Theology \ Faculty \

Benjamin Dunning

Assistant Professor
Duane Library 111         (718) 817-3968
Lincoln Center 921A      (212) 636-6383
dunning@fordham.edu




B.A., University of Pennsylvania
Ph.D., Harvard University


Research interests:
New Testament, Christianity in late antiquity, early Christian scriptural hermeneutics, critical theory and the study of religion (especially historiography, gender studies, and psychoanalytic theory)

My research focuses on the study of Christian origins from the first through early fourth centuries.  I am especially interested in bringing contemporary theoretical approaches to bear upon the analysis of New Testament and other ancient Christian texts in a historically responsible way—one that takes philological and socio-historical concerns seriously, but seeks to situate those concerns in light of current theoretical reflection on historiography, subjectivity, and the ethical dimensions of theological hermeneutics. 

My first book, Aliens and Sojourners: Self as Other in Early Christianity, investigates why and to what ends early Christians spoke about themselves as resident aliens, strangers, and sojourners, asserting their “otherness” as a fundamental part of being Christian.  In conversation with an eclectic range of theorists, the book explores the markedly different ways that Christians put the rhetoric of their own marginality to use, in order to situate Christian identity variously in relation to the ancient Roman world.

My current book project analyzes the theological significance of sexual difference and gendered embodiment in second- and third-century Christian thought.  Here I examine differing early Christian conceptions of sexual difference with particular attention to the ways in which the legacy of the Apostle Paul fueled, shaped, and also constrained approaches to the issue.  Articles related to this project have appeared in the Journal of Religion (January 2009) and the Journal of Early Christian Studies (Spring 2009).  In connection with this work, I also serve as co-chair of the Sex, Gender, and Sexuality in Pre-Modern Christianity Consultation in the American Academy of Religion. 

Aliens and Sojourners: Self as Other in Early Christianity. Divinations: Rereading Late Ancient Religion. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2009.

“What Sort of Thing Is This Luminous Woman?: Thinking Sexual Difference in On the Origin of the World.” The Journal of Early Christian Studies 17:1 (2009) 55-84.

“Virgin Earth, Virgin Birth: Creation, Sexual Difference, and Recapitulation in Irenaeus of Lyons.” The Journal of Religion 89:1 (2009) 57-88.

“Strangers and Aliens No Longer: Negotiating Identity and Difference in Ephesians 2.” Harvard Theological Review 99:1 (2006) 1-16.

“The Intersection of Alien Status and Cultic Discourse in the Epistle to the Hebrews.” Pages 177-198 in Hebrews: Contemporary Methods, New Insights, ed. Gabriella Gelardini. Leiden: Brill Academic Publishers, 2005.

“Body-Christianity” in Encyclopedia of the Bible and Its Reception. Forthcoming with Walter de Gruyter.

Faculty Fellowship: Fall 2009 - Spring 2010.