Australian Catholic University – Centre for Biblical and Early Christian Studies
Senior Research Fellow (Early Christianity)
Location: Melbourne
Salary: AU$138,669 to AU$150,553
Hours: Full Time
Contract Type: Permanent
We seek researchers of outstanding potential and demonstrated achievement to contribute to the research of the Centre for Biblical and Early Christian Studies. Researchers will contribute to a major five-year project, Modes of Knowing and the Ordering of Knowledge in Early Christianity. This international project, led by Prof. Lewis Ayres (ACU/Durham) and four others from ACU, Durham and Notre Dame, investigates ‘modes of knowing’ constructed by Greek, Latin and Syriac Christians c.100-700 CE. A particular focus is the manner in which developing Christian thought was shaped by classical intellectual discourses (such as grammar, philosophy, rhetoric and medicine), institutions, social practices, and material culture.
This project builds on research across the Centre in areas such as the social and cultural history of early Christianity, the cultural and intellectual transformation of Classical antiquity, strategies of Christian identity formation, and intersections between Christianity and ancient philosophy, rhetoric, medicine, and education.
Within the ‘Modes of Knowing’ project, we envisage individual projects that will relate early Christian modes of knowing to at least one of: a) contemporary philosophical, medical and rhetorical discourses; b) social practices of early Christianity and late antiquity (e.g. asceticism, pilgrimage, liturgies); c) imperial and institutional power structures; or d) and the material world of early Christianity and late antiquity (e.g. relics, sacred texts). Researchers will also have opportunities to pursue other individual and collaborative research beyond the Modes of Knowing project.
The Project and Centre are located in the Institute for Religion and Critical Inquiry at ACU. The Institute promotes interdisciplinary and collaborative study through research that seeks to enrich and extend the traditional fields of philosophy and theology at an international level. It hosts several discipline-specific and interdisciplinary research seminars and reading groups, and regular international symposia at ACU’s Rome Campus. Research in Theology and Religious Studies at ACU was rated above world standard in the 2015 Excellence in Research Australia exercise. The Institute is currently undergoing a major expansion: recent junior and senior appointments have been made in Philosophy, Theology, Ethics, New Testament Studies and Early Christian Studies.
General enquiries about the position, the project, and working at ACU Melbourne can be directed to Professor Lewis Ayres (lewis.ayres@acu.edu.au).
Total remuneration valued to AUD138,669 – AUD150,553 pa, including salary component AUD117,361 – AUD127,518 pa, employer contribution to superannuation, and annual leave loading.
To apply, and for further information, including the full position description, please visit http://careers.acu.edu.au/caw/en/job/971107/research-fellowsenior-research-fellow-early-christianity
