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William Arnal

University of Regina, Religious Studies, Faculty Member

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Interview at RSP: https://www.religiousstudiesproject.com/podcast/ancient-christian-origins-a-heterogeneous-history/

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Papers by William Arnal

The state, the gods and the imagination; or, David Graeber as a theorist of religion

Studies in Religion/Sciences Religieuses

This short article suggests that the writings of the recently deceased anthropologist David Graeb... more This short article suggests that the writings of the recently deceased anthropologist David Graeber have a great deal to contribute to the study of religion. Drawing from a wide array of works by Graeber and his collaborators, the article sketches out his basic social theory, focusing on his insistence on the creative dimension of human social activity. It then focuses on the relevance of religion – specifically, the fabrication and modification of ‘metahuman persons’ – for the creation of new social forms. Finally, the implications of this theoretical framework are sketched out – that is, that the study of religion should focus on its creative and imaginative aspects.

An Anarchist Meets the Demiurge: Power and Utopia in Hypostasis of the Archons

Asdiwal 18, 2023

The following article applies some of the anthropological insights of David Graeber, in conjuncti... more The following article applies some of the anthropological insights of David Graeber, in conjunction with those of Marshall Sahlins and David Wengrow, to a reading of the Nag Hammadi text Hypostasis of the Archons. The text emerges as a critique of political sovereignty, articulated by casting « metahuman persons » in particular roles. This allows us to view the document as something rather more than sectarian literature: as an imaginative fabrication of a bureaucratic cosmic polity in service to the value of truth and knowledge, rather than brute force.

Minding the Margins: "Scholia" in the text of the Gospel of Thomas

Journal of Early Christian Studies, 2021

The following article aims to contribute to the scholarly discussion of both the development and ... more The following article aims to contribute to the scholarly discussion of both the development and the uses of the text of the Gospel of Thomas, now extant only in a single, fourth-century Coptic manuscript, with very fragmentary attestation of a few sayings among the Oxyrhynchus papyri as well. Here the concern is with post-compositional changes to the (Coptic) text, as opposed to redactional and pre-redactional literary developments. Specifically, the article examines in some detail four of the sayings (G. Thom. 111, 45, 29, and 61) identified by Uwe-Karsten Plisch as interpretive glosses, concluding, on the basis of mainly internal evidence, that in at least three of these cases, there are good arguments to be made that the form of the saying in our Coptic manuscript has been embellished by interpretive comments, perhaps originating as marginalia. The article also aims to link this phenomenon of interpretive glosses “getting into” copies of the text to the scholarly culture of antiquity, finding analogues for this kind of textual change not only in the NT texts, but also and especially in school- and study-oriented classical texts such as Homer and Isocrates.

Markus Vinzent, Christ’s Resurrection in Early Christianity and the Making of the New Testament

Journal of Religion in Europe, 2012

Markus Vinzent's Christ's Resurrection in Early Christianity and the Making of the New Testament ... more Markus Vinzent's Christ's Resurrection in Early Christianity and the Making of the New Testament offers a provocative, vigorously-argued, and potentially gamechanging thesis. Vinzent argues that the supposed hallmark of Christian identity, the resurrection of Jesus, was not a central part of Christian practice, liturgy, or theological reflection until the middle of the second century or even later. The authentic letters of Paul, of course, reveal a profound and defining preoccupation with the resurrection, but Paul appears to be something of an outlier. Between Paul's idiosyncratic (even in his own time: 1 Cor 15:35-55) emphasis on a resurrected Jesus, and about 140 CE or so, the bulk of datable Christian material seems not to be especially interested in Jesus' resurrection. The notion is either absent, or mentioned only in passing, in 1 and 2 Timothy, Titus, Hebrews, James, 2 Peter, 1-3 John, Jude, and the Apocalypse, as well as non-canonical writings like the Didache, Hermas, 2 Clement, or Quadratus. If we take this evidence seriously, rather than imposing a romantic notion of Christianity as impelled by and coextensive with belief in the resurrection, we are forced to conclude, according to Vinzent, that a core focus on Jesus' resurrection came late to Christianity, and did not universally mark its originary period. Important to this argument is the recognition that a good deal of ancient Christian imagery, ritual, and (especially) writing did focus on Jesus' death. The cross and the resurrection need not be seen as an indivisible piece. Indeed, Vinzent argues, the death of Jesus posed no real intellectual challenge to his original followers: it was quickly and easily assimilated into the model of the righteous martyr. The cross was indeed important to at least some of the first Christians, and represented in its own way a technique for making sense of Jesus and valorizing him. The victory over the cross in the form of the resurrection, however, was a dominant factor in Christian thought and ritual only much later. This part of the argument is both convincing and important. Vinzent makes a solid case, not simply for the absence of consistent early interest in the resurrection of Jesus, but also for active discomfort with the idea of Jesus' resurrection even in Pauline circles. He cites, for example, the pseudonymous 2 Thessalonians as an instance of Pauline circles aiming to 'correct' Paul; in this case, by casting aspersions on the legitimacy of (the authentic) 1 Thessalonians (44-45). According to

The Gospel of Mark as Reflection on Exile and Identity

In Willi Braun and Russell T. McCutcheon (eds.), Introducing Religion, 2007

A Parting of the Ways? Scholarly Identities and a Peculiar Species of Ancient Mediterranean Religion

Identity and Interaction in the Ancient Mediterranean: Jews, Christians and Others (Essays in Honour of Stephen G. Wilson), eds. Zeba Crook and Phil Harland, 2007

The Q Document (typescript)

Pp. 119-154 in Matt Jackson-McCabe (ed.), Jewish Christianity/Christian Judaism: Classification and Description in Contemporary Study. Minneapolis: Fortress, 2007

Gendered Couplets in Q and Legal Formulations: From Rhetoric to Social History

Journal of Biblical Literature 116/1 (Spring, 1997): 75-94, 1997

What branches grow out of this stony rubbish? Christian Origins and the Study of Religion

Studies in Religion 39/4 (2010): 549-572, 2010

The Trouble with Q

Foundations & Facets Forum 2/1, third series (Spring 2013): 7-77, 2013

The Synoptic Problem and the Historical Jesus

Pp.371-432 in P. Foster, et al. (eds.), New Studies in the Synoptic Problem. Bibliotheca Ephemeridum Theologicarum Lovaniensium 239; Leuven: Peeters, 2011

What Kind of Category is ‘Religion’?

Pp.421-434 in Richard King (ed.), Religion / Theory / Critique: Classic and Contemporary Approaches and Methodologies. New York: Columbia University Press, 2017

«Dans l'entre-deux surgit la fiction » : apprendre de Jonathan Z. Smith

Asdiwal: Revue genevoise d'anthropologie et d'histoire des religions 13: 43-51, 2018

Pedagogy, Text and the Solitary Self in the Gospel of Thomas

Pp.194-211 in Alexander Damm (ed.), Religion and Education in Antiquity. Studies in the History of Religion, volume 160. Leiden: Brill., 2018

Textual Healing: Magic in Mark and Acts

Pp.87-124 in Jos Verheyden and John S. Kloppenborg, eds., The Gospels and Their Stories in Anthropological Perspective. Leuven: Peeters Press., 2018

The Collection and Synthesis of "Tradition" and the Second-Century Invention of Christianity

Method and Theory in the Study of Religion, 2011

The following paper argues that "Christianity" as a discursive entity did not exist until the sec... more The following paper argues that "Christianity" as a discursive entity did not exist until the second century CE. As a result, the first-century writings that constitute the field of inquiry for "Chris-tian origins" are not usefully conceived as "Christian" at all. They were, rather, secondarily claimed as predecessors and traditions by second-century (and later) authors engaged in a process of "inventing tradition" to make sense of their own novel institutional and social circumstances. As an illustration, the paper looks at the ways that a series of second-century authors cumulatively created the figure of Paul as a first-century predecessor, and how this process has affected the way the first-century Pauline materials are read. At issue in all of this are our imaginative conceptions of social entities (including "religions") and what they are, and of how canons and notions of social continuity attendant on them are formed.

HOW THE GOSPEL OF THOMAS WORKS

Pp.261-280 in William Arnal, Richard Ascough, Robert Derrenbacker, and Philip Harland, eds., Scribal Practices and Social Structures among Jesus Adherents: Essays in Honour of John S. Kloppenborg. Leuven: Peeters, 2016

Of the documents unearthed near Nag Hammadi in 1945 1 , none has attracted so much attention, sch... more Of the documents unearthed near Nag Hammadi in 1945 1 , none has attracted so much attention, scholarly and otherwise, as the Gospel of Thomas. The second volume of David Scholer's Nag Hammadi Bibliography, for instance, covering the period from 1970 to 1994 2 , devotes 39 pages to listing academic bibliography on Thomas. To put this in perspective, consider that Scholer requires a scant six pages to list all books, articles, reviews, and dissertations on the Apocryphon of John over a period of more than two decades. In 2012 alone, three significant new Englishlanguage books on Thomas were released 3 ; in 2014, Journal for the Study of the New Testament had a special issue largely devoted to Thomas, Simon Gathercole published a full-blown commentary 4 , and Stephen Patterson published a popular treatment 5 . The fact that Thomas is so disproportionately (at least vis-à-vis the other Nag Hammadi writings) the subject of scholarly interest means that most avenues relating to original language 6 , 1. Or otherwise acquired. See n.D. LewIs -J.

Books by William Arnal

ASDIWAL 18 (2023)

by Daniel Barbu, Stefano R . Torres, and William Arnal

ASDIWAL. Revue genevoise d'anthropologie et d'histoire des religions, 2023

ASDIWAL. Revue genevoise d’anthropologie et d’histoire des religions is an international, no-fee,... more ASDIWAL. Revue genevoise d’anthropologie et d’histoire des religions is an international, no-fee, green access, pluri-lingual, peer-reviewed academic journal. Founded in 2006, the journal has become an important voice in the study of religion. The journal seeks to foster a critical and comparative approach in the history and anthropology of religions. ASDIWAL welcomes studies that combine rigorous historical and ethnographic analyses with theoretical and/or methodological inquiries, without any limitations regarding areas and epochs. Published on a yearly basis, the journal encourages submissions by both early career scholars and distinguished scholars. All submissions undergo a double-blind peer review process. The journal does not ask authors for publication costs. Publications are freely accessible online after one year. More information on the journal, editorial guidelines and publication ethics are available on our website.

The state, the gods and the imagination; or, David Graeber as a theorist of religion

Studies in Religion/Sciences Religieuses

This short article suggests that the writings of the recently deceased anthropologist David Graeb... more This short article suggests that the writings of the recently deceased anthropologist David Graeber have a great deal to contribute to the study of religion. Drawing from a wide array of works by Graeber and his collaborators, the article sketches out his basic social theory, focusing on his insistence on the creative dimension of human social activity. It then focuses on the relevance of religion – specifically, the fabrication and modification of ‘metahuman persons’ – for the creation of new social forms. Finally, the implications of this theoretical framework are sketched out – that is, that the study of religion should focus on its creative and imaginative aspects.

An Anarchist Meets the Demiurge: Power and Utopia in Hypostasis of the Archons

Asdiwal 18, 2023

The following article applies some of the anthropological insights of David Graeber, in conjuncti... more The following article applies some of the anthropological insights of David Graeber, in conjunction with those of Marshall Sahlins and David Wengrow, to a reading of the Nag Hammadi text Hypostasis of the Archons. The text emerges as a critique of political sovereignty, articulated by casting « metahuman persons » in particular roles. This allows us to view the document as something rather more than sectarian literature: as an imaginative fabrication of a bureaucratic cosmic polity in service to the value of truth and knowledge, rather than brute force.

Minding the Margins: "Scholia" in the text of the Gospel of Thomas

Journal of Early Christian Studies, 2021

The following article aims to contribute to the scholarly discussion of both the development and ... more The following article aims to contribute to the scholarly discussion of both the development and the uses of the text of the Gospel of Thomas, now extant only in a single, fourth-century Coptic manuscript, with very fragmentary attestation of a few sayings among the Oxyrhynchus papyri as well. Here the concern is with post-compositional changes to the (Coptic) text, as opposed to redactional and pre-redactional literary developments. Specifically, the article examines in some detail four of the sayings (G. Thom. 111, 45, 29, and 61) identified by Uwe-Karsten Plisch as interpretive glosses, concluding, on the basis of mainly internal evidence, that in at least three of these cases, there are good arguments to be made that the form of the saying in our Coptic manuscript has been embellished by interpretive comments, perhaps originating as marginalia. The article also aims to link this phenomenon of interpretive glosses “getting into” copies of the text to the scholarly culture of antiquity, finding analogues for this kind of textual change not only in the NT texts, but also and especially in school- and study-oriented classical texts such as Homer and Isocrates.

Markus Vinzent, Christ’s Resurrection in Early Christianity and the Making of the New Testament

Journal of Religion in Europe, 2012

Markus Vinzent's Christ's Resurrection in Early Christianity and the Making of the New Testament ... more Markus Vinzent's Christ's Resurrection in Early Christianity and the Making of the New Testament offers a provocative, vigorously-argued, and potentially gamechanging thesis. Vinzent argues that the supposed hallmark of Christian identity, the resurrection of Jesus, was not a central part of Christian practice, liturgy, or theological reflection until the middle of the second century or even later. The authentic letters of Paul, of course, reveal a profound and defining preoccupation with the resurrection, but Paul appears to be something of an outlier. Between Paul's idiosyncratic (even in his own time: 1 Cor 15:35-55) emphasis on a resurrected Jesus, and about 140 CE or so, the bulk of datable Christian material seems not to be especially interested in Jesus' resurrection. The notion is either absent, or mentioned only in passing, in 1 and 2 Timothy, Titus, Hebrews, James, 2 Peter, 1-3 John, Jude, and the Apocalypse, as well as non-canonical writings like the Didache, Hermas, 2 Clement, or Quadratus. If we take this evidence seriously, rather than imposing a romantic notion of Christianity as impelled by and coextensive with belief in the resurrection, we are forced to conclude, according to Vinzent, that a core focus on Jesus' resurrection came late to Christianity, and did not universally mark its originary period. Important to this argument is the recognition that a good deal of ancient Christian imagery, ritual, and (especially) writing did focus on Jesus' death. The cross and the resurrection need not be seen as an indivisible piece. Indeed, Vinzent argues, the death of Jesus posed no real intellectual challenge to his original followers: it was quickly and easily assimilated into the model of the righteous martyr. The cross was indeed important to at least some of the first Christians, and represented in its own way a technique for making sense of Jesus and valorizing him. The victory over the cross in the form of the resurrection, however, was a dominant factor in Christian thought and ritual only much later. This part of the argument is both convincing and important. Vinzent makes a solid case, not simply for the absence of consistent early interest in the resurrection of Jesus, but also for active discomfort with the idea of Jesus' resurrection even in Pauline circles. He cites, for example, the pseudonymous 2 Thessalonians as an instance of Pauline circles aiming to 'correct' Paul; in this case, by casting aspersions on the legitimacy of (the authentic) 1 Thessalonians (44-45). According to

The Gospel of Mark as Reflection on Exile and Identity

In Willi Braun and Russell T. McCutcheon (eds.), Introducing Religion, 2007

A Parting of the Ways? Scholarly Identities and a Peculiar Species of Ancient Mediterranean Religion

Identity and Interaction in the Ancient Mediterranean: Jews, Christians and Others (Essays in Honour of Stephen G. Wilson), eds. Zeba Crook and Phil Harland, 2007

The Q Document (typescript)

Pp. 119-154 in Matt Jackson-McCabe (ed.), Jewish Christianity/Christian Judaism: Classification and Description in Contemporary Study. Minneapolis: Fortress, 2007

Gendered Couplets in Q and Legal Formulations: From Rhetoric to Social History

Journal of Biblical Literature 116/1 (Spring, 1997): 75-94, 1997

What branches grow out of this stony rubbish? Christian Origins and the Study of Religion

Studies in Religion 39/4 (2010): 549-572, 2010

The Trouble with Q

Foundations & Facets Forum 2/1, third series (Spring 2013): 7-77, 2013

The Synoptic Problem and the Historical Jesus

Pp.371-432 in P. Foster, et al. (eds.), New Studies in the Synoptic Problem. Bibliotheca Ephemeridum Theologicarum Lovaniensium 239; Leuven: Peeters, 2011

What Kind of Category is ‘Religion’?

Pp.421-434 in Richard King (ed.), Religion / Theory / Critique: Classic and Contemporary Approaches and Methodologies. New York: Columbia University Press, 2017

«Dans l'entre-deux surgit la fiction » : apprendre de Jonathan Z. Smith

Asdiwal: Revue genevoise d'anthropologie et d'histoire des religions 13: 43-51, 2018

Pedagogy, Text and the Solitary Self in the Gospel of Thomas

Pp.194-211 in Alexander Damm (ed.), Religion and Education in Antiquity. Studies in the History of Religion, volume 160. Leiden: Brill., 2018

Textual Healing: Magic in Mark and Acts

Pp.87-124 in Jos Verheyden and John S. Kloppenborg, eds., The Gospels and Their Stories in Anthropological Perspective. Leuven: Peeters Press., 2018

The Collection and Synthesis of "Tradition" and the Second-Century Invention of Christianity

Method and Theory in the Study of Religion, 2011

The following paper argues that "Christianity" as a discursive entity did not exist until the sec... more The following paper argues that "Christianity" as a discursive entity did not exist until the second century CE. As a result, the first-century writings that constitute the field of inquiry for "Chris-tian origins" are not usefully conceived as "Christian" at all. They were, rather, secondarily claimed as predecessors and traditions by second-century (and later) authors engaged in a process of "inventing tradition" to make sense of their own novel institutional and social circumstances. As an illustration, the paper looks at the ways that a series of second-century authors cumulatively created the figure of Paul as a first-century predecessor, and how this process has affected the way the first-century Pauline materials are read. At issue in all of this are our imaginative conceptions of social entities (including "religions") and what they are, and of how canons and notions of social continuity attendant on them are formed.

HOW THE GOSPEL OF THOMAS WORKS

Pp.261-280 in William Arnal, Richard Ascough, Robert Derrenbacker, and Philip Harland, eds., Scribal Practices and Social Structures among Jesus Adherents: Essays in Honour of John S. Kloppenborg. Leuven: Peeters, 2016

Of the documents unearthed near Nag Hammadi in 1945 1 , none has attracted so much attention, sch... more Of the documents unearthed near Nag Hammadi in 1945 1 , none has attracted so much attention, scholarly and otherwise, as the Gospel of Thomas. The second volume of David Scholer's Nag Hammadi Bibliography, for instance, covering the period from 1970 to 1994 2 , devotes 39 pages to listing academic bibliography on Thomas. To put this in perspective, consider that Scholer requires a scant six pages to list all books, articles, reviews, and dissertations on the Apocryphon of John over a period of more than two decades. In 2012 alone, three significant new Englishlanguage books on Thomas were released 3 ; in 2014, Journal for the Study of the New Testament had a special issue largely devoted to Thomas, Simon Gathercole published a full-blown commentary 4 , and Stephen Patterson published a popular treatment 5 . The fact that Thomas is so disproportionately (at least vis-à-vis the other Nag Hammadi writings) the subject of scholarly interest means that most avenues relating to original language 6 , 1. Or otherwise acquired. See n.D. LewIs -J.

ASDIWAL 18 (2023)

by Daniel Barbu, Stefano R . Torres, and William Arnal

ASDIWAL. Revue genevoise d'anthropologie et d'histoire des religions, 2023

ASDIWAL. Revue genevoise d’anthropologie et d’histoire des religions is an international, no-fee,... more ASDIWAL. Revue genevoise d’anthropologie et d’histoire des religions is an international, no-fee, green access, pluri-lingual, peer-reviewed academic journal. Founded in 2006, the journal has become an important voice in the study of religion. The journal seeks to foster a critical and comparative approach in the history and anthropology of religions. ASDIWAL welcomes studies that combine rigorous historical and ethnographic analyses with theoretical and/or methodological inquiries, without any limitations regarding areas and epochs. Published on a yearly basis, the journal encourages submissions by both early career scholars and distinguished scholars. All submissions undergo a double-blind peer review process. The journal does not ask authors for publication costs. Publications are freely accessible online after one year. More information on the journal, editorial guidelines and publication ethics are available on our website.