Category: Early Christianity

2nd Circular of the International Conference “Liturgy as Practice, Space, and Theory in Eastern Christianities” that will be held from 1–4 October 2019 in Kirillov, Russia:
The editorial board of Scrinium. Journal of Patrology and Critical Hagiography (http://brill.com/scri) and Kirillo-Belozerky Federal State Museum (https://kirmuseum.org/en) as Organisers would like to ask those of you who intend to participate to finalize their submissions. In order to do so, please provide a paper title and an abstract (no more than 150 words) at liturgyconference2019@gmail.com by 1 May 2019. The only working language of the conference is English.
For more information, please see the PDF file.

The Conference “Biblical Poetry: The Legacy of the Psalms in Late Antiquity and Byzantium” will be held at Ghent University, from 23–24 April 2020.
The Psalms, in their Greek Septuagint translation, were a fundamental corpus of biblical poetry, and as such were continuously referred to in Christian literature. They played a key role in the daily life and in the development of religious sensitivity of late antique and Byzantine people. The production of Psalm-related literature, notably exegetic, was impressively widespread. The Psalms, however, influenced other genres of religious literature as well, and their poetical nature remained an important feature that later authors were well aware of.
In preparation of a volume on the reception of the Psalms in poetry from Late Antiquity and Byzantium, we invite scholars of all levels of experience to present a paper at a colloquium on this subject.
We invite proposals for 20-minute papers. Each paper will be followed by a reaction from a respondent, who will open the discussion with the audience. Contributors whose abstract is accepted will be asked to submit prior to the colloquium a rough draft of their full text. After the conference, they are expected to offer their re-worked paper for inclusion (upon acceptance after peer-review) in a volume on the reception of the Psalms in Byzantine poetry.
Please send a title and a short abstract (max. 300 words) of your paper to rachele.ricceri@ugent.be no later than May 31, 2019. Accepted speakers will be notified by the end of June 2019.
For more information, please visit our website.

The Centre for Classical Studies at the Institute of Philosophy, Czech Academy of Sciences, invites you to take part in the conference “Hellenism, Early Judaism, and Early Christianity: Transmission and Transformation of Ideas,” to be held 12–13 September 2019, in Prague. The aim of the conference is to explore the evolution of thought while focusing on the relations between Judaism and early Christianity in the context of Hellenistic period and the period immediately influenced by Hellenism. The conference will pay special attention to the intercultural distribution of decisive and long-standing questions, ideas, concepts and methods of Hellenistic and Hellenism-influenced thought.
The deadline for submission of proposals for papers is 1 May 2019.
For information, please see the document.

The School of Theology (University of Eastern Finland, Joensuu) is planning the next international and ecumenical research conference on patristic understandings of diakonia. It will be the fourth such conference held. Our purpose is to continue the work of earlier symposia (2014, 2015, 2017), inspired by the Rome 2009 conference “Diaconia, diaconiae, diaconato.”
The topic is ‘What did deacons do?’ In this conference, we will be focusing on Late Antiquity, especially the 3rd and 4th centuries. Most of the 2017 congress, along with some additional papers, was published by Mohr Siebeck as Deacons and Diakonia in Early Christianity: The First Two Centuries (2018). Our co-operating partners are Prof. Bart J. Koet (Tilburg), Dr. John N. Collins (Melbourne), Dr. Anni Hentschel (Würzburg) and Dr. Edwina Murphy (Sydney) as well as the Finnish Association for Research in Diaconia, Patristic Society of Finland and IDC – Pro Diaconia Christi.
The conference will be held from 12–14 May 2020 in Joensuu, Finland.
Abstracts are due by 25 April 2019 and should be sent to Esko Ryökäs: esko.ryokas@uef.fi.
Please see the document for more details.

The Asia-Pacific Early Christian Studies Society invites proposals for papers to be delivered at its twelfth annual conference to be held at Tsushima Campus, Okayama University, Okayama, Japan, from Thursday morning, 13 September to Saturday afternoon, 15 September, 2018, convened by Kazuhiko Demura. Papers are 30 minutes in duration (20 minutes delivery and 10 minutes for discussion). The Society welcomes all proposals that explore any theme relevant to the early Christian world from the New Testament to the end of Late Antiquity, and especially those that focus on this year’s theme: Health, Well-being, and Old Age in Early Christianity.
Early Christians were conscious of the impact of health and ageing on well-being. Physical old age could be both a blessing and curse. Health could be both desired and despised. They held a holistic concept of the notion of well-being, understanding it not only in physical, but spiritual terms also. In many instances well-being was viewed through the perspective of eschatology and soteriology, often in an ascetical or psychagogic context, with many Christian writers asserting the superiority of the spiritual over the physical. The relationship between body and soul, sickness and health, youth and maturity, sin and grace, was key to the promotion of a true understanding of Christian well-being. At the same time one should not dismiss insights early Christians provided on the physical aspects of health and old age.
A 150-word abstract should be sent by 30 April, 2018 to Prof. Kazuhiko Demura (demura@okayama-u.ac.jp) and Dr. Geoffrey D. Dunn (geoffrey.dunn@acu.edu.au). Further questions can be addressed to Prof. Demura. Other proposals besides the conference theme are most welcome. Papers are presented in English (or other languages as appropriate). Our practice is that conference presenters distribute copies of their papers (minus notes) in English to participants to minimise language difficulties. Presenters need to bring their own copies for distribution. Registration forms and further details will be available soon on this website shortly. There will be an opportunity for some cultural event in Okayama on Thursday afternoon. A conference dinner will be held on Friday 14 September.
For more information, go to the APECSS website.