Robert Cousland

Email: cousland@interchange.ubc.ca

Phone: (604) 822-4062
Office:

Research Interests

I have recently completed a number of projects, including a book, The Crowds in the Gospel of Matthew (Brill, 2001: http://www.brill.nl/m_catalogue_sub6_id9994.htm) and entries for The Cambridge Guide to Classical Civilization (ed. J. Vanderspoel et al.), to appear in 2004, which deal largely with Greek and Roman religion.

I have also served as the Contributing Editor for Myth and Religion in Robert Todd (ed.), Dictionary of British Classicists, 1500-1960 (Thoemmes, 2004: http://www.thoemmes.com/dictionaries/class.htm), to which I contributed six entries and edited twenty-one others.

A second book, And So They Went Out… (co-authored with Daphna Arbel and Dietmar Neufeld) on the apocryphal lives of Adam and Eve is nearing completion. My portion of the book examines several of these lives from the standpoint of ritual theory and rites of passage.

My ongoing research interests fall into several categories. The first is the Gospel of Matthew, where, I hope to follow up ideas from my book on the crowds in Matthew by focussing on the relationship between Matthew's community and the Judaism(s) of his day. My future research will likely continue to address the role of the crowds in Matthew, and the question of whether there has been a 'parting of the ways' between Matthew and his community and Judaism. The book is tentatively entitled (not surprisingly) Matthew and the Parting of the Ways.

A second avenue of research concerns pseudepigraphal and apocryphal literature. The interface between 'classical' and intertestamental literatures is one I hope explore more fully, as I have done already in articles treating 3 Maccabees, Tobit, and the Vita of Adam and Eve. One article nearing completion considers whether the Vita shows any dependence on the Christian gospels. A further article, already accepted for publication treats the similarities and differences between the crowds in the Gospel of Matthew and the choruses of Greek tragedy. It will appear in volume two of the SBL Symposium Series addressing Ancient Jewish and Christian Fiction.

A third avenue is the interface between popular culture and religious topics. I am currently engaged in a study in popular music entitled "God, the Bad and the Ugly: The Vi(t)a Negativa of Nick Cave and P.J. Harvey" which explores the images of redemption in the work of these two performers. A related article is intended for a forthcoming volume on 20th century literary lives of Jesus, to which I am contributing a discussion of José Saramago's The Gospel According to Jesus Christ entitled 'Saramago's Gospel: Renan's Vie, Redivivus?'.

Refereed Publications

(a) Book:

The Crowds in the Gospel of Matthew. Supplements to Novum Testamentum 102. Leiden/New York: E.J. Brill, 2002. xii + 366 pages.

Reviews: M. Jackson-McCabe, Journal of Biblical Literature 122 (2003) 379-82.
Martin Meiser, Biblische Zeitschrift 47 (2003) 134-36.
J.P. Heil, Catholic Biblical Quarterly 65 (2003) 278-79.
I. H. Jones, Journal of Theological Studies 54 (2003) 224-25.
Editor, Expository Times 114 (2003) 416.
Karl McDaniel, Arc: The Journal of the Faculty of Religious Studies 31 (2003) 215-6.
Matthias Konradt, Theologische Literaturzeitung

(b) Journal Articles:

"Tobit: A Comedy in Error?" Catholic Biblical Quarterly 65 (2003) 535-553.

"Reversal, Recidivism and Reward in 3 Maccabees: Structure and Purpose." Journal for the Study of Judaism 34 (2003) 39-51.

"Dionysus Theomachos?: Echoes of the Bacchae in 3 Maccabees." Biblica 82 (2001) 539-48.

"'Her Flesh was as Grass': Vita Adam et Evae 10.1." Biblica 81 (2000) 507-10.

"The Feeding of the Four Thousand Gentiles in Matthew? Matthew 15:29-39 as a Test Case." Novum Testamentum 41 (1999) 1-23.

(c) Book Chapters:

"Matthew's Crowds and the Greek Chorus." (20 ms. pages) forthcoming in J.-A. Brandt et al., (eds.). Ancient Jewish and Christian Fiction. Vol. 2. SBL Symposium Series. Atlanta. Scholars Press, 2004.

Non-Refereed Publications

(a) Book Reviews:

Boris Repschinski, The Controversy Stories in the Gospel of Matthew. Their Redaction, Form and Relevance for the Relationship Between the Matthean Community and Formative Judaism. Forschungen zur Religion und Literatur des Alten und Neuen Testaments 189. Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 2000 in JOURNAL OF BIBLICAL LITERATURE 122 (2003) 761-64.

T. L. Carter, Paul and the Power of Sin. Redefining 'Beyond the Pale'. (Society for New Testament Studies Monograph Series 115. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2002) in BRYN MAWR CLASSICAL REVIEW 2002.12.39 (2002) (electronic).(http://ccat.sas.upenn.edu/bmcr/2002/2002-12-39.html)

Abraham J. Malherbe, The Letters to the Thessalonians. Anchor Bible 32B. New York: Doubleday, 2000 in JOURNAL OF BIBLICAL LITERATURE 121 (2002) 380-83 (reprint of the BMCR review below).

Abraham J. Malherbe, The Letters to the Thessalonians. Anchor Bible 32B. New York: Doubleday, 2000 in BRYN MAWR CLASSICAL REVIEW 2001.10.05 (2001) (electronic).(http://ccat.sas.upenn.edu/bmcr/2001/2001-10-05.html)

Stanley D. Anderson (ed.). Documenta Q: Reconstructions of Q Through Two Centuries of Gospel Research Excerpted, Sorted and Evaluated. Q 11:2b-4. Leuven: Peeters, 1996 in REVIEW OF BIBLICAL LITERATURE 4-02-01 (2001) (electronic).(http://www.bookreviews.org/pdf/369_1041.pdf)

Joseph M. Bryant, Moral Codes and Social Structure in Ancient Greece: A Sociology of Greek Ethics from Homer to the Epicureans and Stoics. Albany: State University of New York, 1996 in STUDIES IN RELIGION 29 (2000) 210-11.

Bruce W. Winter, Philo and Paul among the Sophists. Society for New Testament Studies Monograph Series 96. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1997 in BRYN MAWR CLASSICAL REVIEW 99.2.13 (1999). (electronic). (http://www.stwing.upenn.edu/~shengx/1999-02-13.html)

J. T. Forestell, As Ministers of Christ: The Christological Dimension of Ministry in the New Testament. New York/Mahwah: Paulist Press, 1991 in STUDIES IN RELIGION 23 (1994) 105-106.

Benjamin J. Smillie, Social Ethics: A Biblical Perspective. The McGeachy Papers 3. Toronto: The United Church Publishing House, 1992 in STUDIES IN RELIGION 22 (1993) 379- 80.

(b) Dictionary Articles:

G. Shipley, J. Vanderspoel, et al. (eds.). The Cambridge Guide to Classical Civilization. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press (forthcoming).

The following entries:

"Capitolium"
"Fortuna"
"Gods and Goddesses (Greek and Roman)"
"Isis"
"Mother Goddesses"
"Mystery Religions"
"Roma"
"Silvanus"
"Vestal Virgins"

B. Todd (ed.). Dictionary of British Classicists. Bristol: Thoemmes Press (forthcoming):

As contributor:

"Bevan, Edwyn (1870-1943)"
"Charles, Robert Henry (1855-1931)"
"Farnell, Lewis Richard (1856-1934)"
"Hatch, Edwin (1835-1889)"
"Max Müller, F. (1823-1900)"
"Thackeray, Henry St. John (1869-1930)"

As Editor for Religion and Myth:

Burkitt, Francis Crawford (1864-1935)
Conybeare, Frederic Cornwallis (1856-1924)
Dodd, Charles Harold (1884-1973)
Frazer, James George (1854-1941)
Harris, James Rendel (1852-1941)
Hort, Fenton John Anthony (1828-1892)
Hoskyns, Edwyn Clement (1884-1937)
Kilpatrick, George Dunbar (1910-1989)
Lake, Kirsopp (1872-1946)
Lampe, Geoffrey William Hugo (1912-80)
Lang, Andrew (1844-1912)
Lightfoot, Joseph Barber. (1828-1889)
Mill(s), John (1665-1707)
Moulton, James Hope (1863-1917)
Nock, Arthur Darby (1902-1963)
Parke, Herbert William (1903-1988)
Rose, Herbert Jennings (1883-1961)
Sanday, William (1843-1920)
Streeter, Burnett Hillman (1874-1937)
Ussher, James (1581-1656)
Westcott, Brooke Foss (1825-1901)

"Athletics" in Craig Evans and Stanley Porter, (eds.). Dictionary of New Testament Background Downers Grove/Leicester: IVP, 2000. 140-42.

"Prophets and Prophecy" in Craig Evans and Stanley Porter, (eds.). Dictionary of New Testament Background (Downers Grove/Leicester: IVP, 2000) 830-35.

"Temples" in Craig Evans and Stanley Porter, (eds.). Dictionary of New Testament Background Downers Grove/Leicester: IVP, 2000. 1186-88.

"Theaters" in Craig Evans and Stanley Porter, (eds.). Dictionary of New Testament Background Downers Grove/Leicester: IVP, 2000. 1218-21.

(c) Non-refereed Articles:

"All about Sibyl" in The Armchair Classicist: Official Newsletter of the Northwest Society for Classical Studies Vol. 1 No. 3 (1998). (electronic).

Artistic Works

Editor and consultant for the children's book: Sheldon Oberman, Island of the Minotaur. Vancouver. Tradewind Books, 2003.

Work Submitted

Book: "…So They Went Out." The Lives of Adam and Eve as Cultural Transformative Story. (in collaboration with D. Arbel and D. Neufeld).

Work in Progress

Book: Extra-Muros: The 'Parting of the Ways' according to Matthew.

Article: "Jerusalem the Leaden: Matthew's Rejection of the Holy City."

Article: "Saramago's Gospel: Renan's Vie, Redivivus?"

Article: "Matthew's Crowds and the Keys to the Kingdom"

Article: "The Gospel of Adam and Eve"

Article: "God, the Bad and the Ugly: The Vi(t)a Negativa of Nick Cave and P.J. Harvey"