Christopher Mount is a historian of early Christianity whose research focuses on the emergence of Christianity in the first two centuries of the Roman Empire. His book, Pauline Christianity: Luke-Acts and the Legacy of Paul (Brill, 2002), and a number of book chapters including “Paul’s Place in Early Christianity” (2012) explore how the author of the two-volume work the Gospel of Luke and the Acts of the Apostles created what became the normative representation of Paul’s role in the beginnings of Christianity. His research also examines discourse and rituals of spirit possession in the early Christ cults associated with Paul, for example in his article, “1 Corinthians 11:3-16: Spirit Possession and Authority in a Non-Pauline Interpolation” (2005), and his book chapter, “Belief, Gullibility, and the Presence of a God in the Early Roman Empire” (2013). Of particular interest to him is how discourses about spirit possession and magic in early Christianity influenced the ways in which the possession cults associated with Paul were integrated into normative definitions of Christianity that began to emerge in the second century.
Research Interests
- Early Christianity
- The Historical Jesus
- Paul and His Legacy
- Spirit Possession in the Roman Empire
Courses Frequently Taught
REL 233 The New Testament
REL 237 Gods in the Roman Empire
REL 238 The Historical Jesus
HON 104 Religious Worldviews and Ethical Perspectives