Religious Studies

Richard Boles specializes in early American and United States history, particularly African American and Native American history from the colonial era to the middle of the nineteenth century, and American religious history. Boles researches race relations in early American churches. His first book, Dividing the Faith: The Rise of Segregated Churches in the Early American North, was published by New York University Press in December 2020. This work examines the transition from racially diverse churches during the early eighteenth century to separate American Indian and African American congregations by the early nineteenth century in the Mid-Atlantic and New England regions. Boles shows that a significant portion of northern Protestants worshiped in interracial churches between 1730 and 1820. He has begun new research about religious interactions among Native Americans and African Americans in early America.

Boles was appointed Interim Director of the Religious Studies Program in February 2024.

Research Interests:

Colonial and Revolutionary America; Native American History; African American History; American Religious History

Jin Young Kim is an Assistant Professor in the Religious Studies Program and the Department of Philosophy at OSU, with a specialization in ancient Christianity and the New Testament.

New Testament, Biblical hermeneutics, Archaeology of the Bible, Greco-Roman Religions

Introduction                                                                                                                              

Rev. Dr. Matthew J. Pereira (B.A., University of Washington; M.Div., Fuller Theological Seminary; S.T.M., Union Theological Seminary; M.Phil., Ph.D., Columbia University) is a Teaching Associate Professor in the Department of History at Oklahoma State University, where he primarily teaches courses in the Religious Studies program. In 2025, he received the College of Arts and Sciences Excellence in General Education Teaching Award, recognizing his commitment to innovative and impactful undergraduate teaching. Prior to joining Oklahoma State University in the fall of 2019, Dr. Pereira served as a Postdoctoral Fellow and Visiting Assistant Professor in the Department of Theological Studies at Loyola Marymount University (Los Angeles, CA) from 2013 to 2019.

Research Interests                                                                                                                      

Dr. Pereira is a historian of Christianity specializing in the period from the fourth through the seventh centuries (Late Antiquity). His research focuses on the reception and interpretation of Christian traditions during this formative era. He is currently completing a manuscript that offers a historical and textual analysis of the writings of Abbot Maxentius and the Scythian monks, produced in the first half of the sixth century. More broadly, Dr. Pereira’s scholarship examines major theological debates across both the Latin (Western) and Greek (Eastern) Christian traditions. His published work engages a wide range of figures in the history of Christian thought, including Origen of Alexandria (185–253), Augustine of Hippo (354–436), Prosper of Aquitaine (390–455), Cyril of Alexandria (ca. 376–444), Faustus of Riez (ca. 410–ca. 490), Niketas Stethatos (ca. 1005–1090), John Calvin (1509–1564), and Michael Servetus (d. 1553).

Recent Publications                                                                                                     

“Pelagianism in the Sixth to Eighth Centuries,” in The Oxford Handbook of the Pelagian Controversy, eds. Anthony Dupont, Giulio Malavasi, and Brian Matz (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2025), 473–486.

Book Review of Ionuț Holubeanu, Christianity in Roman Scythia: Ecclesiastical Organization and Monasticism (Fourth to Seventh Centuries), East Central and Eastern Europe in the Middle Ages, 450–1450, vol. 90, in Religious Studies Review 51.1 (March 2025): 172–173.

Book Review of Miguel Escobar, The Unjust Steward: Wealth, Poverty, and the Church Today, in Religious Studies Review 50.3 (September 2024): 613–614

Works in Progress                                                                                                               

Journal article titled: “Roma locuta, causa finita: Hormisdas and the Scythian Monks,”

Monograph titled Frontier Theologians: The Scythian Monks and the Reshaping of the Christian Tradition.

Service and Outreach                                                                                                                                                          

Dr. Pereira currently serves as Vice President and Scholarship Chair of the Hispanic Latino Faculty and Staff Association (HLFSA) at Oklahoma State University. He is also the founder of the Religious Studies Student Organization, where he continues to serve as co-faculty advisor. Ordained in the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) in 2016, Dr. Pereira is a Teaching Elder in the Cimarron Presbytery (Oklahoma). He, his wife Malú, and their daugther Julieta are grateful to be part of the beloved community at First Presbyterian Church in Stillwater, Oklahoma. Over the years, Dr. Pereira has regularly preached (pulpit supply) and taught adult education courses in churches in Seattle, New York City, Los Angeles, and now Oklahoma.