Luigi Walt

Kurzbiografie

Luigi Walt (b. 1975) is a Research Fellow at the Centre for Advanced Studies “Beyond Canon”, University of Regensburg. His research work focuses on the history of the early Jesus movement(s), on Paul and Pauline literature, and more generally on the study of early Jewish and Christian texts from a sociocultural perspective. While completing a monograph on the apocryphal book of Sixth Ezra, he is currently engaged in a comparative study on the rise and evolution of literary genres in ancient Christianity, interpreted against the background of late antique practices of book reading and oral storytelling.

Education

2008, Ph.D. in Religious Studies, University of Bologna, Italy. Dissertation advisors: Mauro Pesce (University of Bologna), Enrico Norelli (University of Geneva, Switzerland)
2003, M.A., summa cum laude, in Arts and Humanities (specialization area: History of Religions), University of Trieste, Italy

Academic Appointments

Since 2018, Research Fellow at the Centre for Advanced Studies “Beyond Canon”, University of Regensburg. Research topics: Rise and evolution of literary genres in ancient Christian literature; Visual culture and religious memory in Late Antiquity
2017–2018, Lecturer in New Testament Studies, Department of New Testament Exegesis and Hermeneutics, University of Regensburg
2014–2016, Postdoctoral Research Fellow (DFG Eigene Stelle), Department of New Testament Exegesis and Hermeneutics, University of Regensburg. Research project: “Intertextuality and the Arts of Resistance: A Socio-Rhetorical Commentary on the Sixth Book of Ezra”
2013–2014, Adjunct Researcher, Department of Human Sciences, University of Catania, Italy. Research project: “The Early Christian Groups in Corinth (1st–2nd Cent. CE): Gender Dynamics, Plurality, and Conflict”
2010–2012, Postdoctoral Research Fellow at the Department of Humanities, University of Udine, Italy. Research Project: “The Theodorian Mosaic Floor and the Beginnings of Christianity in Aquileia”
2008–2009, Teaching Assistant and Scientific Collaborator, CISEC (Interdepartmental Centre for Religious Studies), University of Bologna, Italy. Research projects: “The Transmission of the Words of Jesus from the 1st to the 7th Century”; “The Quest of the Historical Jesus before Reimarus (16th–18th Centuries)”
2007, Visiting scholar, Faculty of Protestant Theology, University of Geneva, Switzerland. Research project: “Orality and Literacy in Early Christianity”
2004–2010, Member of the Italian Research Group on Jewish History and Christian Origins (Joint program at the Universities of Bari, Bologna, Rome, Turin, and Udine)

Other Professional Service

Since 2013, Member of the CISSR Scientific Committee (Italian Centre for Advanced Studies on Religions), Bertinoro, Italy; Chair of the Research Units on “Christian Origins: Modern Myths and Historical Representations” and “Early Groups of Jesus’ Followers”
Since 2013, Web Content Editor for the CISSR and for the international journal “Annali di Storia dell’Esegesi”
Since 2011, Freelance editor, reader, and editorial consultant (working for publishing houses, private literary agencies, and individual scholars)
Since 2008, Webmaster and Content Editor of “Paulus 2.0”, online bulletin devoted to the apostle Paul and the history of Early Christianity

Affiliations and Memberships

Association pour l’étude de la littérature apocryphe chrétienne (AELAC)
Centro Italiano di Studi Superiori sulle Religioni (CISSR)
European Association of Biblical Studies (EABS)
European Association for the Study of Religions (EASR)
Society of Biblical Literature (SBL)

Kurzbibliografie

Books

Scribing in the End Times: A History of the Sixth Book of Ezra. Monograph to be submitted to Peeters (Leuven), forthcoming
Paolo traduttore. Un capitolo nella storia dell’ermeneutica (“Paul the Translator: A Chapter in the History of Hermeneutics”). Rome: Quodlibet, forthcoming
Paolo e le parole di Gesù. Frammenti di un insegnamento orale (“Paul and the Sayings of Jesus: Fragments of an Oral Teaching”). Brescia: Morcelliana, 2013

Edited Volumes

Test Everything: Sceptic and Believer in Ancient Mediterranean Religions. Ed. by T. Nicklas and B. Edelmann-Singer, in collaboration with L. Walt. Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck, forthcoming
Una questione di classe. Saggi sulla comparazione storico-religiosa (“A Matter of Class: Essays in the Comparative Study of Religion”). Italian edition of selected essays by Jonathan Z. Smith. Brescia: Morcelliana, forthcoming
Texts, Practices, and Groups: Multidisciplinary Approaches to the History of Jesus’ Followers in the First Two Centuries. Co-ed. with A. Destro, M. Pesce, and M. Rescio. Turnhout: Brepols, 2017

Articles and Book Chapters

“6 Ezra: Greek,” in F. Feder and M. Henze (eds.), Textual History of the Bible, Vol. 2: Deutero-Canonical Scriptures (Leiden: Brill, forthcoming)
“Textual History of 6 Ezra,” in F. Feder and M. Henze (eds.), Textual History of the Bible, Vol. 2: Deutero-Canonical Scriptures (Leiden: Brill, forthcoming)
[Nicklas, T., in collaboration with L. Walt] “Anti-Urban Sentiments in Early Christianity? Revelation and the Ascension of Isaiah,” in M. Tiwald and J. Zangenberg (eds.), Early Christian Encounters with Town and Countryside (Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, forthcoming)
“As If Not: Dissimulation Strategies from Paul to the Sixth Book of Ezra,” in J. Bremmer, T. Nicklas, V. Niederhofer (eds.), Figures of Ezra (Leuven: Peeters, 2018), 131-161
“Vernacular Reve(i)lations: Paul and the Veil Controversy in Corinth,” in A. Destro, M. Pesce et alii (eds.), Texts, Practices, and Groups: Multidisciplinary Approaches to the History of Jesus’ Followers in the First Two Centuries (Turnhout: Brepols, 2017), 153-171
“Paolo, la violenza, il genere. Note sulla questione del velo a Corinto,” in Studi e Materiali di Storia delle Religioni 83/1 (2017), 172-186
“L’origine delle origini. Jonathan Z. Smith e la storia naturale del cristianesimo,” in Annali di Storia dell’Esegesi 32/1 (2015), 283-300
[With M. Rescio] “There Is Nothing Unclean: Jesus and Paul against the Politics of Purity?” in Annali di Storia dell’Esegesi 29/2 (2012), 53-81
“Rendete a tutti ciò che è dovuto (Rm 13, 7). Paolo, Gesù e il tributo a Cesare,” in M. Pesce and M. Rescio (eds.), La trasmissione delle parole di Gesù nei primi tre secoli (Brescia: Morcelliana, 2011), 71-94
[With M. Rescio] “Iuxta propria principia. Note a margine del Gesù moderno di Giancarlo Gaeta,” in Annali di Storia dell’Esegesi 27/2 (2010), 204-208
[With E. De Luca, M. Rescio, and D. Tripaldi] “La trasmissione delle parole di Gesù. Scandalo e prova, perseveranza e salvezza: appunti di una ricerca in corso,” in Annali di Storia dell’Esegesi 25/2 (2008), 205-215
“A Non-Canonical Jesus in Paul? 1 Corinthians 1–4 as a Test-Case,” in Annali di Storia dell’Esegesi 25/2 (2008), 57-76
“Rivelazione e conoscenza nell’esperienza apostolica di Paolo,” in G. Grandi and L. Grion (eds.), Rivelazione e conoscenza (Soveria Mannelli: Rubbettino, 2007), 9-42
“Il Papiro Egerton 2. Discussione delle ipotesi critiche di H. Koester, J.D. Crossan ed E. Norelli,” CISEC Seminar Papers, Feb. 2005
“T.S. Eliot e le radici dell’umanesimo europeo,” in La Società 62/6 (2004), 781-796 [Polish translation: “Thomas Stearns Eliot i korzenie europejskiego humanizmu”, transl. by P. Borkowski, in Spoleczeństwo 6 (2004), 851-867]

Book Reviews and Conference Reports

Koester, H., Da Gesù ai vangeli (Brescia, 2014). In Annali di Storia dell’Esegesi 32/2 (2015), 569-572
Smith, J.Z., Magie de la comparaison (Genève, 2014). In Annali di Storia dell’Esegesi 32/1 (2015), 359-361
Koester, H., Paolo e il suo mondo (Brescia, 2013). In Annali di Storia dell’Esegesi 31/1 (2014), 242-244
[Report] “I Colloquio Biblico Bolognese: La trasmissione delle parole di Gesù nei primi tre secoli. Università di Bologna, 12-14 Maggio 2008”. In Annali di Storia dell’Esegesi 27/1 (2010), 357-360
Ulianich, B. (ed.), La Croce. Iconografia e interpretazione (Roma, 2007). In Annali di Storia dell’Esegesi 27/1 (2010), 385-386
Cingolani, S., Dizionario di critica testuale del Nuovo Testamento. Storia, canone, apocrifi, paleografia (Milan, 2008). In Annali di Storia dell’Esegesi 27/1 (2010), 384-385
Patapievici, H.R., Gli occhi di Beatrice. Com’era davvero il mondo di Dante? (Milan, 2006). In Filosofia e Teologia 22/3 (2008), 607-609
Harnack, A. von, Marcione. Il Vangelo del Dio straniero (Milan, 2007). In Filosofia e Teologia 22/3 (2008), 605-607
Norelli, E. (ed.), Papia di Hierapolis, Esposizione degli oracoli del Signore. Introduzione, traduzione e commento (Milan, 2005). In Rivista Biblica 54/4 (2006), 481-488
Penna, R., Lettera ai Romani. Introduzione e commento, vol. 1 (Brescia, 2010). In Annali di Storia dell’Esegesi 23/1 (2006), 187-191
Infante, R., Lo sposo e la sposa. Percorsi di analisi simbolica tra Sacra Scrittura e cristianesimo delle origini (Bologna, 2004). In Studi e Materiali di Storia delle Religioni 71/1 (2005), 201-205
[Report] “Convegno Internazionale ‘Rivelazione e conoscenza’”. In Notes et Documents 30/1 (2005), 90-94
Sfameni Gasparro, G., Oracoli Profeti Sibille. Rivelazione e salvezza nel mondo antico (Rome, 2002). In Rivista di Storia e Letteratura Religiosa 40/3 (2004), 605-609

Translations

E. Lupieri, In nome di Dio. Storie di una conquista (partial transl. from In the Name of God: The Making of Global Christianity, Grand Rapids: Eerdmans), Brescia: Paideia, 2014
D. Marguerat, “Gesù di Nazareth. La vita e le opere” (or. “Jésus de Nazareth. Sa vie, son oeuvre”), in R. Penna (ed.), Le origini del cristianesimo. Una guida. Rome: Carocci, 2014, 121-163
P. Arzt-Grabner, “La ricezione delle parole di Gesù nelle lettere private cristiane” (or. “The Reception of Words of Jesus’ in the Earliest Christian Private Letters”), in M. Pesce and M. Rescio (eds.), La trasmissione delle parole di Gesù nei primi tre secoli. Brescia: Morcelliana, 2011, 55-69

Popular Publications

Popular publications appeared on “Avvenire” (daily newspaper), “Ricerca” (monthly magazine), “Il Piccolo” (bimonthly magazine), “Il Covile” (online magazine), and “Paulus 2.0” (online bulletin). A detailed list of online publications (including articles and translations) is available upon request.

(Last updated: Jan. 2019)

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Forschungsschwerpunkte

New Testament and Christian origins (historical Jesus; Paul and Pauline writings; socio-cultural and media-historical approaches to the study of early Christian texts and groups)

Early Jewish and Christian Apocrypha (apocalyptic literature; extra-canonical traditions about Jesus and Paul; rise and evolution of literary genres)
History of Biblical interpretation (comparative readings of the Bible; the Bible in/and/as literature; modern debates on political theology)
Method and theory in the study of religion

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