“The academic study of Christianity has a very important place in the education of students at the University of Michigan.”
-Ellen Muehlberger, Ph.D., Associate Professor of Christianity in Late Antiquity
Mission
The purpose of the Michigan Center for Early Christian Studies (MCECS) is to bring the study of Christian origins and Christian antiquity into the center of higher education and intellectual discourse.
Goals
- To promote Christian literacy
- To develop and present events, lectures, and international travel that promote the study of early Christianity for the general public
- To develop an endowment for public lectures and university courses
- To develop a center for early Christian studies at the University of Michigan that is internationally recognized as the preeminent center for the interdisciplinary study of Christian origins and antiquity
- To support the Enoch Seminar, an international network of scholars
- To encourage shared research related to Second Temple Judaism and Christian origins
- To create an online newsletter
- To seek and utilize funds to support:
- endowed Ph.D. student fellowships to study and conduct research on early Christianity
- award annual prizes for students studying early Christian topics
- fund an ongoing university lecture series on early Christianity
- fund endowed professorships in early Christian studies
- fund a research center within the University of Michigan to conduct scholarly research on early Christianity.