Westar Institute

Lillian I. Larsen serves as Professor of Religious Studies at the University of Redlands in Southern California. With formal training as a scholar of the New Testament and Christian Origins (Columbia University/Union Theological Seminary), her research focuses on the emergence of a Christian curriculum within monastic classroom settings. Larsen’s substantive corpus of scholarly publication is distinguished by adept application of New Testament/biblical criticism to late ancient/monastic source material. Her recently published anthology, Monastic Education in Late Antiquity (Cambridge 2018), and a complementary monograph (nearing completion), rewrite a ‘missing chapter’ in both the history of education, and the history of Christianity. As co-chair (with Nina Livesey and Jason BeDuhn) of Westar’s Christianity Seminar – Phase II, Larsen brings expertise in bible, emergent monasticism and classroom pedagogy. In both teaching and research, her work contextualizes the functionality of biblical texts.

Co-chair of Westar’s Christianity Seminar