Draft:Sarah E. Rollens

Sarah E. Rollens is a scholar of religion. Trained at the University of Toronto's Centre for the Study of Religion in the early 2010s, she is currently an Associate Professor of Religious Studies at Rhodes College. Holder of the R.A. Webb Chair of Religious Studies at Rhodes College. She previously taught as an Instructor in the Department of Religious Studies at the University of Alabama. Although also recognized as a specialist on early Christian texts, her broader interests include Christian origins, social theory, scribalism, identity formation, the ancient Mediterranean world, and the Synoptic gospels.

She is the executive editor for the Journal for the Study of the Historical Jesus. She is also the book review editor of Studies in Religion. . She sits on numerous editorial boards for international journals, including New Testament Studies, Journal for Interdisciplinary Biblical Studies,, and Annali di Storia dell'Esegesi.

Her public scholarship has appeared in HuffPost,, The Independent, the Marginalia Review of Books, and Centre for the Study of Apocalpytic and Millenarian Movements (CenSAMM).

Works by Sarah E. Rollens

 * “Paul, 1 Thessalonians”, in: Brill Encyclopedia of Early Christianity Online, General Editor David G. Hunter, Paul J.J. van Geest, Bert Jan Lietaert Peerbolte. Brill Academic, 2022.
 * “Partaking in the Great Supper of God: Figuring Birds in the Apocalypse of John”, in Worth More Than Many Sparrows: Essays in Honor of Willi Braun, edited by Sarah Rollens and Patrick Hart, 13–30. Equinox, 2022.
 * “An Inconsistent Truth? Reflections on Tucker Ferda’s Jesus, the Gospels, and the Galilean Crisis”, in Journal for the Study of the Historical Jesus 20 (2022) 87–109.
 * “Abject Objects: The Lives and Times of Early Christian Material Culture”, in Harvard Theolorical Review 115:2 (2022) 294–307.
 * “Rethinking the Early Christian Mission” in The Gospels and their Receptions: Festschrift Joseph Verheyden edited by H.J. de Jonge, M. Grundeken, John S. Kloppenborg, C.M. Tuckett, 557–558. Peeters, 2022.
 * “Violent Imaginaries in the Synoptic Gospels”, in The Oxford Handbook to the Synoptic Gospels edited by Stephen Ahearne-Kroll, 260–277. Oxford University Press, 2022.
 * “Conflict and Honor in the Ancient Epistle: Or, How an Egyptian Funerary Association Illuminates Rivalry at Corinth”, in Greco-Roman Associations, Deities, and Early Christianity edited by Bruce W. Longenecker, 309–324. Baylor University Press, 2022.
 * “Other People’s Speech in Q” in On Using Sources in Graeco-Roman, Jewish and Early Christian Literature edited by J. Verheyden, John S. Kloppenborg, G. Roskam, S. Schorn, 321–350. Peeters, 2022.
 * “Two ‘Un-Scientific’ Concepts in the Study of Christian Origins” in Non uno itinere: Ebraismi, cristianesimi, modernità: Studi in onore di Mauro Pesce in occasione del suo ottantesimo compleanno edited by M. Rescio, 108–116. Brescia, 2021.
 * with Anthony Le Donne, “The Historical Jesus” in The Cambridge Companion to the New Testament edited by Patrick Gray. Cambridge University Press, 2021.
 * "Sayings Source Q", in Critical Dictionary of Apocalyptic and Millenarian Movements edited by James Crossley and Alastair Lockhart. 2021.
 * “It’s Reception All the Way Down: A Review of The Reception of Jesus in the First Three Centuries”, in Studies in Religion/Sciences Religieuses. 2020.
 * “Notes on the Historical Paul and His Intellectual Activity”, in Ancient Jew Review 2020.
 * “Socialscapes and Abstractions: An Appraisal of Richard A. Horsley’s Theorizing of Antiquity” in Journal for the Study of the Historical Jesus 18 (2020): 101–123.
 * with Meredith Warren and Eric Vanden Eykel. “Confronting Judeophobia in the Classroom” in Journal for the Institute of the Interdisciplinary Biblical Studies 2.1 (2020).
 * “What Does Theory Have to Do with Archaeology? Envisaging Social Conflict in Ancient Galilee” in Biblical Archaeology Review Fall 2020.
 * “Where Are All the Women in Q Studies?: Gender Demographics and the Study of Q” in The Q Hypothesis Unveiled: Theological, Sociological, and Hermeneutical Issues behind the Sayings Source edited by Markus Tiwald, 224–255. Kohlhammer Press, 2020.
 * “The Viability of Materialist Approaches to Persecution: Revelation as a Test Case”, in Annali di Storia dell’Esegesi 36.1 (2019) 71–89.
 * “The Sayings Gospel Q”, in T & T Clark Jesus Library. 2019.
 * “Troubling the Retainer Class”, in Class Struggle in the New Testament edited by Robert Myles, 169–90. Lexington Books, 2019.
 * “If Discourse is All There Is: On Studying Religion in the Ancient Context”, Bulletin for the Study of Religion 47:2 (2018): 8–10.
 * “The God Came to Me in a Dream: Epiphanies in Voluntary Associations as a Context for Paul’s Vision of Christ”, in Harvard Theological Review 111.1 (2018): 41–65.
 * “The Anachronism of ‘Early Christian Communities’” in Theorizing ‘Religion’ in Antiquity edited by Nickolas Roubekas, 307–324. Equinox, 2018.
 * “From Birth Pangs to Dismembered Limbs: The Anthropology of Bodily Violence in the Gospel of Mark” in The Gospels and Their Stories in Anthropological Perspective edited by John S. Kloppenborg and Joseph Verheyden, 53–68. Mohr Siebeck, 2018.
 * “The Kingdom of God is Among You: Prospects for a Q Community” in Christian Origins and the Establishment of the Early Jesus Movement edited by Stanley E. Porter and Andrew W. Pitts, 224–241. Brill, 2018.
 * “Q in Matthew: A Review Essay” in The Journal for the Study of the Historical Jesus 15.2–3 (2017): 169–91.
 * “Q in Context and Comparison: A Response to Choi, Foster, and Arzt-Grabner” in Annali di storia dellʼesegesi 34.1 (2017): 257–63.
 * “Inventing Tradition in Thessalonica: The Appropriation of the Past in 1 Thessalonians 2:14–16” inBiblical Theology Bulletin 46.3 (2016): 123–132.
 * “Canons, Communities, and Christian Origins: A Response to the AJR Canon Forum”, in Ancient Jew Review. 2016.
 * “Why We Have Failed to Theorize Scribes in Antiquity” in Scribal Practices and Social Structures Among Jesus’ Adherents. Essays in Honour of John S. Kloppenborg 117–133. Peeters, 2016.
 * “Persecution in the Social Setting of Q” in Q in Context II: Social Setting and Archaeological Background of the Sayings Source edited by Markus Tiwald, 149–164. Bonn University Press, 2015.
 * Framing Social Criticism in the Jesus Movement: The Ideological Project in the Sayings Gospel Q. Mohr Siebeck, 2014.
 * with Richard Last. “Accounting Practices in P.Tebt. III/2 894 and Pauline Groups”, Early Christianity 5.4 (2014): 441–74.
 * “Conceptualizing Justice in Q: Narrative and Context” in Metaphor and Narrative in Q edited by Ruben Zimmerman, Michael Labahn, and Dieter Roth, 96–106. Mohr Siebeck, 2013.
 * “The Rewards of Redescription: An Assessment of Burton Mack’s Influence on the Study of Christian Origins” in Theory and Method in the Study of Religion: Twenty-Five Years On edited by Aaron Hughes, 69–74. Brill, 2013.
 * "“The Identity of Q in the First Century: Reproducing a Theological Narrative” in Failure and Nerve in the Study of Religion: Working with Donald Wiebe, edited by William E. Arnal, Willi Braun, Russell T. McCutcheon, 177–191. Equinox, 2012.
 * “Does ‘Q’ Have Any Representative Potential?” Method & Theory in the Study of Religion 23.1 (2011): 64–79.
 * “‘Why Do You Not Judge for Yourselves What Is Right?’: A Consideration of the Synoptic Relationship between Mt 5,25–26 and Lk 12,57–59”, Ephemerides Theologicae Lovanienses 86.4 (2010): 449–469.
 * with Herbert Berg. "The Historical Muhammad and the Historical Jesus: A Comparison of Scholarly Reinventions and Reinterpretations". Studies in Religion / Sciences Religieuses, 32.2 (2008): 271–292.