Nina Nikki

Nina Nikki is an Associate Professor at the Department of Historical, Philosophical and Religious Studies, Umeå University. Her research bridges biblical scholarship, ancient history, and sociological theory to analyze early Christian texts and identities.

• Focus areas: Pauline epistles, cultural evolution of religious texts, Roman Eastern Mediterranean contexts
• Methodological approach: Bourdieusian theory, network analysis, distributional semantics

Her publications examine the interplay between community practices and textual sanctity, the globalization of early Christian thought, and the application of cognitive theories to ancient religious materials. She contributes to interdisciplinary dialogues on sacred texts and their historical interpretations.

Recent work explores:

• Application of Morality-as-Cooperation theory to the Sermon on the Mount
• Formation of sacred texts through social dynamics
• Cultural evolution of Pauline Christianity via semantic analysis