Dr. James Rietveld received his PhD in Religion from the School of Religion at Claremont Graduate University. His major fields of concentration focused on the History of Christianity (specializing in Christian Origins, Byzantine/Eastern Ecclesiastical and Christian Medieval history), Greco-Roman Religions, and Archaeology. In addition, Rietveld minored in both Islam and Hinduism.
His dissertation was entitled: Universal Goddess on the Via Sacra: The Evolving Image of Artemis Ephesia, which will soon be developed into a book. Naturally, this means he spends a lot of his time and energy researching Ephesus and the surrounding cities. Geographically speaking, you could say his area of expertise is in the religions of the Mediterranean. Before Claremont, Rietveld received his Masters in History from California State University, Fullerton. Rietveld currently teaches at both California State University Fullerton and Long Beach.
ABOUT THE SHOW Together we will be investigating the mystery and the mayhem of what constitutes “religion” and “spirituality” from perspectives both ancient and modern, exposing the nexus of what some view as sacred, others sacrilegious. We will journey into the heart of the most stirring questions regarding spiritual belief and entertain a myriad of possible explanations. I will approach these ideas as a professor of Religion, History and, when appropriate, Archaeology. My intention is to excavate the deepest of mysteries and uncover what truly resides below—with revelations that may surprise us all.
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