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Sonja Anderson

Assistant Professor of Religion, Religion

Sonja Anderson (UCLA, B.A.; University of Notre Dame, M.T.S.; Yale University, M.A., M.Phil., Ph.D.) teaches courses in ancient Christianity and Judaism, religious violence, gender and Catholicism, apocalypticism, and religion and medicine. Her current book project, Idol Talk: False Worship in the Early Christian World, will be published with Edinburgh University Press and explores how ancient Christians and Jews used idolatry polemic to claim a distinctive identity for themselves over against their pagan peers and how scholarly narratives have replicated this claim to uniqueness. At the moment, she is interested in the history of Catholic book publishing in 20th–21st-century America and in the nexus of sincerity, materiality, and ritual action in early Christian conceptions of the eucharist and penitential discipline. Her favorite place to be is in conversation with students and colleagues about the weirdness of how we imagine ancient religion.


At Carleton since 2016.

Current Courses

  • Fall 2024
    RELG 100: The Historical Jesus and the Christ of Faith
  •  
    RELG 110: Understanding Religion
  • Winter 2025
    RELG 233: Gender and Power in the Catholic Church
  • Spring 2025
    RELG 213: Religion, Medicine, and Healing
  •  
    RELG 265: Religion and Violence: Hindus, Muslims, Jews
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Curriculum Vitae

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