Dr. Steven C. Muir, PhD.
Professor Emeritus (Religious Studies)
Biblical Studies, Christianity in the Roman Empire, Methodology in the study of religion (including anthropology, sociology, and the comparative study of world religions).
Education
- PhD, University of Ottawa 1998
- MA, University of Calgary 1990
- BA, University of Calgary 1986
- BComm, University of Calgary 1987
Areas of Research Specialization
Early Christianity in the Greco-Roman world, Biblical studies, History of Christianity, Methodology in the study of religion (anthropology, sociology, and the comparative study of world religions). Topics of interest relating to religion in the ancient world include: healing, travel and pilgrimage, ritual, social identity and group relations, mysticism and meditation, magic and the occult.
CUE Courses Which Have Been Taught by Dr. Muir
REL 101 Western Religious Traditions
REL 102 Eastern Religious Traditions
REL 253 Introduction to the New Testament
REL 302 Greek and Roman Religions
REL 305 Sacred Space and Pilgrimage
REL 306 Ethics in World Religions
REL 307 Mysticism and Meditation in World Religions
REL 342 Christianity in the 2nd and 3rd Centuries
REL 362 Synoptic Gospels
REL 367 The Writings of Paul
REL 370 The Eastern Church
REL 382 Christology of the New Testament
REL 499A Apocalypse and Revelation in the Bible
REL 499B The Academic Study of the Historical Jesus
Publications
“Objects and ritual in Egeria’s fourth-century pilgrimage: The Props of my Faith,” in Senses, Cognition,
and Ritual Experience in the Roman World. Cambridge University Press, 2024.
“From Liturgy to polemic and back: Social Identity issues in the use of two Psalms”, in Worth More than Many Sparrows: Essays in Honour of Willi Braun. Equinox Studies in Religion and Ancient Culture, 2022.
Pp 93-112.
2018 “Greek Piety and the Charge against Socrates,” Mouseion, Series III, Vol. 15 (2018) 389-406.
2018 “Accessing Divine Power and Status,” in Early Christian Ritual Life. Edited Richard DeMaris, Jason Lamoreaux and Steven Muir. Routledge. Pp. 38-54.
2018 Early Christian Ritual Life. Edited Richard DeMaris, Jason Lamoreaux and Steven Muir. Routledge.
2017 “Edible Media: The Confluence of Food and Learning in the Ancient Mediterranean.” Co-authored with Frederick Tappenden. Lexington Theological Seminary Quarterly (Fall/Winter, 3-4) 2017:123-147.
2017 “The social self on pilgrimage – intercession and mediation,” In The Many Voices of Pilgrimage and Reconciliation, Ian McIntosh and Lesley Harman, eds. Oxford: CABI. Pp. 138-149.
2015 “Aristides, Publius Aelius,” The Routledge Encyclopedia of Ancient Mediterranean Religions, Routledge Academic Press.
2015 “Lucian of Samosata,” The Routledge Encyclopedia of Ancient Mediterranean Religions, Routledge Academic Press.
2015 “Alexander of Abonutheichos,” The Routledge Encyclopedia of Ancient Mediterranean Religions, Routledge Academic Press.
2015 “Peregrinus Proteus,” The Routledge Encyclopedia of Ancient Mediterranean Religions, Routledge Academic Press.
2014 “Travel and Change in Luke-Acts,” Bible Odyssey (online resource of the Society of Biblical Literature). Article may be viewed here.
2014 “Vivid imagery in Galatians 3:1 – Roman rhetoric, Street Announcing, Graffiti and Crucifixions,” in Biblical Theology Bulletin 44:40-53.
2014 “Social Identity in the Epistle to the Hebrews,” in T&T Clark Handbook to Social Identity and the New Testament, ed. Brian Tucker and Coleman Baker. T&T Clark. Pp. 425-439.
2013 “Medicine and Disease,” (Chapter 4), with Laurence Totelin, in A Cultural History of Women Volume 1: 500 BCE-1000 CE. Janet Tulloch, ed. Bloomsbury Academic: 81-104.
2011 “Blest be the ties that bind – religion on the roads of ancient Greece and Rome”. In Travel and Religion in Antiquity, Philip A. Harland, ed. Waterloo: Wilfred Laurier Press, 2011:29-47.
2008 “The anti-imperial rhetoric of Heb. 1.3: karaktēr as a ‘double-edged sword,” in A Cloud of Witnesses: The Theology of Hebrews in its Ancient Contexts, ed. Richard Bauckham et. al. (Library of New Testament Studies 387). London: T&T Clark/Continuum, 2008:170-186.
2006 “‘Look how they love one another’: Early Christian and Pagan Care for the Sick and Other Charity,” in Religious Rivalries in the Early Roman Empire and the Rise of Christianity, ed. Leif Vaage. Waterloo: Wilfred Laurier Press, 2006:213-231.
2006 “Mending Yet Fracturing: Religious Healing as an Arena of Conflict,” in The Changing Face of Judaism, Christianity and Other Greco-Roman Religions in Antiquity, ed. Ian H. Henderson and Gerbern S. Oegema. Gutersloh/Munich: Gutersloher Verlagshaus, 2006:57-71.
2005 “Thorn in the Flesh, Gift of the Gods: Suffering and the Construction of Identity.” International Journal of the Humanities 3, 2005/2006. http://www.Humanities-Journal.com
2005 “‘Caring for all the weak’: Pagan and Christian Charity in Sardis and Smyrna,” in Religious Rivalries in Sardis and Smyrna, ed. Richard Ascough. Waterloo: Wilfred Laurier Press/Canadian Corporation for Studies in Religion, 2005:123-140.
1999 “Faith, Healing, and Deliverance in Mark’s Gospel,” in Therapeia: Medicine, Healing, Religion in Antiquity, ed. J. Kevin Coyle and S. Muir. Lewiston, NY.: Mellen Press, 1999: 85-104.