LaFosse, Mona Tokarek

Mona Tokarek LaFosse
College: Emmanuel College
Degrees: PhD (Toronto)
Email: mona.lafosse@utoronto.ca
Phone: 416-585-4545
Teaching Category:
Contractual Limited Term Appointment
Appointment Status:
Basic Degree
GCTS Associate Restricted
Research Interests:
Scripture / Bible / Sacred Texts

Bio

I hold a joint appointment at Emmanuel College and Victoria College. I completed my doctoral work under John Kloppenborg in the Department for the Study of Religion (University of Toronto). My primary area of research and teaching is New Testament and early Christian history, which I often combine with insights from cultural anthropology, storytelling (including the use of “embodied stories” in teaching), and (sometimes) zombies.

My research focuses on age, aging and age structure in cultural and social contexts, especially related to the early Christ followers in the late first and early second century ancient Mediterranean. My work on 1 Timothy examines intergenerational relationships and how the life course illuminates social dynamics among women and men. I am also interested in orality and narrative, especially in the Gospel of Mark, Revelation and the Shepherd of Hermas.

  • Specializations

    • New Testament and Early Christianity
    • Age, aging, age structure and intergenerational relationships
    • Letters to Timothy and Titus
    • Cultural and social contexts of the Ancient Mediterranean
    • Orality, storytelling, embodied stories

  • Publications

    Book

    • Honouring Age: The Social Dynamics of Age Structure in 1 Timothy. Montreal, ON: McGill-Queens University Press. Early Christianity and Judaism series.

    Book Chapters

    • “Those Who Hear: The Power of Learners in 1 Timothy.” In Religion and Education in Antiquity: Essays in Honour of Michel Desjardins. Edited by Alexander Damm, 147-70. Koninklijke Brill NV, Leiden, 2019. doi:10.1163/9789004384613_008. (R)
    • “Women, Children and House Churches” in The Early Christian World, edited by Philip Esler, 385-405. Second Edition. London and New York: Routledge, 2017.
    • “Age Hierarchy and Social Networks among Urban Women in the Roman East.” In Mediterranean Families in Antiquity: Households, Extended Families, and Domestic Space, edited by Sabine R. Huebner and Geoffrey Nathan, 204-20. Chichester, West Sussex: Wiley Blackwell, 2017.(R)

    Articles

    • 2024 “Comparative Aging: How Early Christian Widows Illuminate Age and Aging Today,” Journal of Religion, Spirituality & Aging (Jul 03 online), doi.org/10.1080/15528030.2024.2374490
    • 2024 “Considerations of Age and Demography for Early Christ Groups.” Journal for the Study of the New Testament46, no.4: 579–606. org/10.1177/0142064X241249809
    • 2023 “New Testament Apocrypha: More Noncanonical Scriptures, volume 2: A panel review.”Studies in Religion/Sciences Religieuses 52, no.2. Published online first, April 25, 2023. doi/10.1177/00084298231170010
    • 2023 “Storytelling, orality and embodiment in New Testament Apocrypha: More Noncanonical Scriptures, volume 2.” Studies in Religion/Sciences Religieuses 52, no.2. Published online first, April 25, 2023. doi.org/10.1177/00084298231170011
    • 2022 "Inspiring Intergenerational Relationships: Aging and the New Testament from One Historian’s Perspective" Religions 13, no. 7: 628. (Special edition: “Spirituality and Aging: Finding Meaning in the Context of Personal and Societal Change,” edited by Jane Kuepfer.)
    • 2019 “CSPS/ACÉP: A small but stable society.” With Eric Crégheur, Maria Dasios, Theodore de Bruyn, Miriam De Cock, Robert Kitchen, Timothy Pettipiece and Andrius Valevicius.Studies in Religion. (Aug 31): 1-8.
    • 2013 “Women’s Roles in the Letters to Timothy and Titus.” Women in the Bible issue of Christian Reflection: A Series on Faith and Ethics. Baylor University, 2013. 

    Book Reviews

    • 2023 Review of Amanda Brobst-Renaud. 2021. Lukan Parables of Reckless Liberality. Sheffield Phoenix Press (2021). Review of Biblical Literature (Invited review), 09/2023.
    • 2020 Book review for L. L. Welborn, The Young Against the Old: Generational Conflict in First Clement. Lanham: Lexington Books/Fortress Academic (2018). Review of Biblical Literature 22: 461-64. (Invited review)
    • 2017 Book review of The Power of Children: The Construction of Christian Families in the Greco-Roman World by Margaret Y. MacDonald (2014). Studies in Religion 46(2): 327-329.
    • 2012 Book review of “No Longer Male or Female”: Interpreting Galatians 3:28 in Early Christianity by Pauline Nigh Hogan (2008). Studies in Religion 41(1):123-25.