Garry Trompf

Garry Trompf is Emeritus Professor in the History of Ideas in the Department of Studies in Religion at the University of Sydney. He earned a B.A. with First Class Honours in History from the University of Melbourne in 1962, a Diploma of Education with First Class Honours in 1963, an M.A. in History and History of Ideas from Monash University in 1967, an M.A. in Theology from Oxford University in 1974, and a Ph.D. in the History of Ideas from the Australian National University in 1975. His career includes early roles as Tutor in History at Ormond College, University of Melbourne (1963-1988), Lecturer in History at Monash University and the University of Western Australia (1963-1967), Research Scholar at the Australian National University (1967-1969), Lecturer in Theology and Religious Studies at St. Mark's Institute and the University of Papua New Guinea (1970-1975), Visiting Professor in History and Comparative Religion at the University of California, Santa Cruz (1972-1975, 1980-1982, 1988), Professor of History and Head of Department at the University of Papua New Guinea (1983-1985), and at the University of Sydney from Lecturer in Religious Studies in 1977, to Senior Lecturer (1979), Associate Professor and Head of Department (1986-1991, 1994), Professor in the History of Ideas (1995-2005), and Emeritus Professor since 2007. Additional appointments include Visiting Professor at Rijksuniversiteit Utrecht (1984), the University of Edinburgh (1996), and the University of Warsaw (2008), as well as Adjunct Professor in Peace and Conflict Studies at the University of Sydney (2012-).

Trompf's research specializations include methodological approaches to the study of religion, retributive logic, historical recurrence, Melanesian and Oceanic religions, early Christian historiography, millenarianism, new religious movements, and violence in religious change. Key publications are The Idea of Historical Recurrence in Western Thought (University of California Press, 1979), In Search of Origins (Oriental University Press, 1990), Melanesian Religion (Cambridge University Press, 1991), Payback: The Logic of Retribution in Melanesian Religions (Cambridge University Press, 1994), Early Christian Historiography: Narratives of Retributive Justice (Continuum, 2000), Religions of Melanesia: A Bibliographic Survey (Praeger, 2007), The Religions of Oceania (Routledge, 2005), The Gnostic World (Routledge, 2018, co-edited), and Violence and Religious Change in the Pacific Islands (Brill, 2023). He is a Fellow of the Australian Academy of the Humanities (FAHA, 2002), recipient of Fulbright-Hays and other scholarships, and subject of Festschriften On a Panegyrical Note (2007) and Religion and Retributive Logic (2009). Trompf has delivered the Charles Strong Lecture (1980) and June Roughley Memorial Lecture (2017), chaired the Association for the Journal of Religious History, edited Sydney Studies in Religion and the Gnostica series, and served as assistant editor for The Encyclopedia of Religion and Nature. His scholarship, with over 150 publications and 980 citations, profoundly influences religious studies, Pacific history, and interdisciplinary approaches to religion.

Professional Email: garry.trompf@sydney.edu.au