Assistant Professor of New Testament and Sacred Literature Studies, Teaching Stream
- PhD University of Toronto, Department for the Study of Religion (2011)
- MA Wilfrid Laurier University, Religion and Culture (2001)
- Hons BA University of Waterloo, Anthropology (1998)
- BRE Columbia Bible College, Biblical Studies (1994)
Contact
Tel: 416-585-4545
Email: mona.lafosse@utoronto.ca
Teaching & Research Interests
Dr. Mona Tokarek LaFosse holds a joint appointment at Emmanuel College and Victoria College, teaching across undergraduate, basic-degree and graduate levels at Victoria University. Trained in religious studies, her primary area of research and teaching is the New Testament and early Christian history, which she approaches through interdisciplinary lenses including cultural anthropology, storytelling and occasionally zombies.
She has previously taught at Martin Luther University College, Wilfrid Laurier University, Huron University College and, as a PhD student, in the Department for the Study of Religion at the University of Toronto. Her passion for biblical studies was sparked when she first learned New Testament Greek. Around the same time, she became interested in cultural anthropology as a way to honour the diversity of cultural perspectives through which people see and experience the world.
Dr. LaFosse’s teaching and research reflect these intersecting interests. She seeks to understand early Christ followers within their own cultural and social settings while also engaging critically with the various lenses modern readers bring to the text. More recently, her work has focused on the power of stories and storytelling — both ancient and modern — as tools for meaning-making and relationship-building.
Her current research explores age, aging and age structure in early Christian communities of the late first and early second centuries in the ancient Mediterranean. Her study of 1 Timothy examines intergenerational relationships and the role of the life course in shaping social dynamics between women and men.
She is also deeply interested in the oral aspects of storytelling among early Christ groups, with particular attention to the Gospel of Mark, Revelation and the Shepherd of Hermas. In the classroom, she emphasizes “embodied story” — performing and experiencing stories together, in person — influenced by Indigenous storytelling practices and the work of contemporary storytellers.
Selected Publications
Book
Honouring Age: The Social Dynamics of Age Structure in 1 Timothy. Early Christianity and Judaism series. McGill-Queens University Press, 2023.
Book Chapters
“Those Who Hear: The Power of Learners in 1 Timothy.” In Religion and Education in Antiquity: Essays in Honour of Michel Desjardins. Edited by Alexander Damm. Koninklijke Brill NV, Leiden, 2019. doi:10.1163/9789004384613_008. (R)
“Women, Children and House Churches” in The Early Christian World, edited by Philip Esler. Second Edition. London and New York: Routledge, 2017.
“Age Hierarchy and Social Networks among Urban Women in the Roman East.” In Mediterranean Families in Antiquity: Households, Extended Families, and Domestic Space, edited by Sabine R. Huebner and Geoffrey Nathan. Chichester, West Sussex: Wiley Blackwell, 2017. (R)
Journal Articles
“Comparative Aging: How Early Christian Widows Illuminate Age and Aging Today.” Journal of Religion, Spirituality & Aging 36, no. 4 (2024): 345–54. https://doi.org/10.1080/15528030.2024.2374490.
“Considerations of Age and Demography for Early Christ Groups.” Journal for the Study of the New Testament 46, no. 4 (2024): 579–606. https://doi.org/10.1177/0142064X241249809.
“New Testament Apocrypha: More Noncanonical Scriptures, volume 2: A panel review.” Studies in Religion/Sciences Religieuses 52, no. 4 (2023): 499–501. https://doi.org/10.1177/00084298231170010.
“Storytelling, orality and embodiment in New Testament Apocrypha: More Noncanonical Scriptures, volume 2.” Studies in Religion/Sciences Religieuses 52, no. 4 (2023): 514–22. https://doi.org/10.1177/00084298231170011.
“Inspiring Intergenerational Relationships: Aging and the New Testament from One Historian’s Perspective.” Religions 13, no. 7 (2022): 628. https://doi.org/10.3390/rel13070628 (Special edition: “Spirituality and Aging: Finding Meaning in the Context of Personal and Societal Change,” edited by Jane Kuepfer.)
“CSPS/ACÉP: A Small But Stable Society.” With Eric Crégheur, Maria Dasios, Theodore de Bruyn, Miriam De Cock, Robert Kitchen, Timothy Pettipiece and Andrius Valevicius. Studies in Religion/Sciences Religieuses 50, no. 3 (2021): 328–335. https://doi.org/10.1177/00084298211036452.
“Women’s Roles in the Letters to Timothy and Titus.” Women in the Bible issue of Christian Reflection: A Series on Faith and Ethics. Baylor University, 2013. https://ifl.web.baylor.edu/media-and-resources/christian-reflection-project/women-bible.
Book Reviews (recent)
Review of Medicine, Health, and Healing in the Ancient Mediterranean (500 BCE–600 CE): A Sourcebook, by Kristi Upson-Saia, Heidi Marx and Jared Secord. Berkeley: University of California Press, 2023. Studies in Religion/Sciences Religieuses 54, no. 1 (2024): 157–59. DOI: 10.1177/00084298241272295.
Review of Lukan Parables of Reckless Liberality by Amanda Brobst-Renaud. Sheffield Phoenix Press, 2021. Review of Biblical Literature (Invited review), 09/2023. https://www.sblcentral.org/home/bookDetails/1001483?search=lafosse&type=0
Review of The Young Against the Old: Generational Conflict in First Clement, by L. L. Welborn. Lexington Books/Fortress Academic, 2018. Review of Biblical Literature 22 (2020): 461–64. (Invited review) https://www.sblcentral.org/home/bookDetails/12250?search=lafosse&type=0.
Review of The Power of Children: The Construction of Christian Families in the Greco-Roman World, by Margaret Y. MacDonald. Baylor, 2014. Studies in Religion/Sciences Religieuses 46, no. 2 (2017): 327–329.
Memberships & Affiliations
- Canadian Society for Patristic Studies/Association Canadienne des Études Patristiques (2001-present)
- The Canadian Society of Biblical Studies (2000-present)
- Society of Biblical Literature (Member: 2002, 2006-present)
- KW Biblical Colloquium (Member: 2007-2018)
- The Context Group (participant in 2003, 2007, 2013)
Dr. Mona Tokarek LaFosse has been actively involved with the Executive of the Canadian Society of Patristic Studies, serving in various roles between 2006 and 2025. She is currently a member of the Society’s Nominating Committee for the 2025–26 term. In addition, she serves as co-chair of the Social-Scientific Criticism of the New Testament section of the Society of Biblical Literature for the 2025–27 term.
Selected Courses
Emmanuel College
- EMB1501: New Testament I (gospels)
- EMB1506: New Testament II (Paul to Revelation)
- EMB3654/EMB 6654: Gospel of Mark as Embodied Story
- EMB3571/EMB 6571: Zombies, the Bible and the End of the World
Victoria College
- CRE209: How Stories Work
- VIC159: Zombies, Vampires and the Bible
* Photo courtesy of Martin Luther University College