Karen Leigh King (born February 16, 1954, raised in Sheridan, Montana)[1] is a historian of religion working in the field of Early Christianity, who is currently the Hollis Professor of Divinity at Harvard University, in the oldest endowed chair in the United States (since 1721) She was the first woman to be appointed to the position.
[5] She has in particular explored the roles of women, images of the feminine divine principle, Jesus's sexuality and gender, diversity of attitudes toward persecution and violence and notions of what it means to be human, among other topics.
[6] In 2016, despite acknowledging likely forgery, King stated that there was no reason to retract her earlier published research on the forged document.
[7] In 2020, journalist Ariel Sabar published "Veritas: A Harvard Professor, a Con Man and the Gospel of Jesus's Wife".
She is the editor of Images of the Feminine in Gnosticism (1988) and Women and Goddess Traditions in Antiquity and Today (2000), and co-editor of For the Children, Perfect Instruction: Studies in Honor of Hans-Martin Schenke on the Occasion of the Berliner Arbeitskreis für Koptisch-gnostische Schriften’s Thirtieth Year.