Our host, Dr. Louise Lawrence, presents her paper "The Joy of Text" (on the Song of Songs and Bedouin poetry). Not only did she organize the conference, she presented a paper herself, ran the whole day when her coorganizer was unwell, and she still had the energy to cook dinner for three of us delegates afterward at her flat.
Coffee break. In the front row are (L to R) Alison Kelly, Seth Kunin, Philip Esler, and Nick Wyatt.
After the presentations, the seminar continued at the pub.
It was a good lot of papers and generated plenty of interesting discussion. Seth Kunin's question, "Why were animals sacrificed and not fish?" was thought provoking. Alison Kelly's reading of the Exodus legend in light of the principles of museum curating has to be a first. Both Louise and Philip Esler drew on twentieth-century Bedouin traditions to illuminate biblical material. (I know that's supposed to be a no-no, but there is a case for doing such things in light of the Malina "models" approach).
Many thanks to Glasgow University, Dr. Lawrence, and the other delegates for a productive conference. I'm already looking forward to next year's symposium on Anthropology and the New Testament at St. Andrews.
No comments:
Post a Comment