Dr. Colleen Shantz

Teaching and Research Interests

  • New Testament Social World
  • Social Scientific Approaches
  • Early Christian Religious Experience
  • Cognitive Science of Religion

 

Dr. Colleen Shantz has held a teaching position in the Faculty of Theology since 2003 and is cross-listed to the Department for the Study of Religion in the University of Toronto. Her research explores the general category of experience as an important element in the texts of the New Testament, and in early Christianity and Mediterranean antiquity more generally. Her current research projects include, first, an analysis of the dynamics of emotion and affect in the earliest Christ groups and, second, application of evolutionary and systems theory to the enduring puzzle of the rapid development of Christianity.

For several years Dr. Shantz taught a required course for PhD students on pedagogy and course design. She remains interested in designing assignments that better prepare students for their future engagement with the Bible and the skills that facilitate effective scholarship. She is active in the Society of Biblical Literature and the Canadian Society of Biblical studies where she is President for 2020-21.