Supervisor:
Prof. Mark Edwards
College:
Mansfield College
Thesis Title:
The Religious Lives of Animals: Animal Cognition and their Capacities for Religious Behavior and Thought in Roman Imperial Philosophy (31 BCE-325 CE)
Primary Research Area:
Patristics
About me:
I am a DPhil candidate in Theology and Religion at the University of Oxford in the sub-faculty of Patristics (Early Christian Studies), under the supervision of Professor Mark Edwards.
My research centres on the intersections of post-Hellenistic and late antique philosophy, theology, and literature, especially among Platonist and Christian authors. Having been trained in Classics and Theology, I have expertise in both ancient Greek and Latin, with Greek texts as the predominant subject of investigation. My DPhil thesis (‘Animal Minds amid Post-Hellenistic Evaluations of Religion’) explores how ancient theories of animal cognition pertain to broader questions of the nature of religion, especially whether religion is the purview of humans alone or is found among other animals.
I am also intrigued by ancient portrayals of peoples, cultures, and religions in and around the Roman Empire, in particular, Roman Gaul and Egypt. Additionally, I have extensive training in Greek and Latin palaeography and am a student of Sahidic Coptic.
I also hold master’s degrees in both Classics and Religious Studies, as well as a bachelor’s degree in Classics.
Links:
https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8060-4987
https://oxford.academia.edu/JonathanYoung
Academic Interests:
Early Christianity (Patristics), Ancient Philosophy (Middle/Neoplatonism, Stoicism, Pre-Socratics), Post-Hellenistic Literature, Reception of Texts in Antiquity
Selected Publications:
“Between Human and Animal Souls: The Resurrection of the Rational Soul and Origen’s Transformation of Metensomatosis.” In Studia Patristica: CXI, vol. 8, 137-149. (Leuven, Paris, and Bristol, CT: Peeters, 2021). https://doi.org/10.2307/j.ctv27vt5rg.15.
Book Chapters:
‘The Transmigration of Souls, Νοῦς, and the Impediment of the Body: An Early Christian Debate about Whether Animals Can See God (Justin Martyr, Dialogue with Trypho 3.7–4.7)’. In Animals in the New Testament: Perspectives from Animal Studies and Ancient Contexts, edited by Justin D. Strong and Ruben Zimmermann (Library of New Testament Studies; London: T&T Clark, 2025).
Conference / Presentation:
“Animals’ Sight of God? Justin Martyr on the Transmigration of Souls (Dial. 4)” (The Animal in the New Testament and Graeco-Roman World, Johannes Guttenberg University, Mainz, Germany, 06/23).
“The Implications of Animal Cognition for Roman Imperial Debates regarding Animals’ Religious Behavior and Thought” (Forms of Intelligence and Cognition, Institute of Philosophy and Technology, Athens, Greece, and online, 02/23).
“Aelian and Origen on Animals’ Ennoiai (Conceptions) of God and their Relation to Physis (Nature)” (International Society for Neoplatonic Studies [ISNS], Athens, Greece, 06/22).
“Zoomorphic Divinities and Opinions of Animals: A Study of Plutarch, Clement and Origen of Alexandria, and Porphyry” (North American Patristics Society, Chicago, IL, 05/22).
“Empedocles in the Company of Orpheus, Pythagoras, and Plato: The Births, Lives, and Destinies of Divine, Human, Animal, and Plant Souls” (ISNS, online, 06/21).
“Origen on Animal Religious Behavior” (Patristics Seminar, University of Oxford, 06/21).
“Origen of Alexandria’s Distinctions Between Sense and Recognition of the Divine in His Discussions Whether Animals Have Religion” (Non-Human Animals in Ancient Greek Philosophy and Religion, Dept. Philosophy, Univ. of South Florida, online 05/21).
“Living Stones and Stars? Looking at Ancient Life in Light of the Coronavirus” (Classical Association of the Middle-West and South [CAMWS], online, 04/21).
“Animal Afterlives: Funerary Epigrams to Animals in the Ancient Mediterranean World” (Death and Mortality, Graduate Conference Balliol College, Oxford, online, 10/20).
“Origen’s Resurrection of the Rational Soul and Its Ascent to the Likeness of Angels” (Society for Classical Studies, Washington, DC, 01/20).
“The Resurrection of the Rational Soul and Origen’s Modification of Metensomatosis” (Eighteenth International Conference on Patristics, Oxford, UK, 08/19).
"Internal and External Erōs in Achilles Tatius’ Leucippe and Clitophon" (CAMWS, Lincoln, NE, 04/19).
“The Ascension of the Human Soul in Origen’s Contra Celsum.” (ISNS, Los Angeles, CA 06/18)
“Demons on the Border: The Overlapping Demonologies of Origen and Celsus” (ISNS, Olomouc, Czech Republic, 06/17).
“Christ as Daimon: An Exploration of Celsus' Understanding of Daimones in Origen's Contra Celsum” (Society of Biblical Literature [SBL], Atlanta, GA, 11/15).
Academic Interests:
Early Christianity (Patristics), Ancient Philosophy (Middle/Neoplatonism, Stoicism), Roman Imperial Literature, Reception of Texts in Antiquity
