History Department Faculty
Zachary Matus
Associate Professor
Zachary Matus
Contact
Stokes Hall S303
Telephone: 617-552-3791
Email: zachary.matus@bc.edu
Education
- Ph.D., Harvard University
Department
Biography
Professor Matus’s teaching interests include the intellectual and cultural history of Europe during the High and Late Middle Ages. He is particularly concerned with intersections between religious, magical, and scientific activities. His book project examines how various members of the Franciscan Order justified alchemical practice as a quintessentially Christian endeavor in spite of increasing ecclesiastical suspicion that alchemy was either fraudulent or demonically inspired. Professor Matus is a past Fulbright scholar.
REPRESENTATIVE PUBLICATIONS
“Resurrected Bodies and Roger Bacon’s Elixir,” Ambix 60: 4 (2013) 323 – 340.
“Alchemy and Christianity in the Middle Ages,” History Compass 10: 2 (2012) 934 – 945.
“A Change of Complexion: Reconsidering Roger Bacon’s Apocalypticism in Light of His Alchemical and Scientific Thought,” Harvard Theological Review 105: 2 (2012) 189 – 222.