Journal: Priscilla Papers
Volume: PP 25:3 (Summer 2011)
Article: The Legacy of Catherine Clark Kroeger as Teacher, Scholar, and Mentor
Author: David L. Eastman

PP 25:3 (Summer 2011) p. 18

The Legacy of Catherine Clark Kroeger as Teacher,
Scholar, and Mentor

David L. Eastman

David L. Eastman is Lecturer in New Testament Greek and Christian History at Yale Divinity School. His research centers on the early Christian veneration of the apostle Paul. His first book, Paul the Martyr: The Cult of the Apostle in the Latin West, integrates literary, archaeological, artistic, and liturgical evidence on this topic. His current research includes Paul in the Syriac tradition and a book on ancient Greek, Latin, and Syriac martyrdom accounts of Peter and Paul. Beginning in the fall of 2011, he will be Assistant Professor of Religion at Ohio Wesleyan University.

Like many who knew her, I was shocked to hear the news of Cathie Kroeger’s death. She had an indomitable spirit and as much energy for life as anyone I have ever met. She was one of those rare people who possessed a contagious enthusiasm and passion for teaching, combined with an admirable ability to focus and produce substantial amounts of scholarship. And all this was done in the midst of a dizzying array of commitments, both academic and personal. It never occurred to me that Cathie would one day be gone, at least not without the intervention of an Elijah-like chariot of fire. There are many things that could be said about Cathie, but here I will focus my comments on my experience of her as a teacher and scholar of early Christianity.

The foundation for any eminent scholar in our field is a mastery of the ancient languages, and Cathie possessed this in full measure. While her study of languages began later in life than many of her colleagues, her technical ability in Greek and Latin was on par with anyone. As a student at Gordon-Conwell, I expressed my concerns about not being to continue my study of the more complicated and specialized forms of Classical Greek, and Cathie’s immediate suggestion was an independent study course that included Homer and Plato as well as Greek epigraphy (the study of inscriptions). I would spend hours working through the texts before our meetings, but she would simply pull a volume of Homer off the wall and read along. Without any preparation, she could comment on the broader semantic ranges of words or the technical use of certain terms in the religious context of the ancient world. Anyone familiar with I Suffer Not a Woman, the book that she co-authored with her husband, Dick,1 is well aware that many Greek words carried multiple layers of meaning and resonance. These resonances, as the book’s appendices demonstrate well, were often informed by multiple narratives and cultural traditions that lay outside the Jewish and early Christian literary traditions (e.g., legends of the Amazons, the Egyptian cult ...