Stephen A Cooper Professor of Religious Studies

Stephen A. Cooper, Ph.D. (Columbia University, New York 1992) -- Professor Cooper teaches courses on the history of Christianity (including the New Testament, the early church, and the Protestant Reformation) and the Psychology of Religion. His research has focused on the patristic interpretation of the Pauline letters and highlights the role of Greco-Roman philosophy and rhetoric in early Christian biblical exegesis. Cooper's most recent book is The Philosophy, Theology, and Rhetoric of Marius Victorinus, a volume of collected essays co-edited with Václav Němec  and published in the series Writings from the Greco-Roman World Supplements  by the Society of Biblical Literature (2022). He is now engaged in a project with two other scholars to translate the first complete set of Latin commentaries on the Pauline epistles, written by the anonymous fourth-century exegete known as Ambrosiaster. The first volume has been published by the Society of Biblical Literature (in the series Writings from the Greco-Roman World; 2017) and the second volume is under preparation. 

He has also published:

* "Ambrosiaster as Paul-Commentator: Exegetical Methods and Aims
in His Treatment of Colossians," in  Early Christian Commentators of The New Testament: Essays on their aims, methods and strategies, edited by 
Joseph Verheyden and Tobias Nicklas (Leuven: Peeters, 2021).

* Marius Victorinus’s Commentary on Paul’s Letter to the Galatians (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2005).

* Augustine for Armchair Theologians, with illustrations by Ron Hill (Louisville: Westminster John Knox, 2002).

* "Narratio and Exhortatio in Galatians according to Marius Victorinus Rhetor", Zeitschrift für die Neutestamentliche Wissenschaft, vol. 91, 2000, 107-35.

* "Scripture at Cassiciacum: I Corinthians 13:13 in the Soliloquies", Augustinian Studies, vol. 27, 1996, 21-47.

* Metaphysics and Morals: Marius Victornius' Commentary on the Letter to the Ephesians (Peter Lang, 1995).