Jacobs, Andrew S. 1973–

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Jacobs, Andrew S. 1973–

PERSONAL:

Born 1973. Education: Brown University, A.B., 1995; Duke University, M.A., 1998, Ph.D., 2001.

ADDRESSES:

Office—Department of Religious Studies, University of California at Riverside, Riverside, CA 92521. E-mail—[email protected].

CAREER:

University of California at Riverside, assistant professor, 2001-05, associate professor, 2005—, graduate advisor for the M.A./Ph.D. program, 2006—.

MEMBER:

American Society of Church History, North American Patristics Society, Society of Biblical Literature, American Academy of Religion, Multi-Campus Research Group in Late Antiquity, Models of Piety in Late Antiquity Group, Theta Alpha Kappa.

AWARDS, HONORS:

Mellon Fellowship in Humanistic Studies (honorary), 1995-96; Dolores Zohrab Liebmann Fellowship, 1995-98; James B. Duke Fellowship, 1995-99; Kenneth Willis Clarke Student Essay Prize, 1998; Society of Biblical Literature Regional Scholar, 1999; Joseph Callaway Student Essay Prize, 2000; Charlotte W. Newcombe Dissertation Fellowship, 2000-01; Center for Ideas and Society Residential Fellow, University of California at Riverside, 2003; Junior Faculty Teaching Award, College of Humanities, Arts, and Social Sciences, University of California at Riverside, 2005; University Scholar, University of California at Riverside, 2005-08.

WRITINGS:

(Editor, with Bart D. Ehrman) Christianity in Late Antiquity, 300-450 C.E.: A Reader, Oxford University Press (New York, NY), 2004.

Remains of the Jews: The Holy Land and Christian Empire in Late Antiquity, Stanford University Press (Stanford, CA), 2004.

Contributor to books, including Galilee through the Centuries: Confluence of Cultures, edited by Eric M. Meyers, Eisenbrauns, 1999; Watts Children's Diction-ary of Religion, Franklin Watts/Grolier Books, 2001; Religion and Law in Classical and Christian Rome, edited by Clifford Ando and Jörg Rüpke, Franz Steiner Verlag, 2006; and A Feminist Companion to the New Testament Apocrypha, edited by Amy-Jill Levine with Maria Mayo Robbins, T. & T. Clark, 2006. Contributor to periodicals, including Journal of Early Christian Studies, Journal of Religion, Religion, Harvard Theological Review, Journal of Early Christian Studies, Medieval Encounters, and Journal of Sacred Texts and Contemporary Worlds. Editorial assistant, Journal of Early Christian Studies, 1998-2001; editorial board member, Religion, 2001-05.

SIDELIGHTS:

A religious studies professor, Andrew S. Jacobs is a biblical scholar who has written numerous journal articles. He is the editor, with Bart D. Ehrman, of Christianity in Late Antiquity, 300-450 C.E.: A Reader. The editors collected primary sources from the early Christian world, including works by authors such as Augustine and Eusebius. The excerpts are presented in their entirety and arranged thematically to include a wide range of topics. In the process, the reader sees how Christianity rose to prominence in the Roman Empire, developed new notions of sanctity and heresy, and spread beyond the Mediterranean.

The book, which includes a timeline and a map, begins with a general introduction and then is arranged in thematic sections that provide a comprehensive look at developing Christianity. The sections include "The End of Persecution"; "Christianity and the Imperial House"; "Christianity and Roman Law"; and "Becoming a Christian: Conversion and then Cathechesis and Initiation." The author goes on to discuss Christian leadership, heresy, and orthodoxy, including the Trinitarian Controversy, Christological Controversy, and the Judaizing heresies. The final sections are: "Canons and Creeds"; "Asceticism and Monasticism"; "Pilgrims, Relics, and Holy Places"; "Saints' Lives"; "The Christian Bible"; "Biblical Interpretation"; "Christian Art and Architecture"; and "Christianity Outside the Roman Empire."

In Remains of the Jews: The Holy Land and Christian Empire in Late Antiquity, Jacobs examines the rise of Christian influence during late antiquity, from 33 C.E. to 550 C.E. Jacobs draws his analysis from the dense and complex manner in which Christian authors wrote about Jews during these trying times in the holy land. Michael Kraus, writing in the Bryn Mawr Classical Review, noted that the author "differentiates between actual Jews of Late Antiquity and their discursive representation in Christian literature." Using contemporary cultural studies, including postcolonial criticism, Jacobs interprets Christian writings about holy land Jews as colonial writings. Jacobs writes in his introduction to Remains of the Jews: "I have chosen to draw on the critical historiographic insights of postcolonial studies in order to reorient our view of the early Christian holy land and ancient Christian writings about Jews." The author went on: "Throughout this study my goal is to underscore how Christian discourse about Jews, especially and specifically the Jews of the Christian holy land, instantiated and elaborated a new mode of Christian identity, one that was explicitly and unapologetically imperial."

According to the author, many of the writings of the time created a cultural context in which Christians were able to view themselves as powerful. Jacobs further points out that, within this same context, the Jews may have constructed a posture of resistance to the relatively new Christian Empire in the holy land. Throughout the book, Jacobs examines various types of literature, including biblical interpretation, sermons, letters, and histories. "The study is divided into two sections," Jacobs explained in his introduction. "In the first section … I investigate discourses of knowledge, that is, the ways in which Christians inscribed their own appropriation and construction of imperial knowledge through, around, with or from the Jews of the holy land." The author writes later in the same paragraph: "The second section … examines representations of Christian power in the holy land."

Remains of the Jews received strong critical reviews. "Jacobs makes skilful use of postcolonial theories," according to Hagith Sivan in History: Review of New Books. "His nuanced analysis of primarily fourth century sources can be usefully expanded to the fifth and sixth centuries and to Jewish (and Samaritan) responses to so critical a transformation of their heritage and traditions." Writing in the Canadian Journal of History, Lincoln Blumell noted: "Jacobs's work has many fine points. His study is clearly laid out, well-researched and referenced, and certainly thought provoking as it takes a novel approach to the subject matter through the use of post-colonial criticism." Blumell further commented that the work did contain weaknesses, including the lack of authentic Jewish remains, despite the work's title. Yet Blumell concluded: "Despite these few problems with the work, on the whole Jacob's analysis is fairly sound and convincing."