Risto Uro

Risto Uro is University Lecturer in New Testament Studies at the University Helsinki, Faculty of Theology, and a life member of Clare Hall College, University of Cambridge.

Uro’s research interests include the study of the Synoptic Gospels, Nag Hammadi and New Testament Apocrypha, the social world of the New Testament, and the methodology of the New Testament and Early Christian Studies. His current work focuses on applying ritual theory and cognitive science approaches to early Christianity.

Uro is the author of Ritual and Christian Beginnings: A Socio-Cognitive Analysis (Oxford University Press, 2016) and Thomas: Seeking the Historical Context of the Gospel of Thomas (T & T Clark, 2003) as well as the co-editor of several edited volumes, such as Mind, Morality and Magic: Cognitive Science Approaches in Biblical Studies (Acumen, 2013), Sacred Marriages: The Divine-Human Sexual Metaphor from Sumer to Early Christianity (Eisenbrauns, 2008 ), and Explaining Christian Origins: Contributions from Cognitive and Social Science (Brill, 2007).

Uro is currently leading a Nordic research project on “Ritual and the Emergence of Early Christian Religion” (link: http://blogs.helsinki.fi/ritual-earlychristianity/), funded by the Academy of Finland for the period of 2013–17. He is also the first editor of the Oxford Handbook of Early Christian Ritual, 2018 (projected).