Dr David Litwa - Institute for Religion & Critical Inquiry (Faculty of Theology and Philosophy)
Assistant Supervisor – Only eligible to supervise with a fully accredited Principal or Co-supervisor

M. David Litwa is a scholar of ancient Mediterranean religions with a focus on the New Testament and early Christianity. His research interests include gospel studies, New Testament apocrypha, comparative mythology, gnostic and hermetic theology, angels, daimones, Greco-Roman religions; Philonic Studies; Pauline literature; heresiology; gnostic and Nag Hammadi studies; ancient philosophy; deification (theosis); ancient esoteric movements (in particular, Greek mystery cults); and ruler worship. Litwa has published seven monographs, most recently from Yale University Press (How the Gospels Became History, 2019). A work on the Hermetic fragments was published by Cambridge University Press in 2018. He has taught courses at the University of Virginia (Religion and Classics), the College of William & Mary (Classics), and at Virginia Tech (Religion and Culture). He is a member of the Steering Committee of the Bible, Myth, and Myth Theory Group at the Society of Biblical Literature.
Contact
![]() | +61392308386 (Melbourne) |
![]() | david.litwa@acu.edu.au |
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Research Interests
gnosticism ; hermetism ; deification ; classical mythology ; New Testament ;
Methods Expertise
Comparative mythology ; sociology of knowledge ; Critical Theory ;
Research Projects
Selected Publications
2017
You are Gods: Deification in the Naassene Writer and Clement of Alexandria, in Harvard Theological Review
Paul the god in Acts 28: A Comparison with Philoctetes, in Journal of Biblical Literature
2016
Refutation of All Heresies: Text, Translation, and Notes
Desiring Divinity: Self-deification in Ancient Jewish and Christian Mythmaking
2014
The Wondrous Exchange: Irenaeus and Eastern Valentinians on the Soteriology of Interchange, in Journal of Early Christian Studies
The Deification of Moses in Philo of Alexandria, in The Studia Philonica Annual
Iesus Deus: The Early Christian Depiction of Jesus as a Mediterranean God
2013
Becoming Divine: An Introduction to Deification in Western Culture
2012
We Are Being Transformed: Deification in Paul's Soteriology