Peter Savastano holds a Ph.D. and M.Phil. in Religion and Society from Drew University. Dr. Savastano is an anthropologist of religion, consciousness, and sexuality and gender.

He studies the relationship between extra-normal states of consciousness, religion and healing, ritual and devotional practices within the context of Christian mysticism with a special focus on Roman Catholic and Eastern Orthodox mystics and mystical practice as well as within Islamic mysticism (Sufism) and Buddhism, with a particular focus on Vajrayana (Tibetan) and Zen traditions. More recently, Dr. Savastano has been exploring extraordinary states of consciousness in various forms of indigenous healing traditions.

For many years, Dr. Savastano has had a scholarly (and personal) interest in interreligious or comparative theology and practice drawing deeply on the works of the Roman Catholic mystics and interreligionists Thomas Merton, Dom Bede Griffiths and Henri Le Saux (aka Swami Abhishiktananda). Peter Savastano has published essays in various edited collections and academic journals including Italian Folk-Vernacular Culture in Italian American Lives; Gay Religion; Theology and Sexuality; Transformations, The Journal of Inclusive Pedagogy, the on-line journals Religion Dispatches and e-misferica and in the Rutgers University Law School’s Women’s Rights Law Reporter.

He is currently completing a book entitled The Book of St. Gerard of Newark. Dr. Savastano is Assistant Professor of Anthropology at Seton Hall University.