Mirecki, Paul (A.)

views updated

MIRECKI, Paul (A.)


PERSONAL: Male. Education: Harvard University, Th.D., 1986.


ADDRESSES: Offıce—Department of Religious Studies, University of Kansas, 205 Smith Hall, Lawrence, KS 66045-2164; fax: 785-864-5205. E-mail— [email protected].


CAREER: University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, visiting associate professor, 1986-88; Albion College, visiting associate professor, 1988-89; University of Kansas, Lawrence, associate professor of religious studies, and adjunct associate professor of classics, 1989—.


MEMBER: American Society of Papyrologists, American Academy of Religion, Manichaen Studies Group (founding chair).


WRITINGS:


(Editor, with Marvin Mirecki) Ancient Magic andRitual Power, Brill (New York, NY), 1995.

(Editor, with Jason BeDuhn) Emerging from Darkness: Studies in the Recovery of Manichaean Sources, Brill (New York, NY), 1997.


(Editor, with Charles W. Hedrick) Gospel of theSavior: A New Ancient Gospel, Polebridge Press (Santa Rosa, CA), 1999.


(Editor, with Jason BeDuhn) The Light and the Darkness: Studies in Manichaeism and Its World, Brill (Boston, MA), 2001.


(Editor, with Marvin Meyer) Magic and Ritual in theAncient World, Brill (Boston, MA), 2002.

SIDELIGHTS: Paul Mirecki received his Th.D. from Harvard University in 1986. He is an associate professor of religious studies and an adjunct professor of classics at the University of Kansas. Mirecki's research interests include ancient Mediterranean religions, languages, and archaeology. He is the founding chairman of the Manichaean study Group and has conducted research projects in museums in Berlin, London, Oxford, and Ann Arbor.


Emerging from Darkness: Studies in the Recovery of Manichaean Sources is a collection of essays discussing bases for the study of Manichaeaism, an ancient religion. Essay topics include the Tebessa Codex, Turkic Manichaean literature, Manichaean art, and more. "This book provides cutting edge scholarship for the growing number of scholars interested in the ancient Manichaean religion," concluded Birger A. Pearson in a Religious Studies Review.

On March 20, 1967, the Berlin Egyptian Museum received thirty-three parchment pieces written in the Coptic language. They sat untouched for almost thirty years until Charles Hedrick and Mirecki began to study and translate the parchments. They believe that the parchments are an unknown gospel. In Gospel of the Savior: A New Ancient Gospel Hedrick and Mirecki provide their translation of these parchments and comment on what they have found.


BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:


periodicals


Journal of Hellenic Studies, 2000, John-Gabriel Bodard, review of Ancient Magic and Ritual Power, pp. 176-177.

Religious Studies Review, July, 1998, Birger A. Pearson, review of Emerging from Darkness: Studies in the Recovery of Manichaean Sources, p. 307.

Times Literary Supplement, April 19, 2002, Peter Green, "The Methods of Ancient Magic," pp. 5-6.


online


Kansas University Web site,http://www.ku.edu/ (September 5, 2002), "Paul Mirecki."

Paul Mirecki Home page,http://members.aol.com/pmirecki (October 30, 2002).

Westar Institute Web site,http://www.westarinstitute.org/ (September 5, 2002), review of Gospel of the Savior.*

About this article

Mirecki, Paul (A.)

Updated About encyclopedia.com content Print Article