Paula Fredriksen

Paula F. Fredriksen (born January 6, 1951, Kingston, Rhode Island) is an American historian and a scholar of religious studies. She held the position of William Goodwin Aurelio Professor of the Appreciation of Scripture at Boston University through 2010 and is now the William Goodwin Aurelio Chair Emerita of the Appreciation of Scripture. She served as historical consultant for the BBC production The Lives of Jesus (1996) and for U.S. News and World Report 's "The Life and Times of Jesus" and was featured speaker in the Frontline documentary From Jesus to Christ: The First Christians (1998), based heavily on her book From Jesus to Christ: The Origins of the New Testament Images of Jesus.

She earned a Ph.D in the history of religion from Princeton University and diploma in theology from Oxford University.

Fredriksen is a scholar of the historical Jesus. While some historians interpret the historical Jesus as a non-apocalyptic ethical teacher, she sides with those who portray him as an apocalyptic preacher in the tradition of prophets before him and apostles after him.

In addition to the historical Jesus, Fredriksen is also interested in the social history of Christianity from its beginnings to the fall of the Roman Empire. She has published two books on St. Augustine, both focused on his attitudes towards Jews and Judaism. In contrast to other historians of Christian anti-Semitism, she regards Augustine as having a more enlightened, indeed revolutionary, attitude towards Jews and Judaism than many of his other Christian contemporaries.

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