A. K. M. Adam teaches New Testament studies at Princeton Theological Seminary. He received his Ph.D. in New Testament from Duke University in 1991. He is particularly interested in hermeneutics, New Testament theology, and postmodern philosophy. He has written What Is Postmodern Biblical Criticism? (Fortress Press, 1995) and Making Sense of New Testament Theology (Mercer Univ. Press, 1995), which explore the terrain at the intersection of these interests. Adam has written articles on literary theory, New Testament theology and ethics, and Josephus. He teaches courses on the Gospel of Matthew, the Letter of James, literary criticism, hermeneutics, and New Testament theology. Docetism.

Edward A. Beach is an assistant professor of Philosophy and Religion at the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire. He holds a Ph.D. in Philosophy from Northwestern University (1980), plus a second doctorate in Religious Studies from Stanford University (1988). His areas of specialization include the History of Modern Philosophy, 19th Century Continental Philosophy (especially German Idealism), Philosophy of Religion, and Comparative Religion. He has published on Hegel, Schelling, relativism, and the dialectical method. His most recent work is a book entitled The Potencies of God(s): Schelling's Philosophy of Mythology (SUNY Press, 1994). He is the author of Boehme, Jakob, which has been translated into Portuguese, and The Eleusinian Mysteries.

Anthony F. Beavers earned his Ph.D. in Philosophy from Marquette University in 1990. His current research is devoted to metaphysical and ethical transformations in Western and Near Eastern history from 600 BCE to 600 CE. Beavers has published papers on Aristotle, Descartes, Spinoza, Kant and Sartre. His recent book, Levinas beyond the Horizons of Cartesianism (Peter Lang, 1995), lays out the directions of his current research. He teaches courses on Greek metaphysics and early Christian thought (among others) at the University of Evansville, where he is an assistant professor. Beavers founded the Ecole Initiative and was its General Editor from 1995-1996. He is also General Editor of Exploring Ancient World Cultures. He is also the Religion Editor of the Orb Project, an on-line reference book for Medieval Studies. The Arian Controversy, The Cappadocian Fathers on the Trinity (forthcoming), A Chronology of the Arian Controversy, Monarchianism, Plotinus (forthcoming).

Helen Bond is Lecturer in New Testament Studies in the Department of Divinity with Religious Studies at the University of Aberdeen in Scotland. She received her doctorate at Durham University in 1994 after writing a dissertation entitled 'Pontius Pilate in History and Interpretation'. Her main research interests are the Jewish and Graeco-Roman worlds from which the New Testament writings emerged and the government of Judaea in the first century. Her article 'The Coins of Pontius Pilate: Part of an Attempt to Provoke the People or to Integrate them into the Empire?' will be published in the Journal for the Study of Judaism, issue XXVII/3 September 1996. She has also collaborated with G.J. Brooke on a microfiche catalogue of John Allegro's photographs of Qumran and the Dead Sea Scrolls, 'The Allegro Qumran Photograph Collection' (E.J. Brill/IDC, Leiden, 1996). Pontius Pilate.

William R. Connolly, Professor of Philosophy and Religion, earned his Ph.D. in Philosophy from Michigan State University in 1973. His dissertation was titled, "The Given and the A Priori: Some Issues in the Epistemology of C. I. Lewis." Connolly works in the areas of philosophy of science, epistemology and the philosophy of law. He has presented papers in a variety of areas, including the social philosophy of John Rawls, ethical and legal issues involving trade secrets, John Henry Newman's theory of assent and inference, morality and formal organizations, Jonathan Edwards, and Samuel Johnson's disputes with Hume. Connolly has been on the faculty at the University of Evansville since 1971. He also served as Visiting Assistant Professor of Philosohy at the University of Pittsburgh in 1972. Stoicism.

Dale M. Coulter is a doctoral candidate in Medieval studies at the University of Oxford. His thesis focuses on Richard of St. Victor's thought and its contribution to the attempt by Hugh of St. Victor to develop a theological system centered on a recovery of the imago dei. His primary interests are on the school of St. Victor and the theological developments during the renaissance of the Twelfth century. He is also interested in the historical devlopment of the canons regular from the XI to XII Century. He is the author of The School of St. Victor in the Twelfth Century (forthcoming).

Ivor J. Davidson teaches Systematic Theology at the University of Otago in Dunedin, New Zealand. Prior to taking up his current appointment in 1997 he lectured in the Faculty of Divinity at the University of St. Andrews in Scotland. He is a graduate in Classics and Theology from the Universities of Glasgow and Edinburgh, and he completed his Ph.D. on Ambrose. He currently teaches core and advanced papers and supervises postgraduates working throughout the spectrum of Systematic Theology, but his special interests lie in Christology, Soteriology, and Trinitarian theology. He has published on a variety of subjects in the early church period, especially Ambrose and Jerome, as well as in modern Christology and the theology of Eberhard Jüngel. He has recently completed a major new introduction to, text and English translation of, and commentary upon Ambrose's De officiis. He is the author of Ambrose of Milan, Ambrose's De Officiis, and Jerome.

Douglas de Lacey is a member and sometime Scholar of St John's College, Cambridge, UK, from where he received his MA and PhD degrees. He has taught in Cambridge University as well as at London Bible College and Ridley Hall Theological College. He has also worked on the Genizah Unit in the Cambridge University Library before taking up a post as Computer Officer for the School of Arts and Humanities in the University in order to co-ordinate computer applications in Humanities research. His own major research interests are in second-temple Jewish religious groups and the birth of Christianity. Pharisees, Sadducees.

Anders Ekenberg, b. 1946, is Assistant Professor of New Testament exegesis, Uppsala university. His doctoral thesis,CUR CANTATUR? (1985, printed 1987), not seldom quoted in present studies on Medieval liturgy and music, centered on how one conceived song and singing in Christian worship in the VIII and IX Centuries. His further studies led him to return to teaching New Testament exegesis, but maintaining a strong interest in Patristic scholarschip, as demonstrated in a commented edition of "The Apostolic Tradition" of Hippolytus of Rome. At present, he is pursuing both New Testament researches, primarily on the Gospel of John, and studies in Patristics and in Medieval liturgy and Gregorian chant. He is the author of Eucharistic Prayer (forthcoming).

Michael Eugene Foat is an assistant professor of Religion and Humanities at Reed College. He received the Ph.D. in Religion from Brown University in 1996, and the M.T.S. from the Harvard Divinity School in 1989. His research focuses on Egyptian religions of the fourth and fifth centuries. He is the author of Shenoute of Atripe (forthcoming).

Alison B. Griffith is an assistant professor of Archaeology and Art History at the University of Evansville. She received her doctorate in Classical Art and Archaeology in 1993 from the University of Michigan, where she also earned a Master's degree in Latin in 1989. Her dissertation, "The Archaeological Evidence for Mithraism in Imperial Rome" reviews the evidence for Mithraism in the capital by focusing on the extant mithraea and reconstructing their immediate topographical, historical and social contexts. She has excavated at sites in France, Wales, Israel, Italy, Carthage, Tunisia and most recently at the University of Evansville excavations at Murlo, Italy, where she was assistant director. Mithraism.

Paul Hartog is currently a Ph.D. candidate in New Testament and Early Christianity at Loyola University of Chicago, where he also serves as an adjunct faculty member. His academic interests include the Johannine literature, second-century Christianity, and early Christian social ethics. His doctoral dissertation examines the use of the New Testament in Polycarp's EPISTLE TO THE PHILIPPIANS. He is a graduate of Faith Baptist Theological Seminary (M.Div.) and Iowa State University (M.A. in history), where his master's thesis investigated THE HISTORICAL BACKGROUND OF THE "PLEA" BY ATHENAGORAS. He is the author of articles on Polycarp (forthcoming) and Athenagoras.

Timothy J. Horner has recently finished his D.Phil. thesis at the University of Oxford. This thesis is a literary analysis of Justin Martyr’s Dialogue with Trypho which challenges many long-held beliefs about its literary form, its apologetic purpose, and the depiction of Trypho in the text. His academic interests are in early Christianity and Jewish/Christian relations during the common era. He has published two articles on Justin (Churchman 110, 1996 & Covenant Quarterly 56, 1998) and has written several book reviews for the Journal of Early Christian Studies. He is the author of Early Christian/Jewish Relations: Jews and Judaism in Christian Writings of the Second Century CE.

Sharon Kaye is a PhD student in the department of philosophy at the University of Toronto. Her thesis, Heresy, Then and Now, investigates religious thinkers who have tested the limits of tolerance. She recently published "Against a Straussian Interpretation of Marsilius of Padua's Poverty Thesis" in the History of Philosophy Quarterly (July, 1994): 269-280. Heresy, A Survey from 200 to 1500 CE (forthcoming).

Karen Rae Keck is an independent scholar and free-lance writer based in Lubbock, Texas. She is an editor at the St. Pachomius Orthodox Library and has produced the first English translations of the Life of St. Rupert of Salzburg and the Apophthegmata of St. Gildas the Wise. Her translation of The Formulae of St. Eucherius of Lyons is available on her homepage. She and Norman Hugh Redington are general editors and maintain the Early Church Documents page and the Index of Images for the Ecole Initiative.

Alexander Mirkovic is currently a Ph. D. candidate in New Testament and History of Christianity at Vanderbilt University. His main interest lies in history, politics, and religion of the Hellenistic Period and Late Antiquity. He is working on the dissertation entitled "Legend, Virtue, and Politics on the Edge of the Empire: King Abgar of Edessa and His Correspondence with Jesus." The dissertation examines the conversion of the royal house of Edessa in light of political philosophy of Eusebius who first recorded it in his Ecclesiastical History. It also makes sociological comparisons with similar Jewish and Christian stories of royal patronage. He is the author of Edessa (Parthian Period).

Bradley P. Nystrom earned his doctorate in ancient history from the University of California at Davis and is now Associate Professor in the Department of Humanities and Religious Studies at California State University, Sacramento. He has published articles on early Christian epigraphy, two volumes of Greek and Latin historical documents, and a collection of his translations of Greek erotic poetry, The Song of Eros (Southern Illinois University Press, 1991). He is the author of Christianity in Crete (to 827).

Michael O'Laughlin holds advanced degrees in Theology from Oxford and Harvard Universities. His doctoral thesis focused on the desert father and theologian, Evagrius Ponticus. Dr. O'Laughlin received his training in Spirituality from Henri Nouwen. He has worked as a teacher of Scripture for the Catholic Church, as well as for several colleges and universities. He currently teaches and gives spiritual direction from his office at the Healing Center in Arlington, Massachusetts. He is the author of Evagrius Ponticus in Spiritual Perspective (forthcoming).

Kim Paffenroth currently teaches as an Arthur J. Ennis Fellow in the Core Humanities Program at Villanova University. He has also taught at the University of Notre Dame and Southwestern Michigan College. He has received degrees in Theology from the University of Notre Dame (Ph.D.) and from Harvard Divinity School (M.T.S.); as an undergraduate he studied Liberal Arts at St. John's College, Annapolis. He has published extensively on the New Testament, including his book, The Story of Jesus according to L (Sheffield: Sheffield Academic Press, 1997). He has also published articles on Augustine, as well as translations of several of his works. He is the author of Allegorizations of the Active and Contemplative Lives in Philo, Origen, Augustine, and Gregory.

Leo Percer is currently a Ph.D. Candidate at Baylor University where he is writing a dissertation on the role of Michael, the archangel, in the war of Revelation 12. His primary interests are in canonical/sociological criticism, angels in apocalyptic literature, the development of first century Christian and Jewish theology with particular focus on ideas related to aspects of Messianism. He is also interested in Gnosticism and Qumran studies. Percer earned his MDiv from Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville, Kentucky in 1985, and his M.A. in humanities (philosophy and religion) from Western Kentucky University in 1989. He maintains the Bibliography for the Ecole Initiative.

R. Wayne Perkins, Ph.D., Boston University, 1967, came to the University of Evansville in 1965 and is a professor of philosophy and religion. His areas of specialization include systematic theology, history of Christian thought, biblical theology, world religions, religious and social ethics, and thanatology. His published papers focus on modern religious thinkers, particularly on Schleiermacher and Tillich. Two of his most recent publications include "The Christologies of Tillich and Schleiermacher" chapter 4 in Schleiermacher at the Growing Edge of Theology Today, edited by Terrence Tice et al. (Elon, N.C.: Elon College Press, 1993); and "Learning From Conflicts Involving Religions," chapter 4 in The Proceedings, edited by Harry Hale, Jr. (Monroe, La.: Northeast Louisiana University Press, 1994). Augustine's Doctrine of Original Sin (forthcoming).

Norman Hugh Redington, an astrophysicist and editor of the MIT-based online journal Net Advance of Physics, is one of the editors at the St. Pachomius Orthodox Library. He is also writing a history of Orthodox Christianity in the Caribbean. He and Karen Rae Keck are general editors and maintain the Early Church Documents page and the Index of Images for the Ecole Initiative.

David L. Riggs is a doctoral student in the Sub-faculty of Ancient History at the University of Oxford. He is particularly interested in early Christian apologetics and the social world of ancient Christianity. He recently completed an M.Phil. in Roman History at Oxford, focusing primarily on the social and historical context of religions in the Roman empire. His M.Phil. thesis centered on pagan-Christian polemic in the later Roman West ("Orosius' Historiæ adversus paganos: A Contextual Study of His Apologetic Enterprise"). Riggs has also earned an M.Div. from Princeton Theological Seminary. He is the author of Christian Persecutions in the Roman Empire (forthcoming).

Robert Rivers was born in Atlanta, Georgia. In 1995, he received a Bachelor of Science degree in the History of Technology and Society from the Georgia Institute of Technology. He has studied at Saint Meinrad School of Theology in Indiana. In August 1997 he entered the community of Benedictine monks at Saint Meinrad Archabbey.

Timothy W. Seid is currently a Ph.D. Candidate at Brown University in the Religious Studies Department. His dissertation is entitled "The Rhetorical Form of the Melchizedek/Christ Comparison in Hebrews 7" in which he argues that the prevailing literary form of Hebrews is not midrash or a type of synagogue sermon; it is a written encomiastic speech employing synkrisis as described by the Elementary Exercises of Theon, Hermogenes and Aphthonius and practiced by such authors as Isocrates and Plutarch. Seid earned an M.A. in Theological Studies from Wheaton College Graduate School. He works as a computer consultant and has developed the Interpreting Ancient Manuscripts Web. Christianity in Gaza, Dorotheos of Gaza.

Ingrid H. Shafer, Ph.D. is Professor of Philosophy and Religion and Mary Jo Ragan Professor of Interdisciplinary Studies at the University of Science and Arts of Oklahoma where she has developed and taught a series of global history of ideas courses since 1968. She is the author of Eros and the Womanliness of God (1986), The Incarnate Imagination (1988), and Andrew Greeley's World (1989). She has published articles on the intersection of theology and literature, theology and science, and Holocaust studies. She regularly writes sermons for Good News, a homily service. She has been an invited lecturer at symposia and conferences at the University of Chicago, Lutheran School of Theology, Temple University, Berkeley, and the University of Graz, Austria (where she chaired a workshop on the future of the Catholic Church in 1994). She has created and maintains the WWW sites of the Association for the Rights of Catholics in the Church and the Chicago Center for Religion and Science, and administrates the internet forums, Vatican2, G-ethic (Global Ethic list), and Greeley (Greeley list), all at vm.temple.edu. She is the author of The Holy Grail and Pacts with the Devil: Faust and Precursors .

Timothy M. Teeter is an assistant professor in the Department of History at Georgia Southern University, located in Statesboro, Georgia, about fifty miles west of Savannah. He received his doctorate in ancient history from Columbia University in 1989 after completing an edition of several early Christian papyri in the Columbia collection for his dissertation. After teaching for one year each in Montana and Connecticut, he came to his present position in 1991. He teaches surveys of Greek and Roman history as well as advanced courses in Latin and early Christianity. His academic interests include papyrology, epigraphy, and early Christianity as well as classical history in general. He is married to the former Antonina Buld. Athanasius (forthcoming), Papyrology (forthcoming).

Laurent Terrade, Agrégé of History, is a PhD student at St. Edmund's College (Cambridge). He is currently writing a dissertation on the Provençal Hagiography of the Early Middle Ages (C5-C11), which focuses on the influence of classical and christian antecedents in the ideal depiction of the bishops. He works, along with a research team of the Centre Paul-Albert Février (CNRS/University of Provence) on a new edition of the Epigrammata Damasiana. He has worked on the religious and cultural history of the Late Antique world for his MA (The Festival of the Kalends of January in Late Antiquity, 1991) and MPhil theses (The City of Arles between Antiquity and Middle Ages, 1996). Hilary of Arles' Life of Honoratus.

Roland J. Teske, S.J. earned his Ph.D. from the University of Toronto in 1973 and his S.T.L. from St. Louis University in 1966. He has published several books on topics relating to early Church history, including translations of works by William of Auvergne, Augustine and Henry of Ghent. His latest book, St. Augustine: Arianism and Other Heresies, will soon be published by New City Press. He has also published over 50 articles on a variety of topics relating to medieval theological thought and has served on the editorial boards of several journals. Currently, Fr. Teske teaches medieval philosophy at Marquette University. He joins the Ecole Initiative as an Editorial Advisor.

Walter H. Wagner earned a B.A. from Gettysburg College, an M.Div. from Lutheran Theological Seminary in Philadelphia, a Ph.D. from Drew University and an M.A. from Princeton Theological Seminary. He is currently the senior pastor at Christ Lutheran Church, in Allentown, Pennsylvania and an adjunct professor at Moravian Theological Seminary, in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania. He has served Lutheran congregations in New Jersey and Pennsylvania and has served as the director for theological education of the Lutheran Church in America. He has held regular faculty positions at California Lutheran College, Upsala College, and Muhlenberg College. Wagner has published articles on Early Christianity, Philo, The Reformation, Islam, Educational Theory, and Ministry. His book, After The Apostles. Christianity In The Second Century was published by Fortress Press in 1994. Clement of Alexandria (forthcoming).

Johanna Maria van Winter retired as a full professor in Medieval History at the Utrecht University (The Netherlands) in 1989, but is still very busy with her research. After having studied History at the universities of Groningen (The Netherlands) and Gent (Belgium), she received her doctorate in Utrecht in 1962 with a dissertation titled Ministerialiteit en ridderschap in Gelre en Zutphen [Ministeriality and chivalry in Guelders and Zutphen] (printed in 2 volumes, Wolters-Noordhof, Groningen 1962). Shortly afterwards, in January 1963, she started her research of the Order of the Hospitallers of St.John in the Netherlands till the French Revolution, by working in the archives of Valletta (Malta) and Karlsruhe (Germany) for several months. After many breaks this research resulted in her recently published book, Sources concerning the Hospitallers of St.John in the Netherlands, 14th-18th centuries, Leiden-Boston Mass. 1998 (Brill, Studies in the History of Christian Thought, vol.80); 821 pp. Her research further concerns knighthood and chivalry, regional history of the province of Utrecht in the Middle Ages, and medieval food habits. She is the author of The Hospitallers of St. John in the Netherlands.