A Tale of Two Conferences
In September and October I had the pleasure and the privilege of attending two CA-related conferences. The first, a workshop at the University of Ottawa dedicated solely to the CA and attended by prominent North American CA scholars, has been discussed elsewhere (particularly by Jim Davila; see the post here) but deserves mention in this forum. The second, a Patristics conference at Concordia University in Montréal, is also noteworthy for CA studies and, again, deserves mention.
Ottawa, September 30-October 1, 2006: Pierluigi Piovanelli of the University of Ottawa hosted a workshop titled Christian Apocrypha for the New Millennium: Achievements, Prospects and Challenges. Invited were some of North America’s best and brightest, including (among others) François Bovon, F. Stanley Jones, Dennis R. MacDonald, Ann Graham Brock (though Ann was, ultimately, unable to attend), Cornelia Horn, Stephen Shoemaker, Paul-Hubert Poirier, Craig Evans, Annette Reed, and (ahem) me. With the kind permission of the organizer, the complete list of papers is featured below:
Lorenzo DiTommaso (Concordia University), “Jewish Pseudepigrapha and Christian Apocrypha: Definitions, Boundaries, and Points of Contact”
Timothy Beech (St. Paul University), “Unraveling the Complexity of the Oracula Sibyllina: The Value of a Socio-Rhetorical Approach in the Study of the Sibylline Oracles”
Michael Kaler (McMaster University), “Gnostic Irony and the Adaptation of the Apocalyptic Genre”
Robert R. Phenix, Jr. (Saint Louis University), “The Problem of the Source of Balai’s Sermons on Joseph and the Nachleben of Pseudepigraphical Joseph Material”
James R. Davila (University of St. Andrews), “More Christian Apocryphal Texts”
Louis Painchaud (Université Laval), “À propos de la redécouverte de l’Évangile de Judas”
F. Stanley Jones (California State University), “Jewish Tradition on the Sadducees in the Pseudo-Clementines”
Annette Y. Reed (McMaster University), “New Light on ‘Jewish-Christian’ Apocrypha and the History of Jewish/Christian Relations”
Dominique Côté (University of Ottawa), “Orphic Theogony and the Context of the Clementines”
Nicole Kelley (Florida State University), “Pseudo-Clementine Polemics against Sacrifice: A Window onto Religious Life in the Fourth Century?”
Timothy Pettipiece (University of Ottawa), “Manichaean ‘Apocrypha’? From Mani to Manichaeism”
Theodore De Bruyn (University of Ottawa), “The Power of Apocryphal Narratives in Late Antiquity: The Testimony of Amulets”
Tony Burke (University of York), “Researching the New Testament Apocrypha in the Twenty-First Century”
Peter W. Dunn (Faculté de Théologie Evangélique de Bangui), “The Acts of Paul as an Experimental Control for the Criticism of the Acts of the Apostles”
François Bovon (Harvard University), “The Revelation of Stephen or the Invention of Stephen’s Relics (Sinaiticus graecus 493)”
Dennis R. MacDonald (Claremont Graduate University), “The Gospel of Nicodemus (or, the Acta Pilati) as a Christian Iliad and Odyssey”
Cornelia Horn (Saint Louis University), “From Model Virgin to Maternal Intercessor: Mary, Children, and Family Problems in Late Antique Infancy Gospel Traditions”
Stephen J. Shoemaker (University of Oregon), “Mary in Early Christian Apocrypha: Virgin Territory”
Craig A. Evans (Acadia Divinity College), “The Apocryphal Jesus: Assessing the Possibilities and Problems”
Ian Henderson (McGill University), “The Usefulness of Christian Apocryphal Texts in the Research on the Historical Jesus”
Adriana Bara (Université de Montréal), “The Convergence between Canonical Gospels, Apocryphal Writings and Liturgical Texts in Nativity and Resurrection Icons in Eastern Churches”
Paul-Hubert Poirier (Université Laval), “La Prôtennoia trimorphe (NH XIII,1), le Livre des secrets de Jean et le Prologue johannique”
Pierluigi Piovanelli (University of Ottawa), “Using Labels and Categories in a Responsible Way: The Making and Evolution of Early Christian Apocryphal Texts with the Gospel of Mary as a Test Case”
I will comment on some of the papers in future posts. For now, I’ll make some comments about the workshop on the whole. Pierluigi should be applauded for taking the initiative to assemble these scholars. At present there is no association of North American CA scholars—l’AELAC primarily caters to European scholars and, while the SBL has a Christian Apocrypha Section, scholars who contribute from year to year do not meet with any regularity. Pierluigi has begun what is hoped will be a regular event. There was discussion also of putting the energies and experiences of the participants into a publishing project. Some (myself included) registered their discontent over the lack of awareness of current CA scholarship by non-specialists in the English-speaking world. English CA collections, for example, are woefully out-of-date and are limited in scope. The publishing project, whatever form it might take, should correct such oversights.
It seems so un-Canadian to take on a project such as this—the major studies of the CA have come out of England (M. R. James’ collection and the update by J. K. Elliott), France/Switzerland (the l’AELAC projects, including the new two-volume Pléiade CA collection), Germany (Hennecke-Schneemelcher’s volumes and the forthcoming update by Christophe Markschies), and even the US (Robert Funk’s Polebridge Press titles). But Canada has its experts on particular CA texts (including Pierluigi on the Book of the Cock, Scott Brown on Secret Mark, Zbigniew Izydorczyk on the Gospel of Nicodemus, etc.) and so too does the US (Jones on the Pseudo-Clementines, MacDonald on Acts of Andrew, Shoemaker on the Dormition of Mary, etc.). A Canadian/American CA project is not so absurd at all.
Montréal, October 11-13, 2006: Lorenzo DiTommaso and Lucian Turcescu of Concordia University hosted a conference on The Reception and Interpretation of the Bible in Late Antiquity. In part, the event was designed to honour the publication of Dr. Charles Kannengeiser’s Handbook of Patristic Exegesis. But the spirit behind the conference was somewhat novel: to bring together not just Patristics scholars but also scholars of Rabbinics, Old Testament Pseudepigrapha, Gnosticism, and the CA. The complete program is available here, but the CA papers are as follows:
Annete Yoshiko Reed (McMaster University): “Pseudepigraphy, Authority, and Biblical Interpretation.”
Pierluigi Piovanelli (University of Ottawa): “The Reception of Hebrew and Christian Scriptures in Late-Antique Apocryphal Texts.”
Tony Burke (York University): “Completing the Gospel: The Infancy Gospel of Thomas as a Supplement to the Gospel of Luke.”
Lorenzo and Lucian should be commended for attempting to bring scholars of such disparate disciplines together. It was hard not to feel out-of-place, however, particularly after participating in the more focused Ottawa conference. Participants from the other groups (Rabbinics, Gnosticism, etc.) probably felt the same. Perhaps, if an event such as this were to take place again, the various scholars could be asked to contribute to a more tightly-focused topic, so that the different perspectives would be more apparent and more constructive dialogue could take place.
If any of the topics of the papers are of interest to you, take heart: both conferences will have their proceedings published in 2007. There is much still to say about the papers and the discussions among participating scholars at both events. But that will have to wait for future posts.