Apologists and Empire - 16-17-18/12/2020, (Online)
The Christian Apologists of the second and third centuries offer an important perspective on the world of the Roman empire from the viewpoint of a minority group. But theirs was not a world apart. They lived in the same cities, read the same books, and sought to understand and articulate their experience of empire using the same tools as contemporary Graeco-Roman authors. That Christian apologetic literature can fruitfully be read against the backdrop of the Second Sophistic has been long understood. But much work remains to be done to properly take into account our increased sensitivity not just to the sympathies and aesthetics of the literature of the provinces, but also our changing understanding of its historical landscape. Like the Greek-speaking authors of the eastern empire who sought to grapple with their culturally privileged but politically emasculated position, the Apologists’ engagement with empire can be sarcastic and even playful. At the same time, like the Latin senatorial historical tradition, their approach to one-man-rule mixes optimism and cynicism, attempting to condition, rather than merely describe, the operation of power. And like all imperial subjects in this period, they tried to navigate the complex matrix of an ambiguously globalised Roman identity, their own complex ethnic, social, and religious identities, the ways Rome managed its provinces, and the means by which provincials could accept, appropriate, resist, or subvert those mechanisms.
FECHA CONGRESO/CONGRESS DATE/DATA CONGRESSO: 16-17-18/12/2020
LUGAR/LOCATION/LUOGO: (Online)
ORGANIZADOR/ORGANIZER/ORGANIZZATORE: James Corke-Webster ; Benjamin Kolbeck
INFO: web - ben.kolbeck@kcl.ac.uk
INSCRIPCIÓN/REGISTRATION/REGISTRAZIONE: Gratis/free/gratuito
Se ruega enviar un email a /please contact/si prega di inviare una email a ben.kolbeck@kcl.ac.uk
PROGRAMA/PROGRAM/PROGRAMMA:
Wednesday 16th of December, 2020 (Day 1/3)
14:00–14:50 UTC Introduction
Ben Kolbeck & James Corke-Webster (King’s College London)
Introduction: Apologists and Empire
Eleni Bozia (University of Florida, speaker local time 09:20 [UTC –5]).
Christian Apologists and Lucian of Samosata: Re-examining Religious Awareness and Literary Convergences
-10 minute break-
15:00–16:00 UTC Tertullian of Carthage
Susan Dunning (University of Oxford)
The Subversion of the Imperial Saeculum in Christian Apologetics of the Second and Third Centuries CE
Benjamin Haupt (Concordia Seminary, speaker local time 09:30 [UTC –6])
Tertullian’s Apologetic Use of a Sophisticated Latin Literary Identity
-30 minute break-
16:30–17:30 UTC Clement of Alexandria
Jane Heath (Durham University)
Clement of Alexandria and the Shaping of Christian Literary Practice
Ed Creedy (King’s College London)
All the World’s His Stage: The Divine Protagonist of Clement of Alexandria. Performance Soteriology and the Theatrum Mundi in the Protrepticus.
-10 minute break-
17:40–18:40 UTC Christian Martyr Literature
Justin Yule (University of Toronto, speaker local time 12:40 [UTC –5])
Visions of Bodily Wonders: the Martyrium of Polycarp and the Sacred Tales of Aelius Aristides
David J. DeVore (Cal. Poly. Pomona, speaker local time 10:10 [UTC –8])
Apologetic Across Mediterranean Courts: The Martyrdoms of Hegesippus Between Jerusalem, Corinth, and Rome
-Finish: 18:40 UTC-
Thursday 17th of December, 2020 (Day 2/3)
10:00–11:00 UTC Athenagoras of Athens*
David Evans (Macquarie University, speaker local time 21:00 [UTC +11])
Citizenship and Philanthropy in Athenagoras’ Legatio
Stuart R. Thomson (University of Oxford)
Philosopher-Kings and Roman Emperors: Greco-Roman Fissures in Justin Martyr & Athenagoras
-3 hours: no papers-
14:00–15:00 UTC Justin of Rome
Ben Kolbeck (King’s College London)
Read it in Rome: Justin’s Appeals to Roman Legal Documents
James Corke-Webster (King’s College London)
The Apologists on Trials
-15 minute break-
15:15–16:15 UTC Keynote Address 1
Laura Nasrallah (Yale Divinity School, speaker local time [10:15 UTC –5])
Making Justice: Defixiones, Imperial Rescripts, and Christian Apologists
-Finish: 16:15 UTC / 11:15 EST-
* Thursday’s Athenagoras panel will be a standalone morning session; the rest of the programme will pick up in the afternoon UTC.
Friday 18th of December 2020 (Day 3/3)
14:15–15:15 UTC Keynote Address 2
Tim Whitmarsh (University of Cambridge)
The Apologists and the ‘Personal Voice’
-15 minute break-
15:30–16:30 UTC Fourth-Century Apology
Daniel Lemeni (West University of Timisoara, speaker local time 17:30 [UTC +2])
Philosophers, Monks and the anti-Pagan Apologetic Character of the Life of Anthony: Rethinking a Problematic Cultural Model
Adam Kemezis (University of Alberta, speaker local time 09:00 [UTC –7])
Eusebius as Reader of Philostratus and Hierocles: Apologetics, Interpretation and Authority
-30 minute break-
17:00–17:30 UTC Concluding Discussion
All Attendees
Concluding Discussion
-Finish: 17:30 UTC-