Arts & Humanities

"So That the Male Will Not Be Male”: Compromising Masculinity in Early Christianity

Prof. Stephen Patterson, Atkinson Professor of Religious and Ethical Studies of Willamette University, Oregon

Christianity was born into the hypermasculine culture of the Roman Empire and emerged as a strongly masculine matrix of meaning making. There are moments, however, when early Christianity shows a different side.

This event is free and open to the public. A reception with light refreshments will follow.

Stephen J. Patterson is an historian of religion who teaches broadly in Religious Studies and writes on the origins of Christianity. Among his interests are the many texts of earliest Christianity that are not in the Bible. He has written widely on the Gospel of Thomas, the lost gospel, Q, as well as "the quest for the historical Jesus." He has taught in India, Africa, and China, and before coming to Willamette in 2010, was Professor of New Testament at Eden Seminary in St. Louis. In the 1990s he was a prominent member of the Jesus Seminar.