Internal seminar:
Lactantius and the Apocalypse. What is the sources of the eschatological scenario in Lactantius’ Div. Inst. VII ? What is the relation to the Apocalypse of John?
Read as preparation Lactantius’ Div. Inst . VII,15-27. The text will be sent out as a PDF file.
Official opening of the Centre for the Study of Antiquity and Christianity
and
The Velux project: The transformation of religious identity in the Hellenistic-Roman world, 100-600 AD. The significance of conversion and initiation to the formation of religious identity
Internal seminars:
Joint Reading of Karl Olav Sandnes, The Challenge of Homer: School, Pagan Poets and Early Christianity
(Library of New Testament Studies 400, London: T&T Clark, 2009).
During April and May the Centre for Antiquity and Christianity will be reading Sandnes’ book. The book is going to be further discussed with the author at an interview session at our conference in Ebeltoft on 31 May – 4 June.
The book is a perfect fit with the interests of our seminar. The book’s website reads as follows:
Homer was the gateway to education, to the skills of reading and writing. These skills were necessary for the nascent Church. Knowledge of Homer’s writings was a sign of Greekness, of at-home-ness in the society. Education was embedded in the mythology, immorality and idolatry of these writings. This challenged the Christians. This study presents how Christians responded to this. The opinions varied from rejection of Homer and all pagan literature, considering them works of the Devil, to critical involvement with this literature.
This study attempts to trace the discourse on Homer and education among the Christians back to the New Testament. The topic does not come to the surface, but it is argued that in Paul’s letters contrasting attitudes towards the propaideutic logic and the philosophical principle of usus (making right use of) are present. He opposed a logic wherein Christian faith represented the peak of education, the culmination of liberal studies. In his instruction on how to relate to the pagan world, Paul argues in accordance with the principle of usus. The New Testament is not so dependent upon the Homeric poems, as assumed by some scholars.
The first Christians faced two hermeneutical challenges of fundamental importnce: that of interpreting the Old Testament and how to cope with the Greek legacy embedded in Homer. The latter is not explicitly raised in the New Testament. But since the art of interpreting any text, presupposes reading skills, conveyed through liberal studies, the Homeric challenge must have been of outmost importance.
Karl Olav Sandnes is Professor in New Testament Studies at MF Norwegian School of Theology (Det teologiske Menighetsfakultet), Oslo. The author of Paul - One of the Prophets? A New Family. Conversion and Ecclesiology in the Early Church with Cross-Cultural Comparisons and Belly and Body in the Pauline Epistles .
The programme will be as follows:
Read: pp. 3-159
Presenter: Kasper Bro Larsen (the background, pp. 3-80) & Jakob Engberg (Justin Martyr to Origen, pp. 81-159)
Read: pp. 160-277
Presenter: Jakob Engberg (Julian, Cappadocians, Jerome, Augustin, pp. 160-243) & Kasper Bro Larsen (NT, pp. 245-277).
Opening of the exhibition Det Hellige Rum (the sacred room)
Venue: The Museum of Ancient Art and Archaeology (Building 1414)
The exhibition is prepared in cooperation with Rubina Raja from the research project Religious identity, ritual practice and sacred architecture in the late Hellenistic and Roman Near East, 100 BC - AD 400: Sanctuaries between culture,religion and society.
All members of the centre are therefore invited for the official operning and reception.
Internal seminar:
Blossom Stefaniw: Presentation of work in progress: Sages and their Custodians: shifting forms of charisma and authority in late antiquity.
Venue: Building 1443, room 240
Working Lunch with briefings
Venue: Building 1443, room 440
Seminar organised by the Velux Group
Venue: Hotel Ebeltoft Strand
Title: The transformation of religious identity in the Hellenistic-Roman world, 100-600 AD. The significance of conversion and initiation to the formation of religious identity.
Programme will be announced on this website as soon as possible.
Wednesday 8 December, at 13.15-16.00h
Internal Seminar:
Anders-Christian Jacobsen: Presentation of work in progress: Christology and soteriology in Origen of Alexandria – a new approach.
Venue: Building 1443, room 440 (PLEASE NOTE!!! CHANGE OF ROOM)
Followed by Danish "julehygge" (Christmas cosiness)
