Jonelle Weier
Doctoral Candidate
Biography
Jonelle Weier is a Ph.D. student in the History of Christianity. She primarily studies Christianity within the Roman Empire and is especially interested in the development of discipline and rigorism within North Africa. Other interests include the rhetorical construction of early Christian texts, Apocalypticism, and the New Prophecy Movement. When not reading Tertullian in her cubicle in the Department, Jonelle serves her local church community as a pastor’s wife. Additionally, for over six years, Jonelle and her husband have served as foster parents for the Massachusetts Department of Children and Families. Primarily specializing in care for adolescent boys, her home is full of wrestling, laughs, fart jokes, and a few pieces of broken furniture. Amid her studies and busy home life, Jonelle often relies on these encouraging words from James: "Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world" (James 1:27).