medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture
PHILADELPHIA SEMINAR ON CHRISTIAN ORIGINS in its 44th year
an Interdisciplinary Humanities Seminar under the auspices of the
UNIVERSITY OF PENNSYLVANIA Department of Religious Studies
201 Logan Hall with support from the Penn Humanities Forum
TOPIC FOR 2006-2007: Rethinking History, Theory, and Texts: New Theoretical and
Methodological Endeavors
Co-Chairs:
Debra Bucher (University of Pennsylvania)dbucher AT pobox.upenn.edu
Sarah Schwarz (Haverford College ) [log in to unmask]
Secretary:
Douglas Finkbeiner (University of Pennsylvania)
Webmaster:
Jay C. Treat (University of Pennsylvania) [log in to unmask]
Initial meeting, MONDAY (not Thursday) 9 October 2006, 7-9 pm.
The topic for the 44th year of PSCO is "Re-thinking History, Theory, and Texts:
New Theoretical and Methodological Endeavors." We take our theme from Elizabeth
Clark's recent book, History, Theory Text: Historians and the Linguistic Turn, in
which she attempts to persuade historians of ancient texts, especially those of
early Christianity, "that the texts they study are highly amenable to the types of
literary/philosophical/theoretical critique that have excited other humanities
disciplines under the rubric of post-structuralism" (p.ix). We plan to invite
scholars to share current work that utilizes new theoretical approaches in
interpreting ancient Jewish and Christian texts.
Fittingly, Elizabeth Clark, from Duke University, will be the presenter for our
first meeting on Monday, October 9, 7-9pm (please note that it is not our usual
day of the week). The title of her presentation is "Renouncing Renunciation:
Early Christian Asceticism, Anti-Catholicism, and the Establishment of Patristics
in America." She will focus on the how scholars -- all Protestants -- of early
Christianity in 19th century America dealt with the topic of early Christian
asceticism, a topic for which they had considerable loathing, and which they
associated with Roman Catholicism, so troubling to them and other Protestants as a
force in their time.
For an overview of more recent scholarship on asceticism and background reading
for her talk, Professor Clark recommends Chapter Two ("Asceticism in Late Ancient
Christianity") of her book READING RENUNCIATION: ASCETICISM AND SCRIPTURE IN EARLY
CHRISTIANITY (Princeton Univ. Press, 1999).
As usual, we will gather at the University of Pennsylvania in Logan Hall (2nd
floor lounge) at 6 pm for an informal dinner in the nearby Food Court, and then
meet back in the Logan Hall Lounge for Professor Clark's presentation.
Here is the tentative schedule for the rest of the PSCO year:
17 November (SBL): David Brakke
Feb: tba
22 Mar: Maxine Grossman
12 April: Daniel Boyarin
For further details on PSCO, including a map, see the web page at
http://ccat.sas.upenn.edu/psco/
--
Robert A. Kraft, Religious Studies, University of Pennsylvania
227 Logan Hall (Philadelphia PA 19104-6304); tel. 215 898-5827
[log in to unmask]
http://ccat.sas.upenn.edu/rs/rak/kraft.html
**********************************************************************
To join the list, send the message: join medieval-religion YOUR NAME
to: [log in to unmask]
To send a message to the list, address it to:
[log in to unmask]
To leave the list, send the message: leave medieval-religion
to: [log in to unmask]
In order to report problems or to contact the list's owners, write to:
[log in to unmask]
For further information, visit our web site:
http://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/lists/medieval-religion.html
|