Dr. Erin Prophet

Assistant Professor
Religious Studies
252-328-5566
Brewster C-300
prophetee24@ecu.edu

Biography

Dr. Erin Prophet is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Philosophy and Religious Studies at East Carolina University. She received a PhD in religion, with a specialization in Western esoteric traditions, from Rice University, Houston, Texas (2018). She earned a master’s degree in public health with an epidemiology concentration from Boston University (2014).

Dr. Prophet is coordinating the Medical Humanities minor at East Carolina University. Her pedagogy focuses on the importance of a critical approach to religion and spirituality in undergraduate medical education. Her research investigates the relationship between religion and medicine. Specifically, she studies how theology affects self-efficacy in health care and prevention.

Her first book is a historical study of nineteenth-century religious responses to Darwin and is under contract with Columbia University Press. She is the co-lead author on a paper about long-term survival in lung cancer, which was published in 2019 by JNCI Cancer Spectrum. She has written numerous articles and book chapters about new religious movements and is a co-author of the textbook Comparing Religions: The Study of Us that Changes Us (Wiley-Blackwell, 2nd ed. 2024).

Courses Taught

  • Religion and Healthcare
  • World Religions
  • Religion & Social Issues: Paranormal
  • Cults and New Religious Movements

Publications

Books

  • Evolution and Psychic Powers: Salvation, Healing and the Human after Darwin. New York: Columbia University Press. Under contract.
  • New Religious Movements. Elements Series. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Edited by Rebecca Moore. Under contract.

Co-Authored Books

  • Kripal, Jeffrey J. with Ata Anzali, Andrea R. Jain, Erin Prophet and Stefan Sanchez. 2024. Comparing Religions: The Study of Us that Changes Us (2024, 2nd ed). Wiley-Blackwell.
  • Kripal, Jeffrey J. with Ata Anzali, Andrea R. Jain, and Erin Prophet. Comparing Religions: Coming to Terms (2024, 2nd ed). Wiley-Blackwell (2014, 1st ed). Wiley Blackwell.

Journal Articles

  • “Psychology or Religion? Bridge-Building in the Translation History of The Tibetan Book of the Dead.” International Journal of Transpersonal Studies Advance Publication Archive. 72. (2023): 1–16.
  • “Potential Influence on Clinical Trials of Long-Term Survivors of Stage IV Non-Small-Cell Lung Cancer” Journal of the National Cancer Institute (JNCI) Cancer Spectrum (master’s degree research, co-lead author). Jennifer S Davis, Erin Prophet, Ho-Lan Peng, Hwa Young Lee, Rebecca S Slack, J Jack Lee, Anish Thomas, Eva Szabo, Shine Chang. https://doi.org/10.1093/jncics/pkz010. June 2019.
  • “Hermetic Influences on the Evolutionary System of Helena Blavatsky’s Theosophy,” Gnosis: Journal of Gnostic Studies 3(2018): 84-111. doi 10.1163/2451859X-12340050
  • “Deconstructing the Scientology ‘Monster’ of Popular Imagination,” Alternative Spirituality and Religion Review 5:2 (2015): 239–60. doi:10.5840/asrr20152183. Also published in Handbook of Scientology. Edited by James Lewis and Kjersti Hellesøy. Leiden: Brill, 2017.

Book Chapters

  • “Racist or Liberating? The Difficult Transformations of Theosophical Root Race Theory.” In Theosophy and the Study of Religion, edited by Charles Stang and Jason Josephson Storm. Brill, 2024.
  • “The ‘Messenger’ as Source of Both Stabilization and Revisionism in Church Universal and Triumphant and Related Groups.” In Radical Changes in Minority Movements, edited by Eileen Barker and Beth Singler. Oxford: Taylor and Francis, 2022.
  • “Church Universal and Triumphant and The Summit Lighthouse.” In James Crossley and Alastair Lockhart (eds.) Critical Dictionary of Apocalyptic and Millenarian Movements. 11 February 2021. Retrieved from www.cdamm.org/articles/CUT-TSL.
  • “Charisma in New Religious Movements.” In Routledge International Handbook of Charisma, edited by José Pedro Zúquete. Routledge, 2020.
  • “Elizabeth Clare Prophet: Gender, Sexuality and the Divine Feminine.” In Female Leaders of New Religious Movements, edited by Inga Bårdsen Tøllefsen and Christian Giudice. London: Palgrave Macmillan, 2017.
  • “Esotericism Imagined: Major Ideas and Perspectives of Esotericists.” In Religion: Secret Religion, Macmillan Interdisciplinary Handbooks, edited by April D. DeConick, 231–248. Boston: Macmillan Reference, 2016.
  • “New Religion.” In Religion: Sources, Perspectives, and Methodologies, Macmillan Interdisciplinary Handbooks, edited by Jeffrey J. Kripal, 159–76. Boston: Macmillan Reference, 2016.
  • “Charisma and Authority in New Religious Movements.” In Oxford Handbook of New Religious Movements vol. 2, edited by James Lewis and Inga Bårdsen Tøllefsen, 36–49. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2016.

Conference Papers

  • “Critical Approaches to Religion and Spirituality: Essential for Undergraduate Health Humanities?” Flash presentation (remote). International Health Humanities Consortium Conference. Phoenix, AZ. April 12, 2024.
  • “Incorporating Spirituality and Mind-Body Medicine into an Undergraduate Medical Humanities Curriculum.” East Asian Network for the Academic Study of Esotericism International Conference, November 13, 2021.
  • “Theosophical Root Race Theory as Syncretic Theology in the Context of Hermeticism and Nineteenth-Century Biology.” Center for the Study of World Religion, Harvard University conference on Theosophy and the Study of Religion. Boston, MA. May 15, 2019.
  • “Syncretism in the Gendered and Nongendered Reproduction of Blavatsky’s Root Races—From Hermaphrodites to Hairy Red Giants.” American Academy of Religion, Western Esotericism section. Boston, MA. November 21, 2017.
  • “Repression or Empowerment? Tensions in Women’s Spirituality and Sexuality in the Teachings of Yogi Bhajan and 3HO-Sikh Dharma.” Interdisciplinary.net Sexuality and Spirituality Conference. Oxford, UK. July 7, 2016.
  • “Revisionism in Church Universal and Triumphant and Related Groups.” Revisionisms and Diversifications in New Religious Movements panel at the International Association for the History of Religion (IAHR), Erfurt, Germany. August 23, 2015.
  • “California Science Fiction, Atlantis, and New Age Apocalypticism: the Construction and Influence of Frederick S. Oliver’s Dweller on Two Planets.” New Religious Movements section. American Academy of Religion, San Diego, CA. November 22, 2014.
  • “Collective Karma—From Theosophy to New Age Millennialism.” Theosophical History Conference. London. September 21, 2014.