Jennifer W. Knust

Biography

Jennifer Knust joined the faculty of BU in the fall of 2005. Professor Knust is a specialist in the literature and history of ancient Christianity with a particular interest in the transmission and reception of sacred texts and in the importance of gendered discourses to the production of an early Christian identity. In the College of Arts and Sciences, she teaches courses on the history Christianity, women and religion, and in the Core Curriculum. After earning her PhD from Columbia University in 2001 and before joining the BU faculty, she taught at the College of the Holy Cross and held fellowships from the Radcliffe Institute, the American Council of Learned Societies and the National Endowment for the Humanities (2003-2004). Her book Abandoned to Lust: Sexual Slander and Ancient Christianity (Columbia University Press, 2005) examines the use of sexualized invective by Christian authors from Paul to Irenaeus of Lyons, placing these charges within broad discursive and political contexts. Author of several essays and journal articles, she has written on the transmission of the Gospels, ancient views of sexuality, theories of sacrifice, and religious violence. Her current projects include an inter-disciplinary volume on sacrifice in the ancient Mediterranean (edited with Zsuzsanna Varhélyi, Department of Classical Studies), a detailed study of the transmission of the story of the woman taken in adultery (John 7:53-8:11), and a consideration of the contradictory presentation of sexual ethics within the biblical books.

Research Interest

Gospels, ancient views of sexuality, theories of sacrifice, and religious violence