Gifford Lectures 2026 | Prof Paula Fredriksen | Conversions of Christianity

The University of Edinburgh is delighted to host Professor Paula Fredriksen for the 20256Gifford Lectures Series.

Conversions of Christianity
In its earliest form, belief in the coming Kingdom of God emerged within late Second Temple Judaism. Yet within a few generations, this message spread far beyond its Jewish roots, forming predominantly Gentile movements and reshaping ideas of belief, power, and identity. How did “orthodoxy” emerge, and with what political and social consequences? How did one god come to dominate an empire filled with many gods? Across six lectures, this series traces Christianity’s dramatic transformation—from a small Jewish messianic movement to a force at the heart of the late Roman state—by situating it within the vibrant religious, cultural, and political world of the ancient Mediterranean.

Paula Fredriksen is a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and Aurelio Professor of Scripture emerita at Boston University. She is also Distinguished Visiting Professor emerita in the Department of Comparative Religions at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, which awarded her an honorary doctorate in 2018.

Educated at Wellesley College, Oxford University, and Princeton University, Fredriksen is a leading historian of ancient Christianity and the Roman world. Her scholarship explores the social and intellectual history of early Christianity and the complex relations between pagans, Jews, and Christians in the Roman Empire.

She is the author of many influential works, including From Jesus to Christ, Jesus of Nazareth, King of the Jews (winner of the 1999 National Jewish Book Award), Augustine and the Jews, and SIN: The Early History of an Idea. Her book Paul: The Pagans’ Apostle received the 2018 Prose Award from the American Publishers’ Association. Her most recent study, When Christians Were Jews, situates the Jesus movement’s Jewish messianic message within the wider cultural, political, and religious world of the ancient Mediterranean.