Adjunct Associate Professor
201 Milbank Hall
T: 212.854.6023
E: cdeutsch@barnard.edu
Office Hours

B.A. with honors, theology major, philosophy and history minors, Trinity College (Washington, D.C.)
M.A. and Ph.D. St. Michael's College/University of Toronto

Celia Deutsch has taught at Barnard College since 1985. She specializes in the fields of early Judaism and early Christianity, and the comparative study of mysticism. Prof. Deutsch also teaches regularly in the First Year Seminar Program.

Professor Deutsch's research focuses on early Jewish and Christian social and religious/intellectual history. She draws on literary and cultural criticism, as well as the insights of the social sciences, to examine ancient sources. Her book Lady Wisdom, Jesus, and the Sages explored ways in which early Christian teachers used a female metaphor (Lady Wisdom) to think about the role of Jesus and their own status as teachers in their community.

Deutsch's current project is Scholars and Seers; Text Work and Religious Experience in Early Judaism and Early Christianity (200 b.c.e. - 325 c.e.). There she examines ways in which authors used text work (reading, writing, interpreting texts, teaching) as a site of religious experience, and ways in which claims to mystical experience bolstered their claims to authority. Her analysis draws on the insights of literacy, ritual and performance theory. Her work on Philo of Alexandria, a first-century Egyptian Jewish philosopher and biblical interpreter, "Study, Ritual, and Mystical Experience," is framed by the categories of ritual and performance theory.

Deutsch has worked and lectured in Canada, Italy, Israel and Great Britain. She is active in numerous professional organizations, and is a member of the Society of Biblical Literature Early Jewish and Christian Mysticism Group. Professor Deutsch is also engaged in inter-religious dialogue, particularly in the area of Jewish-Christian relations. She writes, lectures and collaborates in this area internationally and nationally as well as locally, where she is involved in her Brooklyn neighborhood in community efforts to foster solidarity between Christians, Jews and Muslims.

Complete CV (PDF)

Courses

• Introduction to Western Religions
• Early Christianity
• Introduction to the New Testament
• Introduction to the Hebrew Bible
• Judaism During the Time of Jesus
• Mysticism

Office Hours (Fall 2009)

Tuesdays 2:30-3:30 PM, Wednesdays 11:00 AM-12:30 PM, and by appointment.