Shaily Patel

Shaily Patel serves as an Assistant Professor of early Christianity in the Department of Religion and Culture at Virginia Tech's College of Liberal Arts and Human Sciences.

Her educational background includes:

• Ph.D. from The University of North Carolina (2017)
• Master's degrees from Vanderbilt Divinity School and The University of Chicago
• Undergraduate studies at Wake Forest University

Dr. Patel's research critically examines magic's multifaceted role in early Christian texts, demonstrating how it functioned internally for community cohesion, conversion strategies, and intra-Christian theological debates rather than solely as a tool to malign external groups. Her current book project, Peter the Magician: Discourses of Magic in Early Petrine Traditions, recontextualizes Peter within magic discourses to complicate modern understandings of ancient Christianity. Her teaching emphasizes the diversity of early Christian groups through courses on New Testament, Christian apocrypha, orthodoxy and heresy, and demonology, situating them within Graeco-Roman cultural frameworks.

Her scholarly perspectives have gained public traction through media features in The Conversation (April 14, 2021) and The Daily Beast (November 1, 2020) addressing magic's theological significance in early Christian development.