Wally Cirafesi

Wally Cirafesi

Associate senior lecturer, Reader

Personal profile

Research

I am Pro Futura Scientia XVI Fellow and Associate Senior Lecturer in New Testament Studies at the Swedish Collegium for Advanced Study and the Centre for Theology and Religious Studies at Lund University. 

My research interests are very broad and lie generally within the social and cultural worlds of ancient Judaism and early Christianity. My doctoral research, published in 2022, addressed the Gospel of John's relationship to constructions of Jewish identity in antiquity from the Second Temple period to the time of the Mishnah.

While I continue to work on New Testament texts in relation to their ancient social and cultural contexts, my current research revolves around the early history of Jewish – Christian relations with a particular focus on their institutional settings. My most recent book is a micro-history of Jewish – Christian relations in ancient Capernaum from the time of Jesus to the Byzantine-Islamic transition in Palestine. This book investigates diachronically and contextually the dynamics of socio-religious change at work in the village through study of both literary and archaeological sources.

I am currently engaged in two projects related to the material and social histories of ancient synagogues. My project as Pro Futura Scientia Fellow at SCAS aims to understand how ancient synagogues functioned as both physical and rhetorical "sites" of Jewish – Christian interaction and exchange. And during the 2024–2025 academic year, I will be leading a new interdisciplinary Theme titled Ancient Synagogues and the Human Sensorium at the Pufendorf Institute for Advanced Studies. 

 

Expertise related to UN Sustainable Development Goals

In 2015, UN member states agreed to 17 global Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) to end poverty, protect the planet and ensure prosperity for all. This person’s work contributes towards the following SDG(s):

  • SDG 16 - Peace, Justice and Strong Institutions

UKÄ subject classification

  • Humanities

Free keywords

  • New Testament studies
  • Jewish Studies
  • Ancient history
  • Christian Origins
  • Ancient Synagogues
  • Critical Historiography
  • Jewish - Christian Relations
  • Early Jewish Archaeology
  • Ancient Christianity
  • Early Christian Archaeology

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Collaborations the last five years

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