Dr. Arthur P. Urbano, Jr.

(Ph.D. Brown University, 2005). He teaches and publishes in the area of Early Christianity and Patristics.His research interests focus on the Christian reception and transformation of classical culture in late antiquity, particularly in the areas of philosophy, literature, and art.

Research

In his first book project, The Philosophical Life: Biography and the Crafting of Intellectual Identity in Late Antiquity (CUA Press, 2013), he examines the role of biographical literature in the philosophical debates between ancient Christian thinkers and Neoplatonist philosophers, and its impact on education in antiquity.  He is currently studying the presence of philosophic and pedagogic imagery in early Christian art, particularly in the way that Jesus Christ and the saints were depicted in the style of the ancient philosopher.

Dr. Urbano’s publications include:

• The Philosophical Life: Biography and the Crafting of Intellectual Identity in Late Antiquity. CUA Press, 2013.
• “‘Dressing the Christian’:The Philosopher’s Mantle as a Signifier of Pedagogical and Moral Authority,” Studia Patristica 62:10 (2013).
• “Sizing-Up the Philosopher’s Cloak: Christian Verbal and Visual Representations of the Tribon,” in Dressing Judeans and Christians in Antiquity, edited by Kristi Upson-Saia, Carly Daniel-Hughes, Alicia J. Batten, Ashgate, 2014.
• “Tailoring Rhetoric: Verbalizing Philosophical Dress in the Second Sophistic,” in The One Who Sows Bountifully: Essays in Honor of Stanley K. Stowers, edited by Caroline Johnson Hodge, Saul M. Olyan, Daniel Ullucci and Emma Wasserman, Society of Biblical Literature, 2013.
• “Narratives of Decline and Renewal in the Writing of Philosophical History,” in Religious Competition in the Third Century C.E.: Jews, Christians, and the Greco-Roman World, eds Nathaniel P. DesRosiers, Jordan Rosenblum and Lily C. Vuong, Journal of Ancient Judaism Supplements series, Vandenhoeck and Ruprecht, (forthcoming).
• “Difficulties in Writing a Life of Origen,” in The Oxford Handbook on Origen, eds. Ronald E. Heine and Karen Jo Torjesen. OUP forthcoming..
• “Plato Between School and Cell: Biography and Competition in the Fifth-Century Philosophical Field,” in School and Monastery. Rethinking Early Monastic Education, edited by Samuel Rubenson and Lillian Larsen. CUP, forthcoming.
• “‘Read It Also to the Gentiles’: The Displacement and Recasting of the Philosopher in the Vita Antonii,” Church History 77 (2008).
• “Donation, Dedication and Damnatio Memoriae: The Catholic Reconciliation and the Church of Sant’Apollinare Nuovo in Ravenna,” The Journal of Early Christian Studies, 13:1 (2005).

Research in Progress

• “In the Company of Wisdom: Cemeteries, Art, and the Translocation of paideia.”
• “Hebrews and Jews in Early Christian Art.”
• “Jesus’ Dazzling Robe: Patristic Exegesis of the Transfiguration.”
• English translation of Eusebius of Caesarea’s Martyrs of Palestine.