Professor Brakke studies and teaches the history and literature of ancient Christianity from its origins through the fifth century, with special interests in asceticism, monasticism, "Gnosticism," biblical interpretation, and Egyptian Christianity.  Athanasius and the Politics of Asceticism (Oxford UP 1995; Johns Hopkins UP 1998) examines the social and political dimensions of a bishop's ascetic teachings, and Demons and the Making of the Monk: Spiritual Combat in Early Christianity (Harvard UP 2006) explores the role of evil forces in the formation of the monk as a virtuous self and as a social role. The Gnostics: Myth, Ritual, and Diversity in Early Christianity (Harvard UP 2010) argues for a social and cultural approach to the definition of "Gnosticism" and to the question of "orthodoxy" and "heresy" in the era before Constantine.  It was named a Choice Outstanding Academic Title for 2011.  He has also edited and translated early Christian texts, most recently, with Andrew Crislip, Selected Discourses of Shenoute the Great: Community, Theology, and Social Conflict in Late Antique Egypt (Cambridge UP 2015), and he has co-edited several scholarly volumes, including Religion and the Self in Antiquity (Indiana UP 2005) and Shifting Cultural Frontiers in Late Antiquity (Ashgate 2012).

Professor Brakke's research has received support from the American Council of Learned Societies, the National Endowment for the Humanities, and the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation.

He is currently a member of an international team of scholars that is producing the first unified critical edition and translation of the works of Shenoute of Atripe (ca.348-465), the leader of a large monastic community in Upper Egypt and the greatest native writer of Coptic.  His current projects include also a commentary on the Gospel of Judas and revising and updating The Gnostic Scriptures by Bentley Layton.

Professor Brakke is the president-elect of the International Association for Coptic Studies and a member of the Board of Consultants of the Journal of Religion. From 2005-2015 he served as editor of the Journal of Early Christian Studies, which is sponsored by the North American Patristics Society.

Potential graduate students interested in studying early Christianity or Christianity in late antiquity should be aware of the presence at OSU also of Professors Tim Gregory and Kristina Sessa in History; Fritz Graf, Bert Harrill, Anthony Kaldellis, and Sarah Iles Johnston in Classics; and Sean Anthony, Lynne Kaye, Michael Swartz, and Kevin van Bladel in Near Eastern Languages and Cultures.