Jonathan Henry

Bio/Description

Jonathan Henry is a lecturer in the Religion Department of Princeton University. He specializes in the history of Mediterranean religions in the late antique and early medieval eras, with particular interests in Christianity and Judaism in the Roman world. Henry is skilled in disciplines such as epigraphy, papyrology, and a range of philological methods, and his work is further enriched by more than 12 research languages at his disposal. His dissertation, now under revision for publication, portrays the occupations and private lives of professional Christian exorcists in the Roman world from c.200–500 ce. He has also written and presented extensively on the topic of apocryphal literature and its transmission from late antiquity to modernity. He is currently co-editing a book with Janet Spittler (University of Virginia) on The Materiality of Christian Apocrypha (Studies in Ancient Religion and Culture; Sheffield: Equinox Publishing, forthcoming); this will be an illustrated volume presenting recent advances in manuscript research, art history, and archaeology.

Henry is an award-winning teacher at Princeton University and has received excellent feedback for his approach to pedagogy. He has sought out training and certification in inclusive, student-centered pedagogy; racial equity; mindful leadership in teaching; trauma-informed approaches, and more. He actively mentors students through Princeton’s GradFutures Mentor Collective.

He completed his doctoral work at Princeton University in 2020. Prior to this, he received his MA from Princeton University, a ThM from Princeton Theological Seminary, and further graduate coursework at the University of Pennsylvania.

Henry serves as Content Manager for Princeton University’s Middle Ages for Educators, in collaboration with scholars in medieval studies departments around the world. Finally, in addition to his roles at Princeton, Henry is also currently an ACLS Leading Edge Fellow on assignment with Common Cause, where he researches the uses and abuses of money in mass incarceration and politics.