PSCO 45 - This just in:

With apologies for the lateness of this information, here is the outline for the new PSCO year, and the announcement of the initial meeting. Please cross-post as appropriate.

Bob Kraft & Annette Reed, co-chairs

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PHILADELPHIA SEMINAR ON CHRISTIAN ORIGINS
in its 45th 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 2007-2008: "Tracing the Patterns, (Un/Re-)Weaving the Threads"

co-chairs: Annette Yoshiko Reed and Robert Alan Kraft

In 1994, John C. Reeves edited and published a collection of essays entitled Tracing the Threads: Studies in the Vitality of Jewish Pseudepigrapha (SBL Early Judaism and its Literature 6, series editor William Adler; Atlanta: Scholars Press). For Reeves, the "threads" refer to the persistent survival (or rediscovery) of early Jewish materials in the literature of a wide variety of religious communities -- especially (but not only) Jewish, Christian, Gnostic, and Muslim. The "tracing" refers to modern scholarship on these materials such as was solicited for that volume.

Since both Reeves and Adler are in Philadelphia during the fall term of the 2007-2008 academic year as fellows at the University of Pennslyvania's Center for Advanced Judaic Studies, along with a number of other leading scholars of late antiquity, and since the PSCO itself will be undergoing transition with the arrival of Annette Yoshiko Reed to continue the work of Robert Kraft in the Department of Religious Studies, it seemed an opportune time to take stock of current scholarship in areas relevant to the aforementioned "threads" in their wide geographical distribution in the relevant ancient and late antique worlds.

To facilitate discussion between specialists in different subfields, we have chosen to define the sessions by geographical area, rather than by religioust radition, theme, or textual corpus. By following "threads" through regional trajectories, we hope also to assess, not only our literary remains, but also archaeological evidence, inscriptions, etc.

We are planning a flexible format, focused less on prepared presentations and more on informed discussion. Some sessions will consist of roundtable discussions; scholars from different subfields and specializations will be invited to exchange ideas and information about the sources, state of current research, methodological challenges, and promising directions for research on specific locales. For other sessions, pairs of participants or individual speakers will share their ongoing research and reflections. Although we do not intend to limit ourselves to the CAJS Fellows, they will provide a rich primary reservoir of discussants and participants.

The introductory meeting is scheduled for Thursday, 11 October, 7-9 pm in the 2nd floor Lounge of Logan Hall at the University of Pennsylvania (36th St walkway, just north of Spruce Street). Those wishing to dine together before the seminar will meet at 6 pm in the Logan Lounge to go next door to the food court in Houston Hall.

The evening's topic is "Methodological Challenges," with a panel discussion in which the chairs will be joined by Maxine Grossman (University of Maryland; CAJS associate fellow 2007/8) and the editor and series editor of the original "Tracing the Threads"
volume (to which both also contributed articles), John C. Reeves (UNC Charlotte; CAJS fellow in fall 2007) and William Adler(UNC Raleigh; CAJS fellow in 2007/8).


The remaining tentative schedule, with exact dates and details to be worked out is as follows:

October/November - Palestine beyond Jerusalem

16 November (Friday) - SBL Session in San Diego: Asia Minor

January (late) - Egypt beyond Alexandria

February - Western Roman Empire

March - Persia and its Environs

April - Byzantium and Islamic Empires


**See the PSCO Web page for further details
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
kraft@ccat.sas.upenn.edu
http://ccat.sas.upenn.edu/rs/rak/kraft.html