Religious Studies

Loyola University

6363 St. Charles Avenue

New Orleans, LA 70118

504-865-3182 office

504-865-3179 fax

504-394-2207 home

New Religious Movements, Millennialism

Women and Religion

Religions of India, World Religions

History of Christianity

Ph.D. 1985

University of Iowa (School of Religion)

Dissertation: "Millenarianism in the Thought of Annie Besant"

B.F.A. 1974

University of South Carolina

Fall 1986 - present

Loyola University

New Orleans, LA

Dept. Chair 1998-2000

Professor 1998

Associate Professor 1992-98

sabbatical 1997-98

tenure 1995

Assistant Professor 1986-92

ordinary (tenure track) 1990

extraordinary (adjunct)1987-90

part-time 1986-87

Introduction to World Religions

Women in World Religions

World Religions - Honors

Women in the Christian Tradition

Hindu Paths to God

Women’s Studies Seminar

Readings Seminar for R.S. Majors (1 hr.)

Millennium Seminar

Religion and Media

Graduate courses

Religions of Asia

Women in Religions & Cultures

Millennium Seminar

Summer 1988 , Spring 1987 , Spring 1986

Adjunct Assistant Professor

University College

Tulane University

New Orleans, LA

Society, Women and Religion

Annie Besant and Progressive Messianism . 1988. Lewiston, NY: Edwin Mellen Press.

Editor, Women’s Leadership in Marginal Religions: Explorations Outside the Mainstream. 1993. Urbana: University of Illinois Press.

Editor, Religious Institutions and Women’s Leadership: New Roles Inside the Mainstream. 1996. Studies in Comparative Religion Series. Columbia: University of South Carolina Press.

Editor, Millennialism, Persecution, and Violence: Historical Cases. Syracuse: Syracuse University Press, 2000.

How the Millennium Comes Violently: From Jonestown to Heaven’s Gate. New York: Seven Bridges Press, 2000.

"Varieties of Millennialism and the Issue of Authority," in From the Ashes: Making Sense of Waco, edited by James R. Lewis. (Lanham, Maryland: Rowman & Littlefield, 1994): 55-62.

"Millennialism With and Without the Mayhem" in Millennium, Messiahs, and Mayhem, ed. by Thomas Robbins and Susan J. Palmer (New York: Routledge, 1997), 47-59.

"Foreword" to Hearing the Voices of Jonestown: Putting a Human Face on an American Tragedy, by Mary McCormick Maaga (Syracuse: Syracuse University Press, 1998), ix-xii.

"The Interacting Dynamics of Millennial Beliefs, Persecution, and Violence" in Millennialism, Persecution, and Violence: Historical Cases (Syracuse: Syracuse University Press, 2000), 43-61.

"New Religious Movements and Conflicts with Law Enforcement," in New Religious Movements and Religious Liberty in America, ed. Derek H. Davis and Barry Hankins (Waco: J. M. Dawson Institute of Church-State Studies and Baylor University Press, 2002), 115-39.

"Understanding Contemporary Millennial Movements, Peaceful and Violent," in Millennialism from the Hebrew Bible to the Present, ed. Leonard J. Greenspoon and Ronald A. Simkins (Omaha: Creighton University Press, 2002).

"Mount Carmel's Lessons on Millennialism, Persecution, and Violence," forthcoming from Southwestern University Press in a volume edited by David Tabb Stewart.

"Annie Besant and the World-Teacher: Progressive Messianism for the New Age," The Quest 2 (Spring 1989): 60-69.

"Annie Besant’s Millennial Movement: Its History, Impact, and Implications Concerning Authority," with an "Epilogue on David Koresh and the Branch Davidians." Syzygy: Journal of Alternative Religion and Culture 2/1-2 (Winter/Spring 1993): 55-70.

"How the Millennium Comes Violently," Dialog: A Journal of Theology 36/4 (Fall 1997): 277-88.

"Religious Studies Scholars, FBI Agents, and the Montana Freemen," Nova Religio: The Journal of Alternative and Emergent Religions 3, no. 1 (October 1999): 36-44.

Articles for the Encyclopedia of Millennialism and Millennial Movements, ed. Richard Landes (Routledge, 2000) on "castastropic millennialism," "progressive millennialism," "assaulted millennial groups," "fragile millennial groups," "revolutionary millennial movements," "nativist millennial movements," and "persecution."

"Discerning Religious Prejudice," The Phoenix 15/1 (January 1995): 7, 17.

"Religious Intolerance--Not ‘Cults’--Is the Problem," Communities: Journal of Cooperative Living 88 (Fall 1995): 32-33.

"FBI adviser on successful end of Freemen standoff," New Orleans Times-Picayune, July 16, 1996: B-5.

"An avoidable tragedy: the Branch Davidians," The Loyola Maroon (Loyola University) 75/17 (February 28, 1997): 9.

"When ‘cult’ is pejorative," letter to the editor, New Orleans Times-Picayune, April 22, 1997.

"Religious fervor erupts in violence," New Orleans Times-Picayune, October 22, 2001.

"Understanding the Branch Davidian Tragedy," Nova Religio: The Journal of Alternative and Emergent Religions 1/1 (October 1997): 122-38. This article reviews: