Stanley K. Stowers, Professor of Religious Studies, works in the areas of early Christian history and literature, Hellenistic philosophy and early Christianity, Greek religion, and theory and method in the study of religion. He teaches courses in early Christianity, Greco-Roman religions and has taught the department's required seminars for concentrators and for graduate students on theory and method in the study of religion for many years. He has also taught comparative/critical problems in the history of religions courses such as "Sacrifice and Society," and has co-taught a large comparative literature course, "Secular and Sacred Readings." In addition to serving as department Chair, Stowers served ten years as Director of Graduate Study.
Stowers has authored A Rereading of Romans: Justice, Jews and Gentiles (Yale University Press, 1994), Letter Writing in Greco-Roman Antiquity (Westminster, 1986), The Diatribe and Paul's Letter to the Romans (Scholars Press, 1981) and has published more than thirty articles in books and peer reviewed journals, including a commentary on Fourth Maccabees (Harper's Bible Commentary).
He has given invited lectures at many universities and conferences. He has been a founding member and steering committee member of several program units in the Society of Biblical Literature, including: The Social History of Formative Christianity and Judaism, Hellenistic Moral Philosophy and Early Christianity, Ancient Myths and Modern Theories of Christian Origins; as well as a member of the steering committee of Rhetorical Criticism of the New Testament.
He has served on the editorial board of the Society of Biblical Literature and has been elected president of the New England Region of the Society of Biblical Literature for 2003-04. Fellowships awarded to him include: a Woodrow Wilson Center Fellowship (1992); a National Endowment for the Humanities Summer Fellowship (1991); a National Endowment for the Humanities Fellowship for University Teachers (1991); a FIAT Fellowship to the Officina dei Papiri, Biblioteca Nazionale, Naples (1990); Wayland Collegium Grants (1991, 1982); National Endowment for the Humanities Seminar for College Teachers (1980). In 1997, he received the Harriet W. Sheridan Award for Distinguished Contributions to Teaching and Learning at Brown. In the Spring of 2001, he taught a seminar for graduate students at the University of Bologna.
