Research Profile
Previous studies on 1) interrelationships between the New Testament gospels (dissertation on John and the Synoptics); 2) John and the Gospel of Thomas; 3) the Nag Hammadi Library and gnosticism, with focus on the school of Valentinus.
Current areas of interest: Johannine epistles; the Gospel of Judas; early Christian ethics and ancient moral philosophy; early Christianity in the Greco-Roman society.
Prof. Dunderberg supervises doctoral thesis on a number of topics, including Pauline and Johannine texts, the Book of Revelation, and Gnosticism.
Teaching Profile
Has taught courses on New Testament and early Christianity at all levels since 1991. The topics include, e.g., New Testament theology; the Book of Revelation; Johannine literature; the Gospel of Thomas; Acts of John; persecutions of early Christians.
Selected Publications
Gnostic Morality Revisited. WUNT 347. Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck, 2015.
“Sin, Sinlessness, and the Limits of a Therapeutic Community in 1 John.” Pages 227-239 in Erzählung und Briefe im johanneischen Kreis. Eds. Uta Poplutz and Jörg Frey. WUNT II/420. Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck 2016.
“Dissidents and God-Talk in the Johannine Epistles.” Forthcoming in FS Peter Lampe. Eds. U. Eisen & H. Mader.
“From Conflict to Recognition: Rethinking a Scholarly Paradigm in the Study of Christian Origins.” Forthcoming in Tolerance and Recognition in Early Judaism and Christianity . Ed. Outi Lehtipuu. Amsterdam: Amsterdam University Press
Women and Knowledge in Early Christianity. Eds. Ulla Tervahauta, Ivan Miroshnikov, Outi Lehtipuu & Ismo Dunderberg. VigChrSup 144. Leiden: Brill, 2017.
“The Eucharist in the Gospels of John, Philip, and Judas.” Early Christianity. 7 (2016): 484-507.
“Secrecy in the Gospel of John.” Pages 221-243 in Mystery and Secrecy in the Nag Hammadi Collection and Other Ancient Literature: Ideas and Practices. Eds. Christian Bull, Liv Ingeborg Lied & John D. Turner. NHMS 76. Leiden: Brill, 2011.
Stoicism in Early Christianity. Eds. Tuomas Rasimus, Troels Engberg-Pedersen & Ismo Dunderberg. Grand Rapids, Mich: Baker, 2010.
“Recognizing the Valentinians–now and then.” Pages 39-53 in The Other Side: Apocryphal Perspectives on Ancient Christian “Orthodoxies”. Eds. Tobias Nicklas et alii. NTOA 117. Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 2017.
“Gnostic Interpretations of Genesis.” Pages 385-396 in The Oxford Handbook of the Reception History of the Bible. Eds. M. Lieb, E. Mason & E. & J. Roberts. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2011.
Beyond Gnosticism: Myth, Lifestyle and Society in the School of Valentinus. New York: Columbia University Press, 2008.
The Beloved Disciple in Conflict?: Revisiting the Gospels of John and Thomas. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2006.
Johannes und die Synoptiker: Studien zu Joh 1-9. Helsinki: Finnish Academy of Sciences and Letters, 1994.
ed. (with Christopher Tuckett and Kari Syreeni), Fair Play: Diversity and Conflicts in Early Christianity: Essays in Honour of Heikki Räisänen. NovTSup 103. Leiden: Brill, 2001.
“The School of Valentinus.” Pages 64-99 in A Companion to Second-Century Christian “Heretics”. Eds. Antti Marjanen & Petri Luomanen. VigChrSup 76. Leiden: Brill, 2005.
“Valentinian Teachers in Rome.” Pages 157-74 in Christians as a Religious Minority in a Multicultural City: Modes of Interaction and Identity Formation in Early Imperial Rome. Eds. Michael Labahn & Jürgen Zangenberg. JSNTSup 243. London: T & T Clark International, 2004.
“Judas’ Anger and the Perfect Human.” Forthcoming in The Judas Codex: Proceedings of the International Congress on Codex Tchacos held at Rice University, Houston, Texas, March 13-16, 2008. Ed. April D. DeConick. NHMS. Leiden: Brill.
Contact
Department of Biblical Studies
Faculty of Theology
POB 4 (Vuorikatu 3)
00014 University of Helsinki
Finland
Phone: +358294124341
Email: ismo.dunderberg@helsinki.fi
Homepage: https://tuhat.helsinki.fi/portal/en/persons/ismo-dunderberg%2852054572-7e30-4b8c-9b14-df7e95d9eba8%29.html
