The study of religion in the ancient Mediterranean foregrounds the interplay of religious traditions in their historical contexts and across the full geographic and cultural sweep of antiquity and late antiquity, using historical, philological, social-scientific, and archaeological methods. Current faculty strengths include Hebrew Bible; New Testament and Christian origins; religions of the Hellenistic, Roman, and Persian worlds; and religions of late antiquity, including early Islam.
Our program in Religions of Mediterranean Antiquity benefits from its close collaboration with U of T’s Department of Classics and the Department of Near & Middle Eastern Civilizations as well as the Toronto School of Theology. Students are expected to pursue advanced study of languages relevant to their research, and the UofT offers regular or semi-regular courses in Arabic, Aramaic, Avestan, Coptic, Ge’ez, Greek, Hebrew, Latin, Pahlavi, and Syriac, with occasional courses in other languages.
With research interests in the Religions of Mediterranean Antiquity