"From Babylon to Exodus: Violence, Story, and Collective Identity Formation in Early Judaism and Christianity"

Dr. Kimberly Stratton, Carleton University

In this lecture, Professor Stratton draws on trauma studies and anthropology to rethink the rupture between Jewish sects following the failed Judean revolts against Rome (66–70 CE and 132–135 CE).

Rather than treating theological disagreement or identity formation as the primary drivers of the split between Judaism and Christianity, Stratton focuses on a more fundamental question: how communities respond to collective trauma. She argues that narratives, especially those drawn from scriptural traditions, play a central role in restoring coherence and hope after violence, even as they shape new forms of identity.

This approach raises important methodological questions. It challenges the tendency to apply fixed labels like “Jewish” and “Christian” to early texts and instead emphasizes the fluidity of identities in this period. More broadly, it invites us to reconsider how stories about the past function, not just as records of belief, but as tools for meaning-making, resilience, and, at times, exclusion.

About the Speaker

Kimberly Stratton (PhD, Columbia University) teaches in the Religion and Public Life program at Carleton University. Her work spans early Judaism and Christianity, violence and religion, and critical theory in the study of religion. Her monograph Naming the Witch: Magic, Ideology, and Stereotype in the Ancient World (Columbia University Press, 2007) received the Frank W. Beare Book Award and helped redefine “magic” as a discursive category rather than a set of practices. Her current research examines Jewish and Christian responses to Roman violence and the role of mythic narrative in shaping communal identity after trauma.