March 8 -10, 2012

At Holy Cross Greek Orthodox School of Theology,
Brookline, Massachusetts

The Stephen and Catherine Pappas Patristic Institute of the Holy Cross Greek Orthodox School of Theology is pleased to announce its eighth annual Archbishop Iakovos Graduate Student Conference in Patristic Studies on March 8-10, 2012. 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 8, at 5:00 p.m., and ends with dinner on Saturday, March 10.

We now call for paper proposals.  We encourage all doctoral and masters students with research interests in Patristic Studies, Historical Exegesis or Theology, or the History of Christianity in Late Antiquity, to submit a paper abstract of approximately 250 words.   Topics relating to eastern Christianity, including Syriac-speaking Christianity, are particularly encouraged.  Each presenter will have up to 20 minutes to present her or his paper, followed by a respondent’s prepared comments and group discussion.  Please send abstracts to the Institute’s Director, Dr. Bruce Beck, at pappaspatristic@comcast.net by February 8, 2012. Participants will be informed about the status of paper proposals by February 10^th. The deadline for completed papers for distribution to the respondents is March 1^st.

For those who live outside the Boston area that need financial assistance to attend the conference, partial financial aid is again available upon request to assist with your expenses.  To request aid, please pre-register for the conference at your earliest convenience (but no later than February 8^th) and please mention that you need financial assistance in order to participate.  Note that due to economic conditions these last two years, we will be limited again in the amount of aid that we can provide each person.

To help with our planning, please pre-register at your earliest convenience. The registration fee is $25 to help offset the cost of meals during the conference, and will be collected at registration upon arrival. To pre-register, please send an 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 Needham Sheraton.  If you will need lodging, please register as early as possible to facilitate reserving a place for you to stay.  We will make the reservation for you at the hotel in order to facilitate sharing of rooms. The discounted conference rate per night is $95 plus taxes, or $55 for those who wish to share a room. Let us know if you there is someone with whom you would like to share a room.

CEU’s summer school invites applications from doctoral students, postdocs, junior faculty and researchers from all over the world.

The course aims at exploring the nature and various ways of confrontation between and within Early and Rabbinic Judaism, the Early Church, and Pagan religions and schools of thought. The sessions discuss how these movements coped with conflicts within and without; what their strategies were in confronting and accommodating foreign ideas, competing religions, worldly powers or internal subversion; and what role these external and internal confrontations played in shaping them.

Course faculty include Daniel Boyarin, Shaye J. D. Cohen, John M. Dillon, Mark Edwards and Guy G. Stroumsa.

The application deadline is February 15, 2012.

Financial aid is available.

More detailed information available at http://www.summer.ceu.hu/polemos-2012.

Dr. Geoffrey D. Dunn,
Centre for Early Christian Studies,
Australian Catholic University

geoffrey.dunn@acu.edu.au (please entitle your email “CSPS abstract”)

The First International Congress on Patristic Studies in Latin America, “The Identity of Jesus: Unity and Diversity in the Patristic Period,” will be held in San Juan, Argentina, August 8-12, 2012. Paper proposals in English, Spanish, Italian, and French can be sent by March 31, 2012 to info@laidentidaddejesus.com, and other details about the meeting can be found at http://laidentidaddejesus.com/index/php/es/.

You may also contact:

For North America: Michael B. Simmons (bishopsimmons@centurytel.net)

For Latin America: Patricia Ciner (patriciaciner@yahoo.com.ar)

Dionysius the Areopagite between Orthodoxy and Heresy aims to explore the thought of one of the most controversial characters of Christian history, Dionysius the Areopagite, and put it in a correct context, between pagan (namely Neoplatonic) philosophy on the one side, and Christian theology, on the other. In significant part, the book examines Dionysius’ Neoplatonic sources, but it also offers insights into the original points of his philosophy and theology, thus showing how he managed to achieve a masterful integration of pagan thought and newly revealed faith.

The chapters of the book, taken together, try to offer a broad insight into the Areopagite’s thought, through examining not just his intellectual background and milieu, but also some of the crucial features of his work, such as notions of hierarchy, deification, apophatic and cataphatic theologies, icon, and others. This work is of a multidisciplinary character, since Dionysius’ thought has been studied from different points of view, so the contributions range from philosophy and theology to history and art history.

Dionysius the Areopagite between Orthodoxy and Heresy is intended for both specialists and non-specialists. Apart from being a collection of specific studies, it can also serve as an introduction to the Areopagite’s thought, and will be useful to all those interested in late antique and early Christian philosophy and theology, patristics, and cultural studies in general.

Scholars interested in presented a paper should submit an abstract by Dec. 31, 2011, limited to 300 words, and closely reflecting the theme of the conference. Time for papers will be 25 min. Send abstracts as attachment, or any questions, to rousseau@cua.edu or jtimbie@att.net.

For more information about the conference, see http://earlychristianity.cua.edu.

A scholarship fund was established in Harry’s honor at Colorado State. Those interested in donating to the scholarship fund may click here to do so and to learn more information.

NAPS wishes to thank Harry’s son, Stan Rosenberg, who is also a member of NAPS, for bringing the news of the scholarship fund to the attention of NAPS.

The purpose of this workshop is bring together scholars interested in sharing their work on the ancient and medieval traditions of ontological interpretations of Aristotle’s Categories.  Possible classical and medieval figure may include: Plotinus, Porphyry, Iamblichus, Dexippus, Simplicius, Olympiodorus, Syrianus, Proclus, Boethius, Avicenna & Al-Fārābī, Albertus Magnus, William of Ockham, John Duns Scotus, Henry of Ghent, John Buridan, Francisco Suarez, Radulphus Brito, Thomas of Erfurt, Martin of Dacia, Simon of Faversham & Peter of Auverne, Thomas a Vio, etc. 

Possible topics include, but are not limited to:

• How categories or other topics in the Categories are to be understood in relation to other metaphysical notions such as being, form, universals, etc., and other ontological topics;
• Ways in which philosophers sought to reconcile Aristotle both with himself (viz., his other works) and with a Platonic philosophy;
• Techniques or arguments for establishing the list of Aristotle’s categories;
• The nature of particular categories such as quantity, quality, relation, etc.;
• How categories relate to the disciplines of logic, grammar and metaphysics 

Papers can pertain explicitly to commentaries on the Categories or to the use of, and reference to, the ten categories in other works. Please submit an abstract of approximately 500 words electronically by September 1st, 2011 to Paul Symington (psymington@franciscan.edu) or Sarah Klitenic Wear (swear@franciscan.edu).