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Dr Jonathan L. Zecher

Research Fellow
Biblical and Early Christian Studies

Areas of expertise: early Christianity; late antique cultures; late antique history; ancient medicine; early monasticism; patristics; Byzantine theology; eastern Orthodox spirituality; medical humanities; health humanities; Greek

ORCID ID : 0000-0002-8704-1221

Phone: (03) 9230 8373

Email: jonathan.zecher@acu.edu.au

Location: ACU Melbourne Campus

I completed my BA in Liberal Arts at St. John’s College (Santa Fe) in 2003, and then my MA and PhD at Durham University in Patristics and Historical Theology in 2012. From 2011 until joining ACU in 2017 I taught full-time in the Honors College at the University of Houston—Greek, Latin, Christianity, ‘Great Books,’ and ancient medicine. 

I study early Christian asceticism, the medical cultures of late antiquity, and traditions of prayer and spiritual practice in Byzantium and Eastern Orthodox Christianity. My first book (2015) explored the monastic engagement with death and judgment, focusing especially on the masterpiece of Byzantine monastic literature, the Ladder of Divine Ascent. My current monograph (under contract with Oxford University Press), part of the Modes of Knowing Project at ACU, explores the medical context and logic of early monastic practices of spiritual direction. 

My interest in medicine extends to clinical practices in late antiquity and their applicability to questions of clinical relationship and care being explored in the health/medical humanities today. I am pursuing this interest through research in the discursive histories of pain and emotion from Hellenistic philosophy through Byzantium.  In context of this work, I serve on the board of ReMeDHe, an international working group for scholars interested in “Religion, Medicine, Disability, and Health in Late Antiquity.”

Select publications

Books

• (forthcoming) "Disability, Medicine, and Healing Discourse in Early Christianity: New Conversations for Narrative Health , (eds) Susan Holman and Chris Len de Wet, (Routledge).
• (forthcoming) The Medical Art of Spiritual Direction in Early Christian Monasticism. Oxford Early Christian Studies (Oxford University Press).
• (2015) The Role of Death in the Ladder of Divine Ascent and the Greek Ascetic Tradition.  Oxford Early Christian Studies (Oxford University Press).

Journal articles

• (forthcoming) “Myths of Aerial Tollhouses and Their Tradition from George the Monk to the Life of Basil the Younger,” Dumbarton Oaks Papers, 75.
• (2020) “Medical Art in Spiritual Direction: Basil, Barsanuphios, and John on Diagnosis and Meaning in Illness”, Journal of Early Christian Studies, 28.4, 591-623.
• (2018) “The Reception of Evagrian Psychology in the Ladder of Divine Ascent: Cassian and Nazianzen as Sources and Conversation Partners”, Journal of Theological Studies, 69.2, 674-713.
• (2018) “The Meaning of ΚΛΥΣΤΑΣ and the Value of a MAXAIRION:  Vita Dosithei (BHG 2117)and Healthcare in Gazan Monasteries”, Analecta Bollandiana 136, 43-55.
• (2014) “Antony’s Vision of Death?  Athanasius of Alexandria, Palladius of Helenopolis, and Egyptian Mortuary Religion”, Journal of Late Antiquity 7.1, 159-176.

Projects

• (2017-2021) Modes of Knowing and the Ordering of Knowledge in Early Christianity.

Accolades and awards

• The University of Houston Teaching Excellence Award (2015)
• The Student Governing Board Outstanding Achievement Award (2015)

International journal review panel

• Reviewer for the Journal of Early Christian Studies (2014-present), the Journal of Religion (2015-present), Religions (2016-present).
• Ancient Philosophy (2019-present), Journal of the American Academy of Religion (2020)

Public Engagement

• Acedia: the lost name for the emotion we’re all feeling right now The Conversation, published online 27/8/2020
• Emotions and Clinical Communication in Antiquity, a global online symposium for the Centre of Excellence for the History of Emotions.