Good luck with your continuing studies and God’s blessings on you and your family.

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.

Some time ago there was founded on the Campus of Union Seminary in New York an Independent Research Institute for the study of The Eastern Orthodox Tradition and Culture. It is called the ‘Sophia Institute’, and I have the pleasure to be its first Director. A description of its aims and objectives is attached for your information. Each year The Sophia Institute intends to sponsor a Day Long Academic Conference on a theme of pressing significance for Orthodox Life. The first of these annual conferences will take place on Friday December 5th, 2008, on the Campus of Union Theological Seminary, Broadway and 121st St. New York. 10027 ( Directions from http://www.utsnyc.edu ; Nearest subway Red Line 116th St. stop and walk five blocks north; buses M4 & 104 stopping at Broadway and 122nd St.).

I would like to invite you to be part of it, and invite you to perhaps encourage parish members to attend whom you think would profit from such an educational opportunity.

Our first theme will be the general issue of women’s life, ministry, and historical contribution to world Orthodoxy. We have excellent Orthodox thinkers speaking on a variety of related themes throughout the day, and also a number of Orthodox scholars offering short papers; coming at the topic from a broad range of views: historical, liturgical, patristic and cultural.

I have attached the Conference Flyer, and a Word Document outlining the schedule and the registration process.

Registration for the Day lectures will be $25 on the day at the door; or $20 in advance ( before Nov. 28th) by email as indicated on the attached schedule-file ( to Matt Pereira on mp2587@columbia.edu)

Included in the registration price is coffee during the day, and a concluding Concert of Orthodox Sacred music performed by Collegium Musicum, Nyack Choir, and the NYC Chorale, under the direction of noted Orthodox musicians Sue and Dana Talley.

In addition there is an optional Evening Conference Reception and Banquet, for which reservations must be made before Nov. 28th (again by email to mp2587@columbia.edu ) . The Reception and sit-down Banquet ticket will cost $35. Regrettably Banquet tickets cannot be purchased at the door on the day- they must be pre-reserved.

Payments by check , cash, or money order, can be made (both for the Day Registration, and the Evening Banquet) on the day at the door, but email reservations (for the discounted day fee, and especially the Banquet) are necessary by email before Nov. 28th.

The Sophia Institute in the aftermath of the Conference, will publish a Monograph on the basis of many of these conference lectures, short papers, and commissioned articles. The theme of next year’s conference ( again in early December 2009) will be ‘Philanthropy and the Love of the Poor in Orthodox Tradition.’

The Sophia Institute is also going to inaugurate on the evening of the Conference, a ‘Society of Fellows of the Institute’ to keep up the internal dialogue on important Orthodox cultural, theological, artistic, and historical issues in a disciplined university-sponsored setting, but in a way which is open, dynamic, and independently ‘Orthodox’, always sensitive to the culture and spiritual aims of our Church. The University is the Sponsor of the Sophia Institute, but it is a wholly Orthodox enterprise and a research centre at the service of our Church.

We invite you to be a part of this ongoing and exciting new enterprise. Consider being an attendee, or presenter, at this dynamic new conference coming up on December 5th. Please pass on word of this event to those you think may profit from it, and forward the flyer and details to them. If you are an Orthodox Scholar with graduate degrees (Masters level or above), consider applying for enrollment as a Fellow of the Sophia institute. If you are not a graduate but are genuinely interested in sharing the culture of our Church and the history of its thought and life, consider helping the Sophia Institute by enrolling as a Member.

SCHEDULE

9.00 – 10.00 REGISTRATION. Social Hall – Ground Floor.

10.00 – 10.20 INTRODUCTIONS. The James Chapel 1st Floor

10.20 – 11.15. 1ST KEYNOTE ADDRESS. The James Chapel

Stamenka Antonova. ‘Interpreting Women in the Ancient Church.’

11.15 – 11.45 Coffee and Cookies. Refectory 1st Floor.

11.45 – 12.40 2nd KEYNOTE ADDRESS. The James Chapel.

Fevronia Soumakis. ‘Orthodox Women’s Participation in the World Council of Churches: The Long Road from Agapia to Volos: 1976-2008.’

1.00 – 2.30 Lunch Break. (Local Eateries will be posted).

2.30 – 3.30 SHORT PAPER SESSIONS. Various Rooms as posted.

3.40 – 4.25 3rd KEYNOTE ADDRESS. The James Chapel.

Teva Regule. ‘Growing Through Liturgy: The Participation of Orthodox Women in the Liturgical Assembly.’

4.25- 4.40 Announcements & Short Break.

4.40 – 5.40 4th KEYNOTE ADDRESS. The James Chapel.

Prof. Valentina Izmirlieva. ‘Orthodox Widows: The Burden and Power of Charisma.’

5.45 – 6. 15. CHORAL RECITAL. [Collegium Musicum, Nyack College Choir, NYC Musicum]. The James Chapel.

6.25 – 6.55 SOPHIA INSTITUTE RECEPTION. The Refectory,

1st Floor. (With Chamber Music Recital)

7.00 pm. SOPHIA INSTITUTE – CONFERENCE BANQUET

The Refectory. 1st Floor.

Inauguration of The Society of Fellows of the Sophia Institute.

Greetings and blessing to you and your husband from the Navajo Nation!

I am Per (short for Junipero (Junipero Serra, if you know of him). I teach at a small Catholic High School near Window Rock, AZ. I teach Religion and Computer.

I found your website through research about the Trinity. Your paper on Rahner/Trinity was what came up.

Thank you for your website. I attended St. Mary’s Seminary in Houston, TX. I received my M.A. in Theology, and found my way out of HP, and into teaching.

Your life is everything that my desires in Theology never found. My favorite areas are Patristics, Early Church history, and Biblical languages. I took two years of NT Greek, and lived in Israel for eight years. (I am a poor Catholic, as I never took Latin.) I struggle to find ways to stay sharp in those specific fields. We have now a new grad from Rhode Island teaching Theology. He is married, and they are expecting – so time is limited for study together.

Keep up the good work. I will use your materials for our Bible study. Last thing – do you read N. T. Wright?

-Mr. Per (St. Michael High School, AZ)

Sorry to be so slow to respond to your question. I’ve been weighing my thoughts on this carefully. I haven’t found any major gaffes, so to speak, and the overall flow and use of the English language seems acceptable.

Though I do worry about the perception the OT may give to people – the lack of any textual notes can suggest that the text dropped like a pie from the sky and there it is as a coherent whole – when, in fact, we know that the text of the OT, and the LXX in particular, is quite difficult. From Patristics we can see that many in the early Church knew of these various textual traditions, and they were usually more than happy to use and interpret any and all variations. Moreover, in some places the MT reading really is just better, sometimes the LXX misses things, which then messes up the flow of the narrative or the connection of the narrative to another narrative. We can call the LXX the “Church’s Bible” yes, but in the 21st century the “Church’s Bible” needs to be something other than slavish textual supremacy. Our allegiance to the LXX can not mean a complete dismissal of the MT (and other textual types). I have noticed overall in the OSB a rather intentional prejudice towards the Majority Text, one which seems awfully similar to the arguments made by KJV-only groups, except with the OSB the Majority LXX gets substituted. I find this all very bewildering, because if there was one thing the early Church understood was that textual variation was a-okay. The OSB seems to me to, once again, be overlaying modern Protestant conceptions on top of the views of early Christianity.