The Fifth Annual Archbishop Iakovos Graduate Students Conference in Patristic Studies
At Holy Cross Greek Orthodox School of Theology
Brookline, Massachusetts
March 19 – 21, 2009
Announcement and Call for Papers
The Stephen and Catherine Pappas Patristic Institute of the Holy Cross Greek Orthodox School of Theology is pleased to announce its fifth annual Archbishop Iakovos Graduate Student Conference in Patristic Studies on March 19 – 21, 2009. The purpose of the conference is to bring graduate students together from the fields of Patristic Studies, Historical Theology, and the History of Christianity in Late Antiquity in a collaborative and theological setting to hear and discuss peer research. The conference will begin on Thursday, March 19, at 5:00 p.m., and ends with dinner on Saturday, March 21.
Hear what doctoral students attending previous conferences have said:
“Be assured that your graduate conference is one of the best experiences I have had as a graduate student.”
“I have only been to a few other conferences so far, but this was by far the most enjoyable and profitable experience I have had at a conference. I look forward to submitting a proposal for next year’s gathering.”
We are now calling for paper proposals. We strongly encourage all doctoral and masters students with research interests in Patristics, Historical Theology, or the History of Christianity in Late Antiquity to submit a paper abstract of approximately 250 words. Topics relating to eastern Christianity are particularly encouraged. For examples of the range of topics, look at the previous titles at http://www.pappaspatristic.hchc.edu/conferences_archive.html. Each presenter will have up to 20 minutes to present, followed by a respondent’s comments and group discussion. Please send abstracts to Dr. Bruce Beck at pappaspatristic@comcast.net by February 1st. You will be informed about the status of your paper proposal on or before February 10th. The deadline for completed papers for distribution to your respondent is March 10th.
For those living outside the Boston area who need financial assistance to attend the conference, partial financial aid is available to assist with your expenses. To request aid, please pre-register for the conference by February 1st and mention that you need financial assistance in order to participate. Note that due to the recent precipitous decline of the financial markets, we will be limited in the amount of aid that we can provide this year.
To aid in our planning, please pre-register at your earliest convenience. There is no registration fee. A contribution of $25 for meals during the conference will be accepted upon arrival. To register, please send email to Dr. Beck (pappaspatristic@comcast.net) with your personal information, including address, phone number, institution, degree program, area of study, and dissertation topic (if applicable).
Conference lodging will be at the Dedham Hilton Hotel. If you will need lodging, please register as early as possible to facilitate reserving a place for you to stay. The rate per person with our group, discounted rate is $50 per night for a double occupancy room. Hotel reservations will be handled through the registration process, and should not be made directly with the hotel.
Finally, we need volunteers to serve on two committees: 1) the Abstracts Review committee, which ranks the abstracts; and second, the program committee, that provides input into the program of the conference, including planning the sessions other than paper presentations. Please indicate as soon as possible whether you would be willing to serve on one or both of these committees. The only pre-requisite is that you need to have attended previously at least one of our conferences.
I hope you will be able to join us this year for the fifth annual graduate student conference in patristic studies on the campus of Holy Cross Greek Orthodox School of Theology.
Sincerely,
Bruce Beck, ThD.
Director
Pappas Patristic Institute of Holy Cross Greek Orthodox School of Theology
Founded in 2003 by a generous grant from the late Stephen Pappas and his wife Catherine, the goal of the Pappas Patristic Institute is the advancement and promotion of primarily Greek and other eastern patristic studies in the service of the academy and of the Church.
I will be presenting a paper at this conference titled “Authorizing Apocrypha: The Reception of Apocryphal Mary and Apocryphal Thekla in the Early Church.”
Abstract: Two apocryphal works, the Protoevangelion of James and the Acts of Thekla, became popular and highly influential narratives in the early church, even as their apocryphal status also made them very controversial. By comparing and contrasting these two apocryphal works, similar in depicting the absolute chastity of a female character, and different in how this example of chastity is portrayed, we can better evaluate the reasons why both were either adopted or repudiated by early Christian writers. How these texts were used, whether positively or negatively, to build, express, or teach theology, allows us to see how these texts came to be accepted and recognized with a measure of authority by the church as “parabiblical” texts. Though this authority did not make these texts canonical, this authority eventually allowed these texts to become the impetus for official adoption of their narratives and their protagonists in the official ecclesiastical liturgical cycle. Therefore, we should recognize that apocryphal texts such as these were, in fact, a large factor in the thought and theology of early Christianity.