Jonathan H. Young

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

Biography:

Jonathan H. Young is a doctoral candidate at the University of Oxford in Theology and Religion. His research centres on the intersections of the religious, philosophical, and intellectual history of the Roman Empire. His doctoral research focuses on Hellenic, Jewish, and Christian debates regarding animal cognition and animals’ involvement in the religious world, especially their capacities for religious behaviour and thought. His expertise includes Early Christianity, Ancient Philosophy, especially the Platonic tradition, Imperial Prose, and the reception of earlier texts in the Empire. 

He is also intrigued by ancient portrayals of peoples, cultures, and religions in and around the Roman Empire, in particular Roman Egypt and Gaul. Additionally, he has extensive training in Greek and Latin palaeography, and is a student of Sahidic Coptic. 

He holds 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 

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.

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