Jorunn Jacobsen Buckley

Jorunn Jacobsen Buckley (born Jorunn Jacobsen in 1944 in Norway) is an American religious studies scholar and historian of religion known for her work on Mandaeism and Gnosticism. She was a former Professor of Religion at Bowdoin College. She is known for translating the ''Scroll of Exalted Kingship'' and other Mandaean texts, as well as for her various books on the Mandaean religion and people.

Jorunn Buckley was married to Thomas Buckley, an American anthropologist who died in 2015.

Education

Jorunn Jacobsen Buckley was born in Norway. She began her undergraduate studies during the 1960s. As an undergraduate student, she studied psychology, philosophy, and Ancient Greek, and eventually became interested in Gnosticism and Mandaeism. In 1971, she went to the University of Uppsala and then studied briefly at the University of Utrecht. She also visited Iran in 1973 to conduct fieldwork on the Mandaeans. In 1975, she began her doctoral studies at the University of Chicago Divinity School and received a Ph.D. in 1978. Her doctoral thesis was titled ''Spirit Ruha in Mandaean Religion''.

Career

Buckley has conducted fieldwork twice in Iran, in 1973 and 1996, as well as among Mandaean diaspora communities around the world. She has regularly collaborated with Mandaic scholars such as Kurt Rudolph and Rudolf Macúch.

For most of her career, Buckley was a professor at Bowdoin College, a private liberal arts college in Brunswick, Maine.

Affiliations

Buckley is a member of:

*American Academy of Religion
*Society of Biblical Literature

Selected publications

Books

A selection of books authored by Buckley:

*''Female Fault and Fulfilment in Gnosticism''. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1986.
*
The Mandaeans: Ancient Texts and Modern People
'. New York: Oxford University Press, 2002.
*''The Great Stem of Souls: Reconstructing Mandaean History''. Piscataway, NJ: Gorgias Press, 2005.
*''Drower's Folk-Tales of Iraq''. Piscataway, NJ: Gorgias Press, 2007.
*''Lady E. S. Drower's Scholarly Correspondence: An Intrepid English Autodidact in Iraq''. Leiden: Brill, 2012.

Articles

Selected journal articles authored by Buckley:

*"The Mandaean Šitil as an Example of ‘the Image Above and Below.’" ''Numen'' 26, no. 2 (1979): 185–91.
*"Two Female Gnostic Revealers." ''History of Religions'' 19, no. 3 (1980): 259–69.
*"The Mandaean Tabahata Masiqta." ''Numen'' 28, no. 2 (1981): 138–63.
*"Mani’s Opposition to the Elchasaites: A Question of Ritual." In ''Traditions in Contact and Change: Selected Proceedings of the XIVth Congress of the International Association for the History of Religions'', edited by P. Slater and D. Wiebe, 323–36. Waterloo, Ontario: Wilfrid Laurier University Press, 1983.
*"A Rehabilitation of Spirit Ruha in Mandaean Religion." ''History of Religions'' 22, no. 1 (1982): 60–84.
*"Tools and Tasks: Elchasaite and Manichaean Purification Rituals," ''Journal of Religion'' 66, no. 4 (1986): 399–411.
*"Mandaean Religion." In ''The Encyclopedia of Religion'', vol. 9, edited by M. Eliade, 150–53. New York: Macmillan, 1987.
*"Conceptual Models and Polemical Issues in the Gospel of Philip." In ''Aufstieg und Niedergang der römischen Welt'', pt. 2, 25, 5, edited by H. Temporini and W. Haase, 4167–94. Berlin: de Gruyter, 1988.
*"A Study of the Two Liturgical Collections in J. de Morgan’s ''Textes Mandaïtes''." ''Le Muséon'' 104, vols. 1–2 (1991): 191–203.
*"The Colophons in The Canonical Prayerbook of the Mandaeans." ''Journal of Near Eastern Studies'' 51, no. 1 (1992): 33–50.
*"The Mandaean Appropriation of Jesus’ Mother, Miriai." ''Novum Testamentum'' 35, no. 2 (1993): 181–96.
*"Libertines or Not: Fruit, Bread, Semen and Other Body Fluids in Gnosticism," ''Journal of Early Christian Studies'' 2, no. 1 (1994): 15–31.
*"A Mandaean Correspondence." In ''Gnosisforschung und Religionsgeschichte: Festschrift für Kurt Rudolph zum 65. Geburtstag'', edited by Holger Preissler and Hubert Seiwert, 55–60. Marburg: diagonal-Verlag, 1994.
*"The Colophons in H. Petermann’s Sidra Rabba." ''Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society'', 3d ser., 5, no. 1 (1995): 21–38.
*"With the Mandaeans in Iran." ''Religious Studies News'' 11, no. 3 (1996): 8.
*"Professional Fatigue: ‘Hibil’s Lament’ in the Mandaean Book of John." ''Le Muséon'' 110, fasc. 3–4 (1997): 367–81.
*"Glimpses of a Life: Yahia Bihram, Mandaean Priest." ''History of Religions'' 39, no. 1 (1999), 32–49.
*"The Evidence for Women Priests in Mandaeism." ''Journal of Near Eastern Studies'' 59, no. 2 (2000): 93–106.
*"A Re-Investigation of The Book of John." ''ARAM'' 16 (2004): 13–23.
*Review of ''The Mandaeans: The Last Gnostics'', by Edmondo Lupieri. ''Journal of the American Academy of Religion'' 71 (2002): 220–23.
*"Hibil's Lament from The Book of John," in ''The Gnostic Bible'', edited by Willis Barnstone and Marvin Meyer, 555–60. Boston: Shambhala, 2003.
*"A Mandaean Appropriation of Jesus' Mother Miriai." In ''A Feminist Companion to Mariology'', edited by Amy-Jill Levine, 182–93. London: T & T Clark, 2005.
*"Mandaean Community in Iran." In ''Encyclopaedia Iranica'', edited by Ehsan Yarshater. New York: Columbia University, MEALAC–Center for Iranian Studies, 2005.
*"Turning the Tables on Jesus: The Mandaean View." In ''A People's History of Christianity'', edited by Richard Horsley, vol. 1: Christian Origins, 94–109. Philadelphia: Fortress, 2005.

See also

*Charles G. Häberl
* James F. McGrath
* E. S. Drower

References

External links

Faculty page
at Bowdoin College

{{DEFAULTSORT:Buckley, Jorunn Jacobsen
1944 births
Living people
Bowdoin College faculty
Religious studies scholars
Scholars of Mandaeism
American historians of religion
Norwegian expatriates in the United States
Norwegian historians of religion
University of Chicago Divinity School alumni
Translators from Mandaic
Historians of Gnosticism