Davina C. Lopez

Davina C. Lopez is Professor Emeritus of Religious Studies and core faculty in Women's and Gender Studies at Eckerd College. She teaches courses that ask questions about what religion is and why it matters as a human response to the world, focusing on "cults" or new religious movements, theories and methods, and intersectional aspects of race, gender, sexuality, and meaning-making. A biblical scholar and historian of religion, her research concerns doubters, problem-causers, heretics, extremists, and weirdoes across time and cultures, from the ancient near east to the contemporary United States. Her specific interests include Pauline studies and the study of the New Testament and Christian origins, intellectual histories of American biblical scholarship and the humanities, method in the study of religion, discourses and practices of religious innovation, visual rhetoric, and gender studies. She has also published in the areas of teaching and learning about religion, histories of the study of religion and the humanities in the United States, and the intersection of biblical interpretation and public cultures.