David Brakke

David Bernhard Brakke (born 1961) is an American New Testament scholar and historian of Christianity. He is Professor and Engle Chair in the History of Christianity at the Ohio State University. His work focuses on the first five centuries of Christianity, with particular focus on Christian asceticism, monasticism, Gnosticism, and the development of Christianity in Egypt, including several works on the Church Father Athanasius of Alexandria.

Career

Brakke He received a B.A. in English from the University of Virginia in 1983, a Master of Divinity from Harvard University in 1986, and a Ph.D. in religious studies from Yale University in 1992. He was a visiting assistant professor at Concordia College from 1992 to 1993, and joined the faculty at Indiana University, Bloomington in 1993, where he was awarded a Mellon Fellow in the Humanities and recognized as Indiana University Outstanding Junior Faculty. He remained at Indiana for the next nineteen years before moving to OSU.

He is the author of many academic books, many of which have been very well received in the academic community. His The Gnostics: Myth, Ritual, and Diversity in Early Christianity (Harvard University Press, 2010) argues that the contested categories of "Gnosticism," "orthodoxy," and "heresy" in the era before Constantine the Great should be approached through a social and cultural lens. It was named a Choice Outstanding Academic Title for 2011.

Personal life

Brakke was born on May 10, 1961, in Long Beach, California.

Bibliography

• The Gnostics: Myth, Ritual, and Diversity in Early Christianity. Harvard University Press, US. 2010. ISBN 9780674066038.
• David Brakke — Google Scholar entry