About

Stephen J. Davis is the Woolsey Professor of Religious Studies and Professor of History at Yale University. His specialization includes the history of ancient and medieval Christianity, with a particular focus on the eastern Mediterranean and the Near East. He is also an affiliate faculty member in Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations and Medieval Studies. Davis has a background that includes living and teaching in Egypt, where he served as a professor and academic dean at an Arabic-language theological college in Cairo. His teaching and research encompass a wide range of topics such as monasticism, pilgrimage and the cult of saints, biblical interpretation and canon formation, apocryphal literature, Egyptian Christianity, the Coptic language, Christianity in the Arabic-speaking world, archaeology, visual and material cultures, gender studies, and the application of anthropological, sociological, and literary methods to the study of historical texts. He is the founder and executive director of the Yale Monastic Archaeology Project (YMAP), which has sponsored archaeological research at four sites in Egypt since 2006, and he also directs a project to catalogue Coptic and Arabic manuscripts at the Monastery of the Syrians. Davis has authored several books, including 'The Cult of St. Thecla,' 'The Early Coptic Papacy,' 'Coptic Christology in Practice,' 'Christ Child,' 'Monasticism: A Very Short Introduction,' and 'The Gnostic Chapters.' Additionally, he is the founding editor-in-chief of the Christian Arabic Texts in Translation series for Fordham University Press and is working on a manuscript about the use of the Arabic Bible in cultural heritage practice.

Research topics

• Computer Science
• Philosophy
• Archaeology
• Linguistics
• Pathology
• Dermatology
• Internal medicine
• Endocrinology
• History
• Medicine

Selected publications

• Voices through time: letters of the Great War

  VIUSpace (Vancouver Island University Library) · 2026-03-11

  articleOpen access1st authorCorresponding

  As windows to the thoughts and feelings of their authors, letters add an intimate dimension to our understanding of lives in wartime. Letters are unique and poignant reminders that war is about relationships and loved ones and that the battlefront and home front are intricately connected.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• La sociolinguistique pour le changement en immersion française : un examen transdisciplinaire d’idéologies linguistiques dans les prairies canadiennes

  Canadian Journal of Applied Linguistics · 2025-05-30

  articleOpen access

  Cet article examine les discours d’enseignant·e·s et d’étudiant·e·s en immersion française sur les idéologies linguistiques qui les empêchent d’être inclus dans les communautés francophones. Nous débutons par une recension des écrits sur certaines idéologies pour mieux connaître le travail qui se fait déjà dans le domaine. À partir de la sociolinguistique pour le changement qui prend une approche critique et réflexive sur notre rôle en tant que chercheurs ainsi que l’examen des relations de pouvoir chez les parlants de français langue seconde, nous examinons des extraits de nos recherches qui traitent des discours sur les idéologies présentes. Notre équipe transdisciplinaire examine donc les variétés linguistiques ; la sécurité linguistique des élèves ; la pertinence de l’immersion pour les élèves plurilingues et les rôles des répertoires linguistiques des élèves dans l’apprentissage du français en immersion. Nous constatons que les discours continuent à exclure les apprenants de français, mais que ces discours commencent à changer, surtout chez les jeunes élèves plurilingues. Si on s’éloigne un peu de l’idée que la francophonie doit être d’une certaine façon, on conclut que des changements sont possibles.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• An Arabic <i>Miracle of Saint Shenoute</i>: Hagiographical Devotion and Patriarchal Patronage in Medieval Old Cairo

  Cultural encounters in late antiquity and the Middle Ages · 2025-01-01

  book-chapter1st authorCorresponding
  PublisherDOI

• John Bell Hood’s Historiographical Journey; or, How Did a Confederate General Become a Laudanum Addict?

  University of Tennessee Press eBooks · 2024-01-12

  book-chapter1st authorCorresponding
  PublisherDOI

• Preliminary Material

  2023-06-29

  book-chapterOpen access1st authorCorresponding
  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• The Gnostic Chapters

  2023-05-16

  book1st authorCorresponding

  In the late fourth century, the early Christian monk and author Evagrius Ponticus wrote his magnum opus in Greek—entitled Kephalaia Gnostika ("Gnostic Chapters")—a spiritual treatise on ascetic contemplation and unity with God. After Evagrius' death, however, his theology attracted controversy, and many of his writings were suppressed or destroyed. As a result, complete copies of this important work principally survived only in Syriac translations and an Armenian adaptation, until the recent discovery of two Arabic copies at the so-called Monastery of the Syrians in Egypt. The present volume represents the first-ever critical edition and translation of the Kephalaia Gnostika in that language.

  PublisherDOI

• Deification in Evagrius Ponticus and the Transmission of the Kephalaia Gnostika in Syriac and Arabic

  Fordham University Press eBooks · 2023-10-03

  book-chapter1st authorCorresponding

  Theosis is an oft neglected aspect of Evagrius Ponticus’s thought. This essay seeks to provide much needed further analysis of theosis in the Evagrian corpus by employing a broad survey of the concept of “Holy Unity” and by a more focused analysis of <italic>Kephalaia Gnostika</italic> in its Syrian and Arabic transmissions. Particular attention is given to the “unexpurgated” texts that avoided an anti-Origenist editing and as a result preserve a more robust notion of theosis. Though Evagrius does not use the word theosis or any equivalent in the translation of his works, there is a well-developed concept of union with the divine that emphasizes the role grace mediated through the Eucharist and ascetical practices.

  PublisherDOI

• Key to the Supplemental Chapters

  2023-06-29

  book-chapter1st authorCorresponding
  PublisherDOI

• Deification in Evagrius Ponticus and the Transmission of the Kephalaia Gnostika in Syriac and Arabic

  Fordham University Press eBooks · 2023-10-03

  book-chapter1st authorCorresponding
  PublisherDOI

• Figures

  2023-06-29

  book-chapter1st authorCorresponding
  PublisherDOI

Frequent coauthors

• Lee Burnett

  RMIT University

  15 shared

• Shawqi Talia

  Dalhousie University

  13 shared

• Christian Ritz

  University of Wollongong

  13 shared

• Christina J. Flaxel

  Oregon Health & Science University

  10 shared

• Andreas Lauer

  Oregon Health & Science University

  10 shared

• Ry Oa R D

  Yale University

  9 shared

• Thomas Schmidt

  9 shared

• F O R D H A M U N I V E R S I T Y P R E S

  Yale University

  9 shared

Labs

• Religious Studies LabPI