PhD Graduates

PhD Graduates

Alexander Damm (March 2010) Synoptic Gospels
Ancient Rhetoric and the Synoptic Problem
Supervisor: John Kloppenborg

Karen Cheatham (February 2010) Medieval Christian History
They Hasten toward Perfection: Virginal & Chaste Monks in the High Middle Ages
Supervisor: Isabelle Cochelin

Maithili Thayanithy (March 2010) South Asian Studies
The Concept of Living Liberation in the Tirumantiram
Supervisor: Chelva Kanaganayakam

Arlene Macdonald (June 2009) Lived Religion and the Body in North America
Resurrected Bodies: Individual Experiences and Collective Expressions of Organ Transplant in North America
Supervisor: Pamela Klassen

Lincoln Blumell (June 2009) Early Christianity
Lettered Christians: Christians, Letters, & Late Antique Oxyrhynchus
Supervisor: John Kloppenborg

Atif Khalil (May 2009) Islam
Sufi Approaches to Tawba (‘Repentance’): From the Qur’ān to Abū Tālib al­Makkī
Supervisor: Todd Lawson

Santiago Slabodsky (April 2009) Jewish Studies
Emmanuel Levinas’ Barbarisms: Adventures of Talmudic Readings Traveling South
Supervisor: Robert Gibbs

Janna Rosales (April 2009) Religion, Ethics, and Critiques of Technology
When the ‘Twilight of Justice’ Meets the Dawn of Nanotechnology: A Critique of Transhumanism and the Technological Imperative in the Light of George Grant’s Moral Philosophy
Supervisor: Larry Schmidt

Jonathan Crane (April 2009) Jewish Studies
Rhetoric of Modern Jewish Ethics
Supervisor: Robert Gibbs, David Novak

Geraldine Fogarty (February 2009) Psychology of Religion
Madness and Transformation in Early Irish Literature: A Psychoanalytic Perspective
Supervisor: Ann Dooley & James DiCenso

Kerry Fast (November 2008) North American Religion
“but what a strange commixture am I”: Borders of Self and Religion in the Making of Women’s Lives
Supervisor: Pamela Klassen

Ken Derry (November 2008) Religion and Literature
Uncomfortable Mirrors: Religion and Mimetic Violence in Contemporary Canadian Native Literature
Supervisor: Chelva Kanaganayakam

Matthew LaGrone (July 2008) Modern Judaism and Christianity
Between Fire and Ice: Studies in Jewish and Christian Centrism
Supervisor: David Novak

Siphiwe Dube (June 2008) Religion and Literature
TRC of South Africa: A Dialectical Critique of its Core Concepts
Supervisor: Marsha Hewitt

Aisha Geissinger (May 2008) Islamic Studies
Gendering the Classical Tradition of Quran Exegesis
Supervisor: Sebastain Guenther

Andre Maintenay (May 2008) Religion, Ethics and Environment
Green Ethics and Green “Faith”: An Exploration of Environmental Ethics and Spirituality in a Technological Age
Supervisor: Larry Schmidt and Stephen Scharper

Laurel Zwissler (May 2008) North American Religion
Demonstrations of Faith: Religious and Political Identity among Feminist Political Activists in North America
Supervisor: Pamela Klassen

Michael Ostling (January 2008), Early Modern Religion
Imagining Witchcraft in Early Modern Poland
(Winner of the Governor General’s Gold Medal)
Supervisor: Jonathan Pearl

Sarah King (November 2007) Religion and the Environment
Contested Place: Religion and Values in the Dispute, Burnt Church/Esgenoôpetitj, New Brunswick
Supervisor: Ingrid Stefanovic

Jeffrey Sims (June 2007) Philosophy of Religion
Hermeneutics and the Reconstitution of Universal Memory
Supervisor: Graeme Nicholson

Elaine Myers (April 2007) Religion and Archaeology
The Ituraeans: Challenging Misconceptions and Evaluating the Primary Sources
Supervisor: Peter Richardson

David Lawrence Penner (March 2007) Religion, Ethics and Modern Thought
Christian Existence and Failure
Supervisor: Graeme Nicholson

Ruth Mas (September 2006) Islamic Religious Thought (Modern)
Margins of Tawhid: Liberalism and the Discourse of Plurality in Contemporary Islam
Supervisor: Charles Hirschkind/Jim DiCenso

Henry Shiu (December 2005) Buddhism
The Nonduality of Nonconceptual Wisdom and Conceptual Cognition: A study of the Tathagatagarbha Teaching in the Anunatvapurnatvanirdesa-parivarta.
Supervisor: Leonard Priestley

William Wahl (December 2005) Philosophy of Religion
Suffering Truth: Interpretation, Religion and Science in Nietzsche and Freud
Supervisor: James DiCenso

David Buyze (May 2005) Religion and Culture, Postcolonial Comparative Literatures
The Aftertastes of Colonialism: Latin Americanism and Cultural Meaning
Supervisor: Rosa Sarabia

Aubrey Glazer (April 2005) Jewish Thought/Hebrew Hermeneutics
Afterwords on (Re)birthing Redemption in Hebrew Hermeneutics
Supervisor: Harry Fox

Tanja Juric (November 2004) Philosophy of Religion
The Ethics of Ethical Subjectivity: Ethics and Aesthetics in the work of Immanuel Kant, Friedrich Nietzsche and Theodor Adorno
Supervisors: Graeme Nicholson and Amy Mullin-Cuthbert

Kenneth MacKendrick (October 2004) Philosophy of Religion
Discourse, Desire and Fantasy: A Psychoanalytic and Philosophical Study of the Foundation of Jurgen Habermas’s Critical Social Theory
Supervisor: Marsha Hewitt

Yan Zhonghu (July 2004) Philosophy of Religion
Self-Cultivation, Society and Metaphysics: an Existential Reading of the Analects
Supervisor: Vincent Shen

David Perley (June 2004) Philosophy of Religion
Articulation and Mysticism in the Thought of William James (1842 – 1910)
Supervisor: Professor Graeme Nicholson

Mark Chapman (May 2004) Modern Canadian Religion & Society
No Longer Crying in the Wilderness: Canadian Evangelical Organizations and their Networks.
Supervisor: John Simpson

Christopher Helland (April 2004) Sociology of Religion
Religion on the Internet: A Sociological Inquiry into Participation and Community Online
Supervisor: John Simpson

Russell Martin (April 2004) Early Christianity
Towards an Understanding of Local Autonomy in Judaea between 6 and 66 CE
Supervisor: Peter Richardson

Albert Wuaku (January 2004) South Asian Religions & Africa
Tapping into Hindu Powers: The Local Factor in Shiva and Krishna Worship in Ghana
Supervisor: Martin Klein

Mark Leuchter (May 2003) Religion in Ancient Israel
Jeremiah, the First Jew
Supervisor: Brian Peckham

Elizabeth Davies-Stofka (April 2003) Religion and Ethics
Toward a jus in bello of Guerilla Warfare: A Case Study in Comparative Ethics
Supervisor: Professor Roger Hutchinson

Peter Gilbert (March 2003) Modern Christian-Jewish Relations
The Analysis of Antisemitism in the Theological, Historical and Sociological Criticism of James Parkes
Supervisor: Alan Davies

Adam Lehto (December 2002) Early Eastern Christianity
Divine Law, Asceticism and Gender in Aphrahat’s Demonstrations, with a Complete Annotated Translation of the Text and Comprehensive Syriac Glossary
Supervisor: Harry Fox

Gillian McCann (December 2002) South Asian Religions
A New Dharma for the Nation: The Toronto Theosophical Society and Albert Smythe 1891-1945
Supervisor: Naranda Wagle

John David Scully (September 2002) Sociology of Religion
Consent and Dissent on Evangelical Talk Radio
Supervisors: John Simpson

Eleanor Pontoriero (February 2002) Psychology and Philosophy of Religion
On “Loving the Neighbour”: The Implications of Emmanuel Levinas’ Intensification of Ethics after the Shoah
Supervisors: James DiCenso and Robert Gibbs

Anthony Chartrande-Burke (September 2001) Early Christianity
The Infancy Gospel of Thomas: The Text, Its Origins, and Its Transmission
Supervisors: Robert Sinkewicz and Leif Vaage

Paulino Belamide (August 2001) Chinese Religions
Self-Cultivation in Quanzhen Taoism with Special Reference to the Legacy of Qiu Chuji
Supervisor: Julia Ching

Amir Hussain, (June 2001) Modern Islamic Religion
The Canadian Face of Islam: Muslim Communities in Toronto
Supervisor: Willard Oxtoby

Dana Sawchuk (April 2001) Sociology of Religion, Christianity in Latin America
The Costa Rican Catholic Church, Social Justice, and the Rights of Workers, 1979-1996
Supervisor: Marsha Hewitt

Catherine Ludvik (January 2001) South and East Asian Religions
From Sarasvati to Benzaiten
Winner of the Governor General’s Gold Medal 2001
The University of Toronto’s Nominee for the North American Council of Graduate Schools Distinguished Dissertation Award 2001
Supervisor: David Waterhouse

Catherine Caufield (March 2000) Religion, Hermeneutics, and Literature
Hermeneutics of Written Text: Religious Discourse in Mexican Literature
Supervisor: Mario Valdes

Keith Haartman (December 1999) Psychoanalysis and Religion
Watching and Praying: A Psychoanalytic View of Personality Change, 18th Century British Methodists
Supervisor: Morris Eagle

Tim Hegedus (December 1999) Early Christianity
Graeco-Roman Religions Attitudes to Astrology in Early Christianity: A Study Based on Selected Sources
Supervisor: Roger Beck

Michele Murray (December 1999) Early Christianity and Judaism
“Playing a Jewish Game:” Gentile Christian Judaizing in the First and Second Centuries CE
Supervisor: Peter Richardson

Tak-Ling Terry Woo (December 1999) Women in Chinese Religions
The Religious Values, Beliefs and Practices affecting the Lives of Women during the Reign of T’ang Ming-Huang
Supervisor: Richard Guisso

Phil Harland (July 1999) Early Christianity
Claiming a Place in Polis and Empire: The Significance of Imperial Cults and Connections among Associations, Synagogues, and Christian Groups in Roman Asia
Supervisor: John S. Kloppenborg

James Diamond (June 1999) Medieval Jewish Philosophy
Prooftext and Pretext: The Strategem of Biblical and Midrashic Citations in Maimonides’ Guide of the Perplexed
Supervisor: David Novak

Husein Khimjee (April 1999) Islamic Religion
The Legacy of the Early Twentieth-Century Khilafat Movement in India
Supervisor: Willard Oxtoby

Bruce Power (April 1999) Ancient West Asian Religions
Ancient Israel Iconographic Windows to Ezekiel’s World
Supervisor: Brian Peckham

Scott Brown (February 1999) Early Christianity
The More Spiritual Gospel: Markan Literary Techniques in the Longer Gospel of Mark
Supervisor: Leif E. Vaage

Helen-May Eaton (August 1998) Religion and Women
Latin American Christianity Speaking of Liberation: The Emancipatory Limits of Gustavo Gutierrez’s Liberation Theology for Latin American Women
Supervisor: Marsha Hewitt

Darlene Juschka (June 1998) Phenomenology of Religion, Religion and Feminism
Feminist Encounters with Symbol, Myth, and Ritual: Mary Daly, Elisabeth Schüssler Fiorenza, and Rosemary Radford Reuther.
Supervisor: Roger Hutchinson

Becky Lee (June 1998) Late Medieval European Popular Religion
“Women ben purifyid of her childeryn”: The Purification of Women After Childbirth in Medieval England.
Nominated for the Governor General’s Gold Medal
Supervisor: Joseph Goering

Ronald Polster (June 1998) Philosophy of Religion
Evil and the Biblical Discourse of Lament.
Supervisor: Paul Gooch

Thomas Vettickal (January 1998) South Asian Religions
Sarvodaya of Mahatma Gandhi: Realistic Utopia.
Supervisor: Joseph O’Connell

William Arnal (October 1997) Early Christianity
The Rhetoric of Deracination in Q: A Reassessment.
Winner of the Governor General’s Gold Medal 1998
Supervisor: John Kloppenborg

Bernadette McNary (September 1997) Christianity in Late Antiquity
Ascetic Piety in Fourth Century Egypt: A Study of the Ascetical Letters of Bishops.
Supervisor: Timothy Barnes

Bruce MacKay (February 1997) Religion of Ancient Israel
Ethnicity and Israelite Religion: The Anthropology of Social Boundaries in Judges.
Supervisor: Ernest Clarke and Shuichi Nagata

William Smyth (January 1997) Religion and Literature
Rudy Wiebe as Novelist: Witness and Critic, Without Apology.
Supervisor: Charles Lock

Cheryl Nafziger-Leis (December 1996) Religion and Aesthetics
Art … Even After Auschwitz: Adorno’s Critical Theory of Art, Religion and Ideology
Supervisor: Marsha Hewitt

Herbert Berg (October 1996) Islamic Religion
The Use of Ibn ‘Abbas in Al-Tabari’s Tafsir and the Development of Exegesis in Early Islam
Supervisor: Jane McAuliffe

Christopher Buck (June 1996) Comparative Religion
Paradise and Paradigm: Key Symbols in ‘Persian’ Christianity and the Baha’i Faith
Supervisor: Willard Oxtoby

Alan Kirk (June 1996) Early Christianity
The Structure of Q: Genre, Synchrony, and Sapiental Composition in the Synoptic Sayings Source
Supervisor: John Kloppenborg

Young-Sik Yoo (February 1996) Christianity in East Asia
The Impact of Canadian Missionaries in Korea: A Historical Survey of Early Canadian Mission Work, 1999-1898
Supervisor: Richard Guisso

Alexander Marusich (January 1996) Sociology of Religion
Religious Conversion: A Biogenetic Structuralist Model
Supervisor: Michael Hammond

Simon Young-Suk Moon (January 1996) Comparative Study of Religion
A Case Study in Comparative Monasticism: Songgwang-Sa Son/Zen Buddhist Monastery, Korea and the Abbey of the Genesee, Cistercian Monastery, USA
Supervisor: Peter Slater

Philip Smith-Eivemark (January 1996) Philosophy of Religion and Mysticism
Beyond Language: Mystics and the Language Trap
Supervisor: David Turner

Renia Tyminski (December 1995) Religion and Feminist Theory
Divinity, Transcendence and Female Subjectivity in the Works of Mary Daly
Supervisor: Marsha Hewitt

Jill J. Anderson (May 1995) Celtic Religion
A History of Women in the Early Irish Church: The Hagiographical Evidence
Supervisor: Harry Roe

Russell McCutcheon (January 1995) Method and Theory of Religion
Manufacturing Religion: The Discourse on Sui Generis Religion and the Politics of Nostalgia
Supervisor: Neil McMullin

A. Ellen Goldberg (December 1994) South Asian Religions
Ardhanarisvara: An Indian and Feminist Perspective
Supervisor: Narendra Wagle

Debra J. Jensen (December 1994) Religion and Social Ethics
Mysticism and Social Ethics: Feminist Reflections on Their Relationship in the Works of Evelyn Underhill, Simone Weil and Meister Eckhart
Supervisor: Donald D. Evans

Jinfen Yan (December 1994) Chinese Religions
Utilitarianism in Chinese Thought
Supervisor: Julia Ching

Barbara J. Whitmer (October 1994) Religion and Ethics
Beyond the Violence Mythos to the Interactive Organism: Remythologizing Violence, the Body, Trust, and Technology in Western Culture
Supervisor: Roger Hutchinson

Ann Baranowski (June 1994) Religion and Cognition
Ritual Alone: Cognition and Meaning of Patterns in Time
Supervisor: Donald Wiebe

Ronald Wallace (June 1994) Modern Western Christianity
Inter-Faith Dialogue as a Method for the Scientific Study of Religion
Supervisor: Willard Oxtoby

Daniel McBride (April 1994) Ancient Egyptian Religions
The Egyptian Foundations of Gnostic Thought
Supervisor: D. B. Redford

Stephanie K. Walker (May 1993) Religion and Literature
This Woman in Particular: Contexts for the Biographical Image of Emily Carr
Supervisor: Johan Aitken

Willi Braun (January 1993) Early Christianity
The Use of Mediterranean Banquet Traditions In Luke 14:1-24
Supervisor: John Kloppenborg

Wayne H. Harter (January 1993) Philosophy of Religion
Thomistic Ontology as Critical Enquiry into Religion
Supervisor: Neil McMullin

Reena L. Zeidman (June 1992) Early Judaism
A View of Celebrations in Early Judaism: Tosefta Avodah Zarah [Idolatry]
Supervisor: Harry Fox

Arthur McCalla (April 1992) Modern Western Christianity
Expiation and Progress: Religion and Society in the Thought of Pierre-Simon Ballanche Nominated for the Governor General’s Gold Medal 1992
Supervisor: C. Thomas McIntire

Pashaura Singh (September 1991) South Asian Religions
The Text and Meaning of the Adi Granth
Supervisor: W. H. McLeod

Barry W. Henaut (March 1991) Early Christianity
Oral Tradition Behind the Written Gospel Texts? Mark 4: 1-34 and the Problem of Orality
Supervisor: H. O. Guenther

Roman Garrison (December 1990) Early Christianity
Redemptive Almsgiving in Early Christianity
Supervisor: Peter Richardson

Edward Yong-Joong Chung (November 1990) East Asian Religions
Neo-Confucian Understanding of Human Nature and Emotions: A Study of the Four-Seven Thesis in Two Korean Thinkers: Yi T’oegye and Yi Yulgok
Supervisor: Julia Ching

Daniel H. Williams (November 1990) Early Christianity
Nicene Christianity and its Opponents in Northern Italy: An Examination of Late 4th Century Anti-Arian Polemics and Politics with Particular Emphasis on the Early Career of Ambrose of Milan
Supervisors: Timothy Barnes and Joanne McWilliam

Joseph P. L’Abbé (October 1990) Modern Western Christianity
Catholic Critics on Religious Art in France 1870-1920
Supervisor: Giorgio Scavizzi

Lee D. Rainey (October 1990) Chinese Religions
Life After Death: Some Early Confucian Views
Supervisor: Julia Ching

Kelley M. Spoerl (September 1990) Early Christianity
A Study of the Kata Meros Pistis by Apollinarius of Laodicea
Supervisor: Robert Sinkewicz

Michael Farris (May 1990) Early Christianity
The Formative Interpretations of the Seventy Weeks of Daniel
Supervisor: Stanley D. Walters

Michael F. Stoeber (June 1990) Philosophy of Religion
Evil and the Mystics’ God: Towards a Mystical Theodicy
Supervisor: Donald D. Evans

John B. Roney (September 1989) Modern Western Christianity
Jean Henri Merle D’Aubigné: Historian of Christianity in an Age of Revolution
Supervisor: C. Thomas McIntire

Douglas A. Campbell (November 1989) Early Christianity
The Rhetoric of Righteousness: An Analysis of Rom. 3:21-26 in Context
Supervisor: Richard N. Longenecker

John Valk (October 1989) Modern Western Christianity
Religion and the Schools: The Struggle for Protestant Christian Education in Utrecht in the Nineteenth Century
Supervisor: C. Thomas McIntire

James McLachlan (January 1989) Philosophy of Religion
Existentialist Interpretations of the Desire to be God: Radical Freedom in Sartre and Berdyaev
Supervisor: Donald D. Evans

Michael Cuneo (June 1988) Modern Western Christianity
Catholics Against the Church: Anti-Abortion Protest in Toronto, 1969-1985
Supervisor: Roger O’Toole

Peter D. Gooch (June 1988) Early Christianity
Food and the Limits of Community: 1 Corinthians 8:1 to 11:1
Supervisor: Peter Richardson

Randi R. Warne (April 1988) Religion and Culture
Literature as Pulpit: Narrative as a Vehicle for the Transmission and Transformation of Values in the Christian Social Activism of Nellie McClung
Supervisor: Roger Hutchinson

Antonio Perez-Romero (February 1988) Early Modern Western Christianity
Juan De Valdes and Sixteenth-Century Spanish Religious Thought as Expressed in the Religious Literature in Castilian.
Supervisor: J. I. Chicoy-Daban

Michel Desjardins (June 1987) Christianity in Late Antiquity
Sin in Valentinianism
Supervisor: Heinze Guenther

P. Lyndon Reynolds (November 1986) Medieval Western Christianity
God, Cosmos and Microcosm: Comparisons Between the Relation of God to the Cosmos and the Relation of the Soul to Man, From Greek Philosophy to the Thirteenth Century
Supervisor: Walter Principe

Alan Kam-Leung Chan, (December 1985) Chinese Religions
Two Visions of the Way: A Study of Wang Pi’s and Ho-Shang Kung’s Commentaries on the Lao-Tzu
Supervisor: Julia Ching

Ronald G. Sawatsky (December 1985) Modern Western Christianity
“Looking For That Blessed Hope”: The Roots of Fundamentalism in Canada, 1878-1914
Supervisor: John S. Moir

Steven M. Wasserstrom (October 1985) Islamic Religion
Species of Misbelief: A History of Muslim Heresiography of the Jews
Supervisor: G. M. Wickens

Jane D. McAuliffe (October 1984) Islamic Religion
Perceptions of the Christians in Qur’anic Tafsir
Supervisor: G. M. Wickens

Marilyn F. Nefsky (September 1984) Japanese Religions
Women and the Religious Character of Contemporary Japan
Supervisor: Cyril Powles

Donald Merriell (January 1984) Medieval Western Christianity
The Image of the Trinity in Man According to St.Thomas Aquinas
Supervisor: Walter Principe

Herbert Basser (June 1983) Early Judaism
Sifre Ha’azinu: Rabbinic Interpretations of the Song of Moses
Supervisor: L. H. Silberman

James K. Hoffmeier (October 1982) Ancient Egyptian Religions
‘Sacred’ in the Vocabulary of Ancient Egypt: The Term DSR, with Special Reference to Dynasties I-XX
Supervisor: R. J. Williams