BROURIA BITTON-ASHKELONY
Associate Professor
Martin Buber Chair in Comparative Religion
Director of the Center for the Study of Christianity
The Hebrew University of Jerusalem
[email protected]
Tel: 02-5332352; 052-2899762
As a historian of late antique Eastern Christianity I inquire into and interpret the
delicate balance of continuity and transformation that defines a historical Christian
self-identity. I seek to discern the dynamics of change, continuity, and rupture in
religious behavior and thought within Christian and non-Christian traditions alike; to
reveal their effects on institutional and personal religion in late antique Eastern
Christianity; and to seize the particularity of the period, grasping its peculiar identity
through the lens of three major religious and social phenomena: pilgrimage,
monasticism, and prayer.
EDUCATION
1996
Ph.D. Hebrew University (Comparative Religion), summa cum laude
1986-1991 Université de Paris, Sorbonne, Paris IV (Patristic Studies).
Ecole Pratique des Hautes Etudes, Paris V section (Greek Religion).
1985
M.A. Bar Ilan University (Jewish History), summa cum laude.
And studies in the Dept. of Comparative Religion, HU
1980
B.A Bar-Ilan University, Jewish History and Land of Israel Studies
ADMINISTRATIVE APPOINTMENTS IN THE HU
Since 2010-
Director of the Center for the Study of Christianity, HU
2013-2014
Head of the Department of Comparative Religion, HU
2006-2008:
Director and academic Head of Revivim, Honors Program for
Training of Jewish Studies Teachers, HU
2005-2008:
Head of the Department of Comparative Religion, HU
2002-2006:
Director of the Joint Center for Eretz-Israel Studies in Yad Izhak
Ben-Zvi and the Hebrew University
2001-2002:
Acting Director of the Center for the Study of Christianity, HU
FELLOWSHIPS AND RESEARCH APPOINTMENTS
1
2015-2016
The Institute for Advanced Studies in
the Hebrew University
Co-head of the research
group with D. Krueger
2013
2011
2009- 2010
University of Aarhus, Denmark
La Sapienza, The University of Rome 1
The Institute for Advanced Studies in
the Hebrew University
Visiting professor
Visiting professor
Co-head of the research
group with L. Perrone
March 2007
1997-1998
Pontifical Gregorian University, Rome
University of Oxford, Wolfson College
and the Oriental Institute
Visiting Professor
Post-doctoral fellowship
MEMBERSHIP IN ACADEMIC COMMITTEES, EDITOTIAL BOARDS
Since 2014
The North American
Patristic Monograph Series
The Senate, HU
Presedent stipends, HU
Yad Ben Zvi Prize
Member of the International Advisory
Board
Member
Member of the committee
Chair of the committee for excellent
Books
EURIAS (The European
Institutes for Advanced Study)
Fellowship
The School of Philosophy and
Religion in the Faculty of
Humanities, HU
The Nehemia Levtzion Center
for Islamic Studies
Assessment of applications
Journal of the American
Academy of Religion
The Center for the study of
Christianity
Member of the International
editorial board
Member of the academic
committee
Since 2007
Church History and
Religious Culture (Brill,
Leiden)
Member of the international
Advisory Board
Since 2007
Association Internationale
d'Etudes Patristiques
The national correspondance and
member
2014
2014
2012-2013
2010-2013
2010-2011
since 2010
2004-2008
2005-2008
Member of the PH.D. committee
Member of the academic committee
Research Grants, Prizes, and Awards
2011-2015: The Israel Science Foundation (ISF)
2014: ISF, grant for organizing an international conference on Prayer and Worship in
Eastern Christianities (6th to 11th centuries)
2013: Authority for Research and Development, HU, grant for organizing the Patristic
Conference
2005: Authority for Research and Development, HU, grant for book's publication.
2000: Golda Meir Fellowship, the Hebrew University
1999-2003: The Israel Science Foundation (ISF)
1997-1998: HU, grant for post-doctoral research at Oxford.
1996: Kennedy Lee Prize for excellent Ph.D. Dissertation
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1997: Sternberg Prize for Interfaith Understanding, Dept. of Comparative Religion
1997: Yad Hanadiv, grant for translation Ph.D. Dissertation
List of Publications (updated 1/2/2016)
BOOKS
2005: Encountering the Sacred: The Debate on Christian Pilgrimage in Late
Antiquity. The Transformation of the Classical Heritage Series 38 (Berkeley: The
University of California Press, 2005).
2006: The Monastic School of Gaza. Vigiliae Christianae Supplements Series 78
(Leiden: Brill, 2006), co-author A. Kofsky
The Praying Self: The Greek Monastic Legacy and the Formation of Syriac Ascetic
Culture (5th-8th Centuries). In preparation.
BOOKS EDITED
2004: Christian Gaza in Late Antiquity. Jerusalem Studies in Religion and Culture
Series 3 (Leiden: Brill, 2004), Co-editor with A. Kofsky, 247 pages.
2013: Between Personal and Institutional Religion: Self, Doctrine, and Practice in
Late Antique Eastern Christianity. Cultural Encounters in Late Antiquity and the
Middle-Ages Series 15 (Turnhout: Brepols, 2013), co-editor L. Perrone, 345 pages.
2013: Editor of the monographic section, The Religious Experience of Crisis in the
Mediterranean World (4th - 7th Centuries), Adamantius 19 (2013), pp. 203-359.
2015: Patristic Studies in the Twenty-First Century: Proceedings of an International
Conference to Mark the 50th Anniversary of the International Association of Patristic
Studies (Turnhout: Brepols, 2015), Co-editors: Carol Harrison and Theodore De
Bruyn, 650 pages.
2016: Prayer and Worship in Eastern Christianities, Co-editor: Derek Krueger
(Ashgate, 2016), in press.
Referees articles
1998: Sabas– Portrait of a Saint,” Cathedra 86 (1998), pp. 149-154 (Hebrew).
1999: “The Pilgrimages of Peter the Iberian,” Cathedra 91 (1999), pp. 97-112
(Hebrew).
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1999: "Penitence in Late Antique Monastic Literature,” in J. Assmann and G.
Stroumsa (eds.), Transformations of the Inner Self in Ancient Religions (Leiden: Brill,
1999), pp. 179-194.
1999: “Attitudes of the Church Fathers towards Pilgrimage to Jerusalem in the Fourth
and Fifth Centuries,” in Lee I. Levine (ed.), Jerusalem: Its Sanctity and Centrality to
Judaism, Christianity and Islam (New York: Continuum, 1999), pp. 188-203.
2000: "Jérôme en Orient: une transformation identitaire," in M.A. Amir-Moezzi, J.
Scheid (eds.), L'Orient dans l'histoire religieuse de l'europe. Bibliothèque de l'école
des hautes études, section des sciences religieuses 110 (Turnhout: Brepols, 2000), pp.
37-48.
2000: "The Monastic Community of Gaza in Late Antiquity," Cathedra 96 (2000),
pp. 69-110 (Hebrew), co-author A. Kofsky.
2000: "Gaza Monasticism in the Fourth-Sixth Centuries: From Anchoritic to
Cenobitic," Proche Orient Chrétien 50 (2000), pp. 14-62, co-author A. Kofsky.
2002: "Pilgrimage in Monastic Culture," in M. Stone, R. Ervine and N. Stone (eds.),
The Armenians in Jerusalem and the Holy Land (Leuven: Peeters, 2002), pp. 1-17.
2003: “Demons and Prayers: Spiritual Exercises in the Monastic Community of Gaza
in the Fifth and Sixth Centuries,” Vigiliae Christianae 57 (2003), pp. 200-221.
2004: “Imitatio Mosis and Pilgrimage in the Life of Peter the Iberian,” in B. BittonAshkelony and A. Kofsky (eds.), Christian Gaza in Late Antiquity (Leiden: Brill,
2004), pp. 107-129.
2005: "Monasticism in the Holy Land," in O. Limor and G. Stroumsa (eds.),
Christians and Christianity in the Holy Land (Turnhout: Brepols, 2005), pp. 257-291.
Co-author A. Kofsky
2005: “Imitatio Mosis and Pilgrimage in the Life of Peter the Iberian,” Le Muséon
118 (2005), pp. 45-65.
2006: "Monastic Leadership and Municipal Tensions in Fifth-Sixth Century Palestine:
The Cases of the Judean Desert and Gaza," in Annali di Storia dell'esegesi 23/2
(2006), pp. 415-431.
2007: "Counseling through Enigmas: Monastic Leadership and Linguistic Techniques in
Sixth-Century Gaza," in S. La Porta and D. Shulman (eds.), The Poetics of Grammar and
the Metaphysics of Sound and Sign (Leiden: Brill, 2007), pp. 177-199.
2010: "Pilgrimage and Monastic Culture in Late Antique Syriac Hagiography," in Y.
Hen and I. Shagrir (eds.), Ut videant et contingant: Essays on Pilgrimage and Sacred
Space in Honor of Ora Limor (Raanana: The Open University, 2010), pp. 71-99
(Hebrew).
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2010: "Territory, Anti-Intellectual Attitude, and Identity Formation in Late Antique
Palestinian Monastic Communities," Religion and Theology 17 (2010), pp. 244-267.
2010: "From Sacred Travel to Monastic Career: The Evidence of Late Antique Syriac
Hagiography," Adamantius 16 (2010), pp. 353-370.
2011: "The Limit of the Mind (NOUS): Pure Prayer according to Evagrius Ponticus
and Isaac of Nineveh," Zeitschrift für Antikes Christentum 15/2 (2011), pp. 291-321.
2012: '"More interior than the lips and the tongue': John of Apamea and Silent
Prayer in Late Antiquity," Journal of Early Christian Studies 20/2 (2012), pp.
303-331.
2012: "Pure Prayer and Ignorance: Dadisho' Qatraya and the Greek Ascetic
Legacy," Studi e Materiali di Storia delle Religioni (SMSR), 78/1 (2012), pp.
200-226.
2013: "Personal Religion and Self-exposuer: From Pseudo-Macarius to
Symeon the New Theologian," in B. Bitton-Ashkelony and L. Perrone (eds.),
Between Personal and Institutional Religion: Self, Doctrine and Practic in
Late Antique Eastern Christianity (Turnhout: Brepols, 2013), pp. 99-128.
2013: The Oxford Dictionary of Late Antiquity: the following entries: Euthymius,
Hilarion of Gaza, Gerasimus, Barsanuphius and John, Dorotheus of Gaza (in press)
2013: '"Neither Beginning nor End": The Messalian Imaginaire and the Formation of
Syriac Asceticism,' Adamantius 19 (2013), pp. 222-239.
2014: "Monasticism in the Holy Land," in Palestine in Late Antiquity, O. Limor, J.
Patrich, and H. Newman (eds.), Yad Ben Zvi, (Hebrew). 41 pages, Co-author A.
Kofsky (accepted for publication).
2014: "'Reduced to a State of Silence': Isaac of Nineveh and John of Dalyatha on
Self-Transformation," in Saint Isaac the Syrian and his Spiritual Legacy, edited by
Metropolitan Hilarion of Volokolamsk, Moscow 2014, pp. 243-258.
2014: "Sources for the Study of Early Monasticism", The Oxford Handbook of
Christian Monasticism, eds. Bernice M. Kaczynski (in press).
2015: "Monasticism in Late Antique Gaza: A School or an Epoch?" in E. Amato, A.
Corcella, D. Lauritzen (eds.), L’École de Gaza: Espace littéraire et identité culturelle
dans l’Antiquité Tardive. Actes du colloque international de Paris, 23-25 mai 2013,
Orientalia Lovaniensia Analecta, Bibliothèque de Byzantion 12 (Leuven: Peeters,
2015), pp. 19-36.
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2015: “A Person of Silence”: Philoxenos of Mabbug, Letter of Exhortation, Sent to a
Man Who Left Judaism and Came to the Life of Perfection: Co-Author Sergey Minov
Orientalia Christiana Periodica 81:2 (2016) (in press).
2015: "Theories of Prayer in Late Antiquity: Doubts and Practices from Maximus of
Tyre to Isaac of Nineveh," in Prayer and Worship in Eastern Christianies, eds. B.
Bitton-Ashkelony and Derek Krueger (Ashgate, 2016) (in press).
2016: "Greek and Syriac Monastic Hybridity and the Anti-Learning Late Antique
Discourse," Studia Patristica XVII (accepted for publication).
2016: "Perfection, Imperfection and Stillness in Late Antique Syriac Christianity,"
eds. J. Patrich and O. Peleg (Atikot, 2016), in press.
Book Reviews
2007: Antoine Guillaumont, Un philosophe au désert: Evagre le Pontique (Paris,
2004). Adamantius 13 (2007), pp. 622-626.
2006: Jennifer L. Hevelone-Harpe, Disciples of the Desert: Monks, Laity, and
Spiritual Authority in Sixth-Century Gaza (The Johns Hopkins University Press,
2005). Religious Studies Review 32/3 (2006), p. 202.
Publications for the Open University's courses
2005: translation of P. Maraval, "Le temps du pèlerin (IVe-VIIe siècles)" in Le temps
chrétien de la fin de l’Antiquité au Moyen Age — IIIe–XIIIe s., 479–85 (Paris, 1981),
in: Pilgrimage: Jews, Christians, Moslems, eds. O. Limor and E. Reiner (Raanana:
The Open University, 2005), pp. 159-167.
2006: translation from Greek and Syriac of texts dealing with pilgrimage to the Holy
Land: Gregory of Nyssa, Letter 2; Evagrius Ponticus, Letter 25; Sozomen, Church
History; John of Ephesus, The Life of Maria, and Theodoret of Cyrrhus, A History of
the Monks in Syria, in: O. Limor and E. Reiner (eds.), Pilgrimage: Jews, Christians,
Moslems: Sources in Translation, (Raanana: The Open University, 2006), pp. 32-36;
59; 68-76; 95-97.
2006: Brouria Bitton-Ashkelony (C), O. Limor (PI) and E. Reiner (PI), course
development team: Pilgrimage: Jews, Christians, and Moslems: Sources in
Translation (Raanana: The Open University, 2006).
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