RE-DESCRIBING EARLY CHRISTIANITY
The Redescribing Early Christianity Seminar contributes to the study of early Christian history by problematizing current consensus views, unexamined assumptions, and categories; recontextualizing and redescribing the key data through comparative analysis; and accounting for the configurations of texts under view in terms of social theory. Redescribing Early Christianity is sponsoring or co-sponsoring four sessions at the San Diego AAR, with a workshop on the role of comparison in research on religion and panels on Greco-Roman Religion, Evolutionary and Cognitive Approaches to Early Christianity and Social and Practice Theory in the Redescription of Early Christianity.
Program Unit Chairs
William Arnal [email protected]
Erin Roberts [email protected]
S22-320
Greco-Roman Religion
11/22/2014
4:00 PM to 6:30 PM
Room: D (Level 3 (Aqua)) – Hilton Bayfront (HB)
Theme: Redescribing Greco-Roman Antiquity: Somatizing Practices
James Hanges, Miami University, Presiding (5 min)
Chris de Wet, University of South Africa
Breaking Bodies and Building Theologies: The Discourse of the Suffering Slave in Early Christianity (25 min)
Pieter J.J. Botha, University of South Africa
“On Their Way to Nowhere?” Exploring Body, Identity, and Place in the Jesus Movement (25 min)
Michael Pope, Brigham Young University
Blood, Sweat, and Smears: Bodies Portentous, Bodies Politic (25 min)
Gerhard van den Heever, University of South Africa
“Somaticising Practices”: Relocating Epiphany in the Making of Early Christianity (25 min)
Discussion (30 min)
S23-139
Redescribing Early Christianity
11/23/2014
9:00 AM to 11:30 AM
Room: Indigo Ballroom D (Level 2 (Indigo)) – Hilton Bayfront (HB)
Theme: Evolutionary and Cognitive Approaches to Early Christianity
Erin Roberts, University of South Carolina, Presiding
Risto Uro, University of Helsinki
Explicit and Implicit Religious Knowledge in the Study of Early Christianity (10 min)
Discussion (15 min)
Istvan Czachesz, Ruprecht-Karls-Universität Heidelberg
Cognitive Science and Network Theory in the Study of Early Christian Origins(10 min)
Discussion (15 min)
Anders Klostergaard Petersen, University of Aarhus
The Early Christ-Movement from a Cultural Evolutionary Perspective (10 min)
Discussion (15 min)
Petri Luomanen, University of Helsinki
Towards an Evolutionary Account of the Formation of Christian Identity (10 min)
Discussion (15 min)
Break (10 min)
Discussion (40 min)
S23-243
Redescribing Early Christianity
11/23/2014
1:00 PM to 3:30 PM
Room: 300 B (Level 3 (Aqua)) – Hilton Bayfront (HB)
Theme: Social and Practice Theory in the Redescription of Early Christianity
William E. Arnal, University of Regina, Presiding
Willi Braun, University of Alberta
Toward a Theory of the Social: An Assessment of the Work of Theodore Schatzki (10 min)
Discussion (15 min)
Maia Kotrosits, Denison University
Diaspora Theory and the End of “Early Christianity” and “Early Christian Identity” (10 min)
Discussion (15 min)
Heidi Wendt, Wright State University Main Campus
Not Twelve, But Five: Theorizing Christian Practice in the Second Century (10 min)
Discussion (15 min)
Gerhard van den Heever, University of South Africa
New Arrivistes in the Context of Older Traditions: New Religious Movements and the Weaving of Christ Cult Groups into a New Religion (10 min)
Discussion (15 min)
Break (10 min)
Discussion (40 min)
