I Give Therefore I Am: The Meaning of Charity in Judaism and Christianity

Gary A. Anderson, Hesburgh Professor of Theology at the University of Notre Dame, is the author or editor of many books and articles on the Bible and early Judaism and Christianity.

Anderson’s 2009 book Sin: A History investigates the way in which ancient metaphors for sin changed over time and how those changes decisively shaped the way Jews and Christians came to view the effect of sins and how they might be forgiven. His current work extends that line of thinking to explore the history of charity in Judaism and Christianity.

Anderson has taught at the University of Virginia and Harvard University and has been a Henry Luce Fellow, Fellow at the Institute for Advanced Studies at Hebrew University in Jerusalem, Starr Fellow in Jewish Studies at Harvard University and, most recently, the joint Straus-Tikvah Fellow at New York University School of Law. He has also received recent grants from the American Philosophical Society, the Lilly Endowment and the Louisville Institute. Anderson received a Master of Divinity from Duke University and a Ph.D. from Harvard University.

Admission is free.