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Emeritus Professor in the History of Religious Thought, The University of Queensland

Philip Almond is an historian of religious thought who has been engaged in the study of religion for over fifty years. He has done so, not as a believer in any religion, but as an agnostic who is nonetheless committed to the belief that an understanding of religion and religions is crucial to our understanding of the past and the present.

His book 'The Devil: A New Biography' (London and Ithaca: I B Tauris and Cornell University Press, 2014) is available in paperback. His book, 'The Afterlife: A History of Life After Death' has been published by I B Tauris and Cornell University Press in 2016. His book: 'God: A New Biography' was published by I B Tauris in 2018.

'The Antichrist: A New Biography' was published by Cambridge University Press in 2020.

His ‘Mary Magdalene: A Cultural History' was published by Cambridge University Press in 2022.

His latest book ‘The Buddha: Life and Afterlife between East and West’ is now out with Cambridge University Press.

Experience

  • –present
    Professorial Research Fellow in the History of Religious Thought, The University of Queensland

Education

  • 1980 
    University of Adelaide, PhD

Honours

1997, Fellow of the Australian Academy of the Humanities, 2001 Centenary Medal.