John T. Thames
Assistant Professor of Religion; Director, Program in Religious Studies
Contact
Department of Philosophy and Religion
Office: 206 Hardin Hall
Email: jtthame@clemson.edu
Education
Ph.D., Johns Hopkins University; M.A.R., Yale Divinity School
Dr. Thames is a scholar of the Hebrew Bible and the religions of the ancient Near East. His work focuses on reconstructing ancient religious ritual practices known to us through Akkadian and West Semitic documents from Mesopotamia and Syria-Palestine and assessing their impact and significance within their socio-political environments. His book, The Politics of Ritual Change: The zukru Festival in Late Bronze Age Emar, exposes the role of international political entanglements in the shaping of local religious ritual during the Hittite Empire period. Currently, he is working on assessing ritual practice in ancient Israel during the monarchical period. His work has appeared in publications such as the Journal of Biblical Literature and the Journal for the Study of the Old Testament. Prior to joining the faculty at Clemson, he worked as Lecturer at Yale University and the University of Connecticut.
