Geoff Chaplin

An Oberlin grad of '99, this bow-tied visiting professor of early Christianity in our religion department speaks very quickly.

Left town January 2006 to keep doing research in Chicago.

[edit] Quotes

"Theologians are good at many things, and one of them is getting completely wrong the meaning and purpose of a text."

"The only thing I hate more than injustice is parenthetical citations."

"What happens when you don't have absolute control over every aspect of religious life? Reformations. Reformations are bad."

"Protestants get witches, Catholics get demons. This was decided at the beginning of the Reformation."

"Say you're an upper crust Londoner and you would like a sarcophagus to put somewhere in your house...because we all know coffins are very welcoming things to have...when you're drinking martinis..."

"Every debate in this period, within the Catholic Church, and to a certain extent Protestants, can be theorized according to how much you hate the Jesuits."

on Margery Kempe: "If you're screaming in church, you can scream the Tomistic doctrine of transubstantiation as much as you want; you're still going to be a pain in the ass."