway, March 2007
Runesson, Anders, “Is Christianity Anti-Semitic?
‘The Jews’ in the New Testament and in the Church,”
Science in the City Public Lecture Series, Hamilton,
January 16, 2007
Schuller, Eileen, “The DJD Edition of the Hodayot:
Challenges and Contributions,” International
Organization for Qumran Studies, Ljubljana, Slovenia,
July 2007

Department of Religious Studies December 2007
“The Significance of the Dead Sea Scrolls for Christians,”
in conjunction with Dr. Adolfo Roitman, Curator of the
Shine of the Book, Jerusalem, Canadian Catholic Biblical
Society, January 2007
Respondent to the paper of S. Metso, on “Law Shaping
Life: The Reception of Leviticus in the Essene
Community,”Ancient Judaisms and Christianities
Seminar, University of Toronto, November 2006
Widdicombe, Peter, “The Drunkenness of Noah and
the Patristic Legacy in Text and Art,” XV International
Conference on Patristic Studies, Oxford, August 2007
Austin, Chris, Panel chair and presenter: “Yatsattra and
the Pandavas’ Ritual Suicide: Echoes of Vedic Sacrifice in
Mahabharata 17 and 18,” American Academy of Religion,
Eastern International Regional Conference, Waterloo, May
5, 2007
Brown, Alexandra, “Constructions of Islam in the
Controversy of Religious Arbitration,” Society for the
Anthropology of Religion, Phoenix, Arizona, April 2007
Colorado, Carlos, “George Grant and Augustine of
Hippo on Human Will and Technological Mastery,”
Studies in Religion, (forthcoming)
Haflidson, Ron, “The Challenge of the Last Three
Books: The Coherence of Augustine’s Confessions,”
International Patristics Conference, Oxford, August, 2007
Hillis, Greg, Review of Pope Benedict XVI Jesus of
Nazareth, in Conrad Grebel Review, (forthcoming)
Review of D.H. Williams, ed., Tradition, Scripture, and
Interpretation: A Sourcebook of the Ancient Church, in
Studies in Religion/Sciences Religieuse, (forthcoming)
“The Role of the Holy Spirit in the Virginal Conception of
Christ according to Cyril of Alexandria,” XV International
Conference on Patristic Studies, Oxford, August 2007
“Pneumatology and Soteriology in Cyril of Alexandria’s
Interpretation of Christ’s Baptism,” The Patristics Seminar
of the Toronto School of Theology, Toronto, January 2007
Younger, Paul, “Religion, Violence and Gandhi,”
Gandhi Jayanti, Carleton University, September 28, 2007
“Review of Bollected Essays from Tamil Studies
Conference 2006,” Tamil Studies Conference, Toronto,
May 2007
“Tamil Hindu Communities in Indentured Societies,”
Tamil Studies Conference, Toronto, May 2007
Graduate Student
Talks and Publications 2006–2007
Hogan, Pauline, “Clement and Galations 3:28: Early
Christian Discussion of Male-Female Equality,” Canadian
Society of Patristic Studies, Saskatoon, May 26–28, 2007
Killam, Peter, “Reading Phaedo Together: On Bodin’s
use of Plato in Colloquium heptaplomeres de rerum
sublimium arcanis abditis,” Renaissance Society of
America, Miami, March 24, 2007
Klassen, Justin, “Augustinian Existentialism and
Yoder’s Messianic Politics: ‘Revolutionary’ Implications
of Augustine’s Understanding of Right Worship,” in The
Conrad Grebel Review, fall 2007 (forthcoming)
“Pauline ‘Universalism’ in Badiou and Breton,” presented
to “Paul among the Philosophers,” a working group funded
by a grant from the Council of Christian Colleges and
Universities, Hamilton, June 2007
“Ethics and ‘The Infinity of Time’: A Levinasian
Rejoinder to David Bentley Hart’s Critique of Continental
‘Gnosticism,’” Canadian Society for the Study of Religion,
Saskatoon, May 28–30, 2007
“Truth as a ‘Living Bond’: Reading Dialectical Theology
in light of Recent Theological Aesthetics,” Canadian
Theological Society, Saskatoon, May 27–29, 2007
“Love Born of the Cross: Rhetoric and Dialectic in
Theological Aesthetics,” American Academy of Religion,
Eastern International Region, Waterloo, May 4–5, 2007

Department of Religious Studies December 2007
Lorenc, John, “Augustine’s Interpretation of Matthew
5:17 and Its Historical Context,” Axis Mundi 2006/2007,
1–23
“How the Mind is Healed: The Mental Symptoms of Sin
and their Treatment by the Mediator in Augustine’s De
Trinitate,” 12 th Annual Graduate Student Interdisciplinary
Conference, Concordia University, February 8, 2007
Lorne, David, “Nietzsche's Paranoia,” Spring: A
Journal of Archetype and Culture 77 (2007) 205–219
Loewen, Rachel, “A Space for Dialogue in a History
of Religious Persecution: Martyrdom in the Coptic
Orthodox and Mennonite Churches,” Society for the
Anthropology of Religion, Phoenix, Arizona, April 2007
Omori, Hisako, “Rejoice Always, but in Private?:
Individual Salvation and Private Faith in a Catholic
Church in Tokyo,” The 8th Fellow’s Seminar at the Japan
Foundation, Tokyo, July 26, 2007
Penner, Jeremy, “It’s What’s on the Outside that
Counts: Physiognomic Descriptions of Noah in the Dead
Sea Scrolls,” Canadian Society of Biblical Studies,
Saskatoon, May 27–29, 2007
Resch, Dustin, Review of L. Gregory Jones, Reinhard
Hutter, and C. Rosalee Velloso Ellwell, eds., God, Truth,
and Witness: Engaging Stanley Hauerwas, in International
Journal of Systematic Theology 8 (2006) 449–451
Review of Joseph Peter Wawrykow, The Westminster
Handbook to St. Thomas Aquinas, in Pro Ecclesia XVI
(2007) 232–233
“The Transfigured Garment of Christ: An Evangelical
Engagement with Hans Urs Von Balthasar’s Theological
Aesthetics of Scripture,” Canadian Theological
Association Annual Meeting, Saskatoon, May 2007
Selby, Jennifer, “Towards a Definition of Islam,”
Society for the Anthropology of Religion, Phoenix, April
2007
“Re-examining the Secular: Conceptions of Islam in
Contemporary French Public Policy,” Research
Symposium in Religion and Theology, Queen’s
University, March 22–23, 2007
“Feminism, Imigration and the Politicization of Islam:
Reactions from French Media and Secular Organizations
on Family Law Arbitration in Ontario,” National
Metropolis Meetings, Toronto, March 2–4, 2007
Smith, Sherry, Review of Robert A. Orsi Between
Heaven and Earth: The Religious Worlds People Make
and the Scholars Who Study Them, in Consensus: A
Canadian Lutheran Journal of Theology, (forthcoming)
Review of Kristy Nabhan-Warren The Virgin of El Barrio:
Marian Apparitions, Catholic Evangelizing, and Mexican
American Activism, in Studies in Religion, (forthcoming)
“Universalizing the Madonna: Apparitions, Media and
Globalization,” American Academy of Religion, Eastern
International Region, Waterloo, May 2007
Shuve, Karl, “Entering the Story: Origen’s ‘Dramatic’
Approach to Scripture in the Homilies on Jeremiah,” XV
International Conference on Patristic Studies, Oxford,
August 2007
Stan, Leo, “Is Kierkegaard an Onto-Theologian?”
Presentation offered in the Summer Course on Religious
Metaphors and Philosophical Concepts: New Perspectives
on Phenomenology and Theology, Sambata de Sus,
August 29 – September 5, 2007.
“On Kierkegaard’s View of Christological Temporality,”
The International Colloquium New Perspectives on
Phenomenology and Theology, Sibiu, Romania, August
25–26, 2007.
“Is Smith Returning with Kierkegaard to the Incarnational
Particularism in Order to Open a Non-Exclusivist
Universalism?” The James K.A. Smith Conference, Brock
University, March 23–24, 2006.
Weisberg, Zipporah, “Unmasking the Face of the
Animal Other in Levinas’ Ethics,” American Academy of
Religion Eastern International Region, Waterloo, May
2007
Wendel, Susan, “‘Let anyone with ears to hear listen!’:
An Exploration of the Role Given to Correct Perception in
Luke-Acts and the writings of Justin Martyr” Canadian
Society of Biblical Studies, University of Saskatoon, May
2007
Wong, Andy, “Is the Heaven in 1 Enoch 12–16 a
Temple?” Canadian Society of Biblical Studies,
Saskatoon, SK, May 2007

Department of Religious Studies December 2007
PhD
Fleming, Benjamin (January 2007)
“The Cult of the Jyotirliṅgas and the History of Śaivite
Worship”
Mellon Post-doctoral Teaching Fellow, Department of
Religious Studies, University of Pennsylvania
Hogan, Pauline (January 2007)
“’No Longer Male and Female’: Interpreting Galatians 3:28
in Early Christianity”
Sessional Lecturer, Department of Religious Studies,
McMaster University
Stan, Leo (June 2007)
“The Concept of Alterity in Søren Kierkegaard’s Authorship”
Publishing activities, Bucharest, Romania.
Turci, Ruebens (April 2007)
“Śraddhā in the Bhagavad Gītā”
Visiting Researcher with Professor Evandro Ouriques at
"Núcleo de Estudos Transdisciplinares de Comunicação e
Consciência – NETCCON.ECO.UFRJ (Universidade
Federal do Rio de Janeiro)
MA
Brown, Alexandra (July 2007)
“Constructions of Islam in the Controversy of Religious
Arbitration: A Consideration of the ‘Sharia’ Debate in
Ontario, Canada”
Haflidson, Ronald (July 2007)
“Completing the Journey: Scriptural Interpretation in
Augustine’s Confessions”
Harack, Michael (September 2007)
“The Role of the Sage in Cheng Xuanying’s Commentary
on the Zhuangzi”
Howlett, Carson (September 2007)
“The Potential of Metaphor and Thinking Time in the
Writings of Northrop Frye and Gustave Guillaume”
Congratulations Grads!
Meyer, Nicholas (August 2007)
“Autobiographical Aspects of Paul’s Letters and Thought:
A Review of Recent Research“
Petite, Albert C. Jr. (July 2007)
“Greek Intellectual Culture and the Development of
Christian Thought in Clement of Alexandria’s Stromaters”
Poettcker, Grant (August 2007)
“Walter Benjamin’s Messianic Politics: Between Marxism
and Messianism”
Shuve, Karl (July 2007)
“The Pseudo-Clementine Homilies and the Antiochene
Polemic Against Allegory”
Honours BA – Thesis Option
(We have changed our degree requirements, so students
have the option to take 4 th year seminars or write a
thesis. The students listed below completed theses in
2006-07)
Aquin, Tim “The Good News Must First be Proclaimed to
All Nations: The Fifth Prediction of Jesus and the Purpose
of the Gospel of Mark”
Cuneo, Sarah “Jewish-Muslim Dialogue in Hamilton”
Déry, Dominique “Minding the Gap: The Relations
between Thinking and Experience in Hannah Arendt’s
Account of Human Being”
Mauer, Christine “Female Devotee Proscription in
Jyotirlinga Temples in India”
Stewart-Kroeker, Sarah “The Christological Conflict
between Augustine and Barth: The Place of Humanity in
the Doctrine of the Trinity”
Stimers, David “Jesus and the Law in the Gospel of
Matthew”
Westerholm, Paul “Soteriology Dictates Ecclesiology”

Department of Religious Studies December 2007
Congratulations to our Award Winners!
PhD Students
Chris Austin Krishna Sivaraman Memorial
Scholarship
Jennifer Brown Ronald V. Joyce Ontario
Graduate Scholarship in
Social Sciences
Randy Celie Ogilvie Prestige Scholarship
Nicholas Meyer SSHRC
Justin Neufeld OGS
Sarah Pelton CGS Doctoral Scholarship
Grant Poettcker CGS Doctoral Scholarship
Dustin Resch OGS
Sherry Smith Mary Margaret Scammell
Travel Scholarship
Adrian Tseng Julian Pas Scholarship
Zipporah Weisberg Harry Lyman Hooker Senior
Fellowship
Susan Wendel SSHRC, Abby Goldblatt
Scholarship
Joseph Wiebe OGS
Andy Wong OGS
MA Students
Rachel Brown OGS
David DeJong Harry Lyman Hooker Senior
Fellowship
Koiter, Ian OGS
John Lorenc OGS
Leighanne Parkes CGS Master’s Scholarship
Brigitte Robert CGS Master’s Scholarship
Tyler Smith Pro Kids Scholarship
Laura Tomes Rhodes Scholarship
From the Departmental Scholarship monies we were
able to give financial assistance in 2006-07 to 18
students who gave papers at various conferences
nationally and internationally, as well as 2 students
who undertook language training in the summer.
Departmental Team Spirit
During the spring and summer of 2007, about 15 graduate students, professors and other hangers-on
formed “The Exegetes,” a B-Division Co-Ed Slowpitch Softball team with C-Division talent. The team
regulars included Ron Haflidson, Rodney Leggett, Jennifer Nettleton (and her children, as team
mascots), Jeremy Penner, and his wife Lori, Grant Poettcker, and his wife Rosalyn, Karl Shuve, and his
wife Melissa, Tyler Smith, and his wife Krista, Sarah Stewart-Kroeker, Mark Rowe, Martin Westerholm,
and his girlfriend become fiancée Jenna Benoit, and Stephen Westerholm. The high point of the season
may have been the second game, when no fewer than 20 Exegetes populated the batting order, and the team flew around
the basepaths for a 20-10 win over the Wet Sox. A long losing streak ensued, however, causing many Exegetes to depart for
fairer pastures (Mark Rowe-Japan, the Poettckers-Germany, Rodney Leggett-Quebec, etc.). Despite the team’s 3-16 finish,
good times were had by all. Special thanks to team captain/star shortstop Martin Westerholm for his organizational talents.

Department of Religious Studies December 2007
Students Abroad 2006-2007
Hisako Omori
I have spent the past academic year in Tokyo conducting
ethnographic fieldwork for my doctoral research. Using a
Roman Catholic community as a window, my doctoral thesis
examines the ways in which contemporary Japanese construct
their social, cultural, and religious identities in today’s Japan.
Thanks to a Japan Foundation Fellowship, I was able to live in
central Tokyo from which I commuted to two parishes,
attended academic study groups, and visited many other
fieldwork sites including a drinking establishment sponsored
by an Archbishop and other Catholic priests (!). In addition,
using the Mary Margaret Scammell travel scholarship from
McMaster, I accompanied a pilgrimage to the southern islands
of Japan where earlier Catholics hid themselves for more than
250 years. Returning to my native land, Japan, as an
ethnographer and researcher after ten years of absence from
there was a complicated and rich experience. Now back in
Canada, I certainly miss spending time with my family, eating
delicious food, and soaking myself in a hot spring in Japan. But
I am also relieved to be back in Hamilton where I can begin to
put everything into perspective, discuss things with my
colleagues and professors, and have time to think and write.
Alisha Pomazon
For the 2006-2007 school year I was fortunate to receive a
DAAD fellowship to attend the Universität Potsdam in
Germany. During my year in Germany, I had the opportunity to
work with one of the lead scholars in my field, Dr. Christoph
Schulte, to improve my German language skills, and to be a
part of a Jewish Studies colloquium with fellow students of
Jewish Studies. I spent my year researching various chapters of
my dissertation and I left Germany with a better understanding
of several aspects of German culture and academic life that has
undoubtedly influenced the way I see and write about my topic.
On the lighter side, both Potsdam and Berlin are two of the
most amazing places I had the chance to see while I was in
Advance Book Announcement:
Germany, and I miss not being able to see the Sanssouci Palace
whenever I want!
Laura Senko
A few months ago, I was walking on streets that were paved
2000 years ago; I was exploring ancient tombs and learning
about the destruction of the Jewish Temple while touching
its ruins with my own hands. As a McMaster University
student majoring in Religious Studies, I had the opportunity
to study abroad at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem
(Spring Semester, 2007), thanks to the Freeman Bursary. My
studies in Jerusalem were not confined to the classroom
however. I was able to learn Modern Hebrew in class and
practice it wherever I went; I learned about the political
conflict in Israel and was able to discuss it with many people
personally affected by it; I took a class entitled, “Archaeology
of Jerusalem” which involved several fascinating field trips
where I was able to investigate the ruins and significant
structures of the three largest religions of the world.
Studying in Israel greatly enriched my undergraduate
Religious Studies experience.
Students Abroad 2007-08
Tema Smith is a visiting graduate student at the Rothberg
International School at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem,
Israel. She is taking courses in the areas of Midrash, medieval
Jewish philosophy, and Jewish messianism. Her study abroad
is funded by a Freeman Family Foundation Bursary through
the Canadian Friends of the Hebrew University.
Martin Westerholm is in Germany, studying at the
University of Heidelberg. He is working on learning German
and conducting research towards a thesis involving modern
German theology.
“They Shall Purify Themselves:” Essays on Purity in Early Judaism
By Susan Haber, edited by Adele Reinhartz
Publisher: Early Judaism and its Literature Series, SBL, Projected Publication: 2008.
Susan Haber was a doctoral student in the Department of Religious Studies who passed away in July 2006 after a brief illness.
Although she had not yet begun her dissertation, she had several publications and was in the process of revising several more articles
and chapters for publication. While her interests were wide-ranging, much of her work was on purity in early Judaism, and she had
planned to write her dissertation on purity in the Dead Sea Scrolls. This volume will contain her published work on this topic as well
as a number of unpublished articles. The book will be a fitting memorial to someone who took scholarship very seriously and had every
reason to expect a highly successful academic career. The book will ensure that the excellent work that Susan had already done will be
accessible to others in the field.
The volume presents essays that provide a new perspective on the role of purity in first-century Judaism by exploring the connection,
if any, between purity and the synagogue; Jesus’ observance of purity laws; and women’s relationships with purity in the first
century.

Department of Religious Studies December 2007
The Herb & CeCe Schreiber Visiting Scholar in Jewish Studies
Dr. Aaron Hughes, Associate Professor in the Department of Religious Studies at the University of Calgary, has
graciously accepted an invitation to be the Herb and CeCe Schreiber Visiting Scholar in Jewish Studies for this academic
year. His visit, which will correspond with the January-April academic term, promises exciting opportunities for both
the McMaster community and the Hamilton public.
Could you tell us a little about yourself, your life in
Calgary, your past and present interests?
Let’s see, I am originally from Edmonton, but I received
my PhD in Religious Studies from Indiana University
where I also did a PhD minor in Near Eastern Languages
and Cultures (NELC). I have taught at the University of
Calgary since 2001. Academically, I wear a number of
hats. In my work on Jewish philosophy, I primarily
approach my data as an intellectual historian; yet, as
someone trained in Religious Studies, I also think it is
important to keep up-to-date on what is happening — in
terms of theory and method — in the field. I thus teach
courses in Jewish Studies, theory and method in Religious
Studies, and the occasional course in Islam. Oh yes, I will
also be coming with my Lebensgefährtin, who is
expecting our first child in the spring.
I understand that you have a reputation as a favourite
teacher with the students at the University of Calgary,
and that you have been recognized by the Student
Union with their Teaching Award. Who was/is your
favourite teacher, and why?
A very tough question! I was blessed with numerous
lovely and award-winning teachers in graduate school.
There are many different kinds of teaching styles —
dependent upon size of class, level of class, etc. I think
that my own teaching style combines those of many of
my favorite teachers. I believe that it is up to professors
to get students to think creatively — a virtue that
demands of students the prerequisites of having read
the material and of having thought about it
analytically.
Students, faculty, and the public have been invited to
hear you lecture, graduate students may sign up for a
Interview with Dr. Aaron Hughes
Conducted by Tyler Smith, MA student
seminar co-taught by you and Dr. Hollander, and nearly
40 undergraduates have already signed up to take your
“Introduction to Jewish Mysticism.” Would you give us
a preview of what you’d like to share in these different
venues?
Although all of these represent
different venues, I think that my
goal in all of them is the same: To
show the vibrancy, intellectual
vitality, and creativity of Jewish
cultures. For undergraduates, I hope
to connect Jewish mysticism to the
categories that I trust they are
already familiar with in Religious
Studies; for graduate students, to
show the beauty and richness of Jewish texts and how
they have played an important role in the shaping of
Western civilization; for the public, to show that an
active knowledge of the Jewish tradition is a rewarding
experience in and of itself. Moreover, medieval Jewish
philosophers are not just “ancient history;” they
framed many issues that are still important.
By the looks of things, we at McMaster will be amply
rewarded by your visit. What do you hope to gain from
your time here?
I hope to meet new and exciting colleagues, who are
interesting to talk to and from whom I can learn. I also
hope to be able to work closely with some of the
graduate students in the Religious Studies Department.
Because Calgary is not a center of Jewish life, it is often
difficult to attract graduate students to the U of C who
are interested in pursuing doctoral work in Jewish
Studies and Jewish philosophy.

Department of Religious Studies December 2007
Department of Religious Studies
McMaster University
1280 Main Street West
Hamilton, Ontario
L8S 4K1
University Hall