CfP “What did deacons do?”

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.