Franklin Trammell
Education
Ph.D. Student, Rice University, Religious Studies, 2007-
Concentration: The Bible and Beyond
Thesis: Re-excavating Q
Thesis Advisor: April D. DeConick
M.A., The University of North Carolina at Charlotte, May 2006.
Concentration: Early Judaism and Christian Origins
Thesis: “Piping and Wailing: Against the Stratification of Sapiential and Apocalyptic Layers in Q.”
Thesis Advisor: James D. Tabor
B.A., The University of North Carolina at Charlotte, Dec. 2000.
Concentration: Early Judaism and Christian Origins
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Research Interests
New Testament and parascriptural literature
Early Judaism and Christianity
Judaism of the Tannaitic period
Mysticism, Gnosticism, and magic
Ancient Israel and its Near Eastern context
Conference Papers
“The Fate of the King:
A Study of Ideologies in Mesopotamian and Comparative Biblical Thought”
“Self identity and Opposition to the 2nd Temple in Early Judaism”
“Sudden death in the Ancient Near East, the Tanakh, and early Christianity”
“Hiding and Seeking in Jewish mystical philosophy”
| Dissertation Abstract
Re-excavating Q
This
dissertation will defend the two source hypothesis, the actual
existence of Q as a speech gospel, and will explain why the notion of Q
as a stratified source should not be maintained in the Academy.
Careful attention will be given to orality-scribality, intertexuality,
exegetical tradition, typology, agenda, audience, and correspondence
with a range of contemporaneous traditions and practices. In the
course of this examination, Q will be reinterpreted as a holistic
document within the history of Christian origins.
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Elena Claire Villarreal
Education
Ph.D. Student, Rice University, Houston, Texas 2007-
Dual Concentration: The Bible and Beyond; Buddhism
Thesis: Gnosticism and Buddhism: Points of Contact
Advisors: April DeConick and Anne Klein
B.A., Rice University, Houston, Texas, 1999
Majors: Religious Studies and English
SIT Tibetan Studies Program, 1999
Area of Study: Tibetan language and culture in India, Nepal, and Tibet
Thesis: Tibetan uses of Gandhian Nonviolence Principles
Professional Experience
Founder and Director of The Awareness Project (www.theawarenessproject.org), 2004-2007
Instructor: Venus Middle School, 2001-2002, 6th grade English
Instructor: Aledo High School, 2002-2003, 11th and 12th grade English
Honors and Awards
Aparicio Prize in Religious Studies, Rice University, 1997
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Professional Experience
Founder and Director of The Awareness Project (www.theawarenessproject.org), 2004-2007
Instructor: Venus Middle School, 2001-2002, 6th grade English
Instructor: Aledo High School, 2002-2003, 11th and 12th grade English
Honors and Awards
Aparicio Prize in Religious Studies, Rice University, 1997
| Dissertation Abstract
This dissertation will examine Buddhist and Gnostic ideas about the nature of the human mind and the human connection to the transcendent. Based on these reflections it will then consider the goals and methods of the spiritual endeavor in each of these traditions. In particular, it will investigate the syncretic religious traditions along the ancient Silk Road where Christian, Manichean, and Buddhist beliefs mixed freely for centuries. The guiding questions of this research are: What forms did these religions and their characteristic beliefs on the nature of the mind assume as they mingled so closely together? What did this distinctively Central Asian religious milieu offer back to the more orthodox traditions with which they remained in contact? How were these variant traditions received by the single-religion communities with which they were connected?
With this dissertation I hope to examine the ways in which Central Asian peoples reconciled the significant differences among the various religious traditions they received as well as the ways they capitalized on the similarities among the traditions. My hope is that this will provide new perspectives from which to examine the central beliefs of these spiritual traditions.
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