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Luis Josue Sales,

Assistant Professor and Chair of Religious Studies
Religious Studies
[email protected]

Biography

I am a native of Mexico City who specializes in premodern African, Asian, and eastern European Christianities. I largely apply postcolonial and queer theoretical approaches to my scholarship and integrate them into my teaching. My interests center on the construction of premodern Christian identities, particularly at the intersection of sexual, religious, and ethnic difference.

Academic History

  • PhD-Fordham University (Early/Medieval Christianity)
  • ThM-Holy Cross Greek Orthodox School of Theology (Early Christianity)
  • MTS-Boston College (Early Christianity)
  • MA-Wheaton College (Systematic and Historical Theology)
  • BA-Wheaton College (English, Political Science)

Academic Focus

Premodern Christianity

Sex and Gender in Early/Medieval Christianity

Ancient Native African Christianities (Egypt, Nubia, Ethiopia)

Medieval Roman Empire

Early Christian-Muslim Relations

Postcolonial/Queer Theory

Interests

Cooking (mostly Mexican, Spanish, Italian, Russian)

Courses Taught

  • Feminist Interpretations of the Bible
  • Intro to Early Christianities
  • Queer African Christianities
  • Early Christian-Muslim Relations
  • Jesus, Paul, and Early Christian Sexualities
  • Eros and Sex: Antiquity and Byzantium
  • Precolonial African Christian Spiritualities
  • CORE III: Ethics, Truth, and Postmodern Metaphysics

Selected Research and Publications

  • Salés, Luis J. “Systems Intelligence and Byzantine Domestic Violence: The Life of Matrona of Perge as a Case Study,” in Studia Patristica (forthcoming, 2021).
  • Salés, Luis J. “To Kill a Matriarchy: Makədda, Queen of Ethiopia and the Specter of Pauline Androprimacy in the Kəbrä Nägäśt,” in African Journal of Gender and Religion (forthcoming, 2021).
  • Salés, Luis J. “Queerly Christified Bodies: Women Martyrs, Christification, and the Compulsory Masculinisation Thesis,” in The Journal of Early Christian History (forthcoming, 2021).
  • Salés, Luis J. “The Other Other Life of Maximos the Confessor: A Reevaluation of the Syriac and Greek Lives and the Case for His Alexandrian Origin,” in The Journal of Late Antiquity 13.2 (forthcoming, 2020).
  • Salés, Luis J. “Galatians 3:28 and the Ordination of Women in Second-Century Pauline Churches,” in Women and Ordination in the Orthodox Church: Explorations in Theology and Practice. Elena Narinskaya and Gabrielle Thomas, eds. Eugene, OR: Cascade Books (2020): 58–76.