Sarah E. Rollens is an Associate Professor of Religious Studies at Rhodes College. Prior to coming to Rhodes, she taught courses in Religious Studies at University of Toronto, University of North Carolina Wilmington, and University of Alabama. She received her PhD in the Study of Religion in 2013 from University of Toronto. Her dissertation, Framing Social Criticism in the Jesus Movement: The Ideological Project in the Sayings Gospel Q, was published in 2014 by Mohr Siebeck. Her current research project deals with violent imagery in early Christian texts. This research combines her broader interests in Christian origins, social theory, scribalism, identity formation, the ancient Mediterranean world, and the Synoptic gospels. Prof. Rollens has taught numerous courses in Religious Studies: Introduction to the New Testament; Introduction to Religious Studies; Historical Jesus; Jesus of Nazareth; Violence in Early Christianity; Religion and Identity in the Ancient Mediterranean World; Popular Culture/Public Humanities; Jesus in the Early Christian Writings; Early Christians Gospels; and Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. She is currently teaching The Bible: Texts and Contexts (Life) and The Search for Values in Light of Western History and Religion (Search).
Recent Publications
Worth More Than Many Sparrows: Essays in Honor of Willi Braun, co-edited with Patrick Hart. Studies in Religion and Ancient Culture; London: Equinox, 2023.
“An Inconsistent Truth? Reflections on Tucker Ferda’s Jesus, the Gospels, and the Galilean Crisis.” Journal for the Study of the Historical Jesus 20 (2022): 87–109.
“Abject Objects: The Lives and Times of Early Christian Material Culture.” Harvard Theological Review 115:2 (2022)” 294–307.
“Paul, 1 Thessalonians”, in: Brill Encyclopedia of Early Christianity Online, General Editor David G. Hunter, Paul J.J. van Geest, Bert Jan Lietaert Peerbolte. 2022. Online.
“Rethinking the Early Christian Mission” in de H.J. de Jonge, M. Grundeken, J.S. Kloppenborg, C.M. Tuckett (eds), The Gospels and their Receptions: Festschrift Joseph Verheyden (BETL 330; Leuven: Peeters, 2022), 557-558.
“Partaking in the Great Supper of God: Figuring Birds in the Apocalypse of John,” in Worth More Than Many Sparrows: Essays in Honor of Willi Braun, (eds. Sarah E. Rollens and Patrick Hart; Studies in Religion and Ancient Culture; London: Equinox, 2022), 13-30.
“Violent Imaginaries in the Synoptic Gospels,” in The Oxford Handbook to the Synoptic Gospels (ed. Stephen Ahearne-Kroll; New York: OUP, 2022), 260-277.
“Conflict and Honor in the Ancient Epistle: Or, How an Egyptian Funerary Association Illuminates Rivalry at Corinth,” in Bruce W. Longenecker, ed., Greco-Roman Associations, Deities, and Early Christianity (Waco: Baylor University Press, 2022), 309-324.
“Other People’s Speech in Q” in Verheyden J., Kloppenborg J.S., Roskam G., Schorn S., On Using Sources in Graeco-Roman, Jewish and Early Christian Literature (BETL 328; Leuven: Peeters, 2022), 321-350.
“It’s Reception All the Way Down: A Review of The Reception of Jesus in the First Three Centuries.” Studies in Religion/Sciences Religieuses 50. 2 (2021): 258–270.
“Notes on the Historical Paul and His Intellectual Activity.” Ancient Jew Review (May 14, 2020). https://www.ancientjewreview.com/articles/2020/5/13/essay-notes-on-the-historical-paul-and-his-intellectual-activity
“Socialscapes and Abstractions: An Appraisal of Richard A. Horsley’s Theorizing of Antiquity.” Journal for the Study of the Historical Jesus 18 (2020): 101–123.
“The Viability of Materialist Approaches to Persecution: Revelation as a Test Case.” Annali di Storia dell’Esegesi 36.1 (2019): 71–89.
“If Discourse is All There Is: On Studying Religion in the Ancient Context.” Bulletin for the Study of Religion 47:2 (2018): 8–10.
“The God Came to Me in a Dream: Epiphanies in Voluntary Associations as a Context for Paul’s Vision of Christ.” Harvard Theological Review 111.1 (2018): 41–65.
“Q in Matthew: A Review Essay.” Journal for the Study of the Historical Jesus 15.2-3 (2017): 169–91.
