Proposals for papers are invited for the British New Testament Society Meeting 2023 to be hosted by the University of Exeter from Thursday 31 August to Saturday 2 September 2023.
Paper proposals should include the presenter’s name and institutional affiliation (where appropriate), a title, and an abstract of 150-175 words (max).
The call for papers closed on Monday 27 March 2023
Simultaneous Short Papers are receiving proposals until Monday 24 April 2023.
Note: the BNTS Code of Conduct is available here
Ancient Judaism & Christianity
Yael Fisch yael.fisch@mail.huji.ac.il
J. Thomas Hewitt jthomas.hewitt@abdn.ac.uk
This year, the Ancient Judaism & Christianity seminar (formerly New Testament & Second Temple Judaism) will run the following 3 sessions:
Session 1 will be an open session and proposals relating to any aspect of the seminar group’s new remit are welcome:
Jewish and Christian cultural production—both literary and material—are entangled phenomena in the Second Temple period and beyond. This seminar focuses on the analysis of that entanglement in terms of common scriptural and ritual traditions, convergent interpretative practices, shared discourses and values, ambiguous ‘Jewish–Christian’ provenance, mutual responses, and competing claims. Further, this seminar explores not only how the study of ancient Judaism elucidates Christian origins, but also the inverse—how early Christian literature and artefacts can illuminate Jewish texts and material culture. We welcome research relating to any aspect of ancient Jewish literary and material culture (e.g., Pseudepigrapha, Dead Sea Scrolls, Josephus, Rabbinic literature, paratextual phenomena, art, architecture, etc.), studied either on its own terms or in relation to early Christianity.
Session 2 will be a joint session with the Paul seminar group, featuring a panel review of Yael Fisch’s Written for Us: Paul’s Interpretation of Scripture and the History of Midrash (Brill, 2022). The panelists will be Hindy Najman and Philip Alexander.
Session 3 will be a joint session with the Later Epistles seminar group. Conveners welcome proposals for papers focused on any aspect of the relationship between ancient Judaism (Second Temple period and beyond) and the Later Epistles (the Catholic epistles, Hebrews, and the Deutero-Pauline epistles). Proposals that move beyond questions of origin and derivation are especially welcome. Approaches may include, for example, comparative approaches, reception history, or investigation of ambiguous Jewish–Christian provenance. Relevant texts may include, for example, patristic, apocryphal, rabbinic, and apocalyptic literature.
Monique Cuany monique.cuany@het-pro.ch
James Morgan james.morgan@unifr.ch
This year, the Acts seminar is pleased to dedicate a session to the research of Loveday Alexander, who has published widely on Luke-Acts and inspired many of us in our research. A brief interview with Loveday about her career and research will be followed by her presentation and ample time for questions.
For the other sessions, we welcome papers approaching Acts from a variety of angles and using a variety of methods: historical, literary, textual-critical, theological, archaeological, the social world, possible links/parallels with other biblical and ancient writings, and so on. We also include topics for discussion which relate Acts to the wider contexts of Luke-Acts and the Pauline corpus, where they are relevant and helpful to the study of Acts.
Offers of papers are welcome both from research students (this is a great opportunity to ‘try out’ your ideas) and from more established scholars. Papers are normally 30 minutes, allowing time for questions and discussion, but shorter papers of 20 minutes are also welcome. If presenters wish to share their papers beforehand, we will gladly send their files to those who have signed up for the Acts seminar.
Martina Vercesi martina.vercesi@glasgow.ac.uk
Meredith Warren m.j.warren@sheffield.ac.uk
This year, the Book of Revelation seminar will run the following 3 sessions:
Session 1: Review Panel
Session 2: Intertextuality & Revelation
Revelation is a book packed with allusions to other works of ancient literature, from the Hebrew Scriptures to Greek epics; furthermore, echoes of Revelation can be found in later works, religious and secular, up to the 21st century. This session welcomes papers touching on any aspect of intertextuality and the study of Revelation.
Session 3: Open Session
Papers on any topic related to Revelation and/or its reception. This session is open, but we particularly welcome proposals that diversify the study of Revelation.
Kimberley Fowler k.a.fowler@rug.nl
Jane McClarty jdm35@cam.ac.uk
This year, the Early Christianity seminar welcomes paper proposals for one themed session:
Space and Place
Here ‘space’ is understood in its broadest sense, inviting papers considering the way geography, topography, and spatiality both earthly and divine functioned in the early Christian imagination.
Open Call
We will also have two open sessions where we invite paper proposals on any topic related to the broad themes of the seminar, and encourage explorations of new critical approaches as well as the more traditional methodologies.
We understand early Christianity as a broad and diverse phenomenon evidenced by a wide range of sources both literary and non-. In addition to the New Testament, these include (but are not limited to) the so-called corpus of writings by the Apostolic Fathers, New Testament Apocrypha, manuscripts such as the Nag Hammadi Codices, Codex Tchacos, or the Dishna Papers, early patristic texts, inscriptional evidence etc.
We welcome papers that address the New Testament, but these should aim to look beyond only this corpus, for instance by engaging it in conversation with other sources.
Julia Lindenlaub julia.lindenlaub@cambridge.org
Elizabeth Corsar Elizabeth.Corsar@stpadarns.ac.uk
This year, the Johannine Literature seminar will run the following 3 sessions:
Session 1: Invited Paper – Dr Adesola Akala, Durham University
Session 2: Book Review Panel (Joint with the Synoptic Gospels seminar) – Simon Gathercole, The Gospel and the Gospels: Christian Proclamation and Early Jesus Books (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2022).
Session 3: Open Call – We particularly encourage postgraduate students to offer papers on any topic in John’s Gospel and the Johannine Epistles.
Katherine Hockey katherine.hockey@abdn.ac.uk
Kelsie Rodenbiker kelsie.rodenbiker@glasgow.ac.uk
This year, the Later Epistles seminar will run the following 3 sessions:
Session 1: Review Panel of Janette H. Ok’s monograph, Constructing Ethnic Identity in 1 Peter: Who You Are No Longer, with Katherine Hockey (Aberdeen), David Horrell (Exeter), and Noel Cheong (Oxford)
Session 2: Later Epistles Open Session
For this open session, we welcome proposals on any aspect of research related to the Later Epistles (the Deutero-Pauline epistles, Hebrews, and the Catholic epistles).
Session 3: Shared Traditions in Jewish and Christian Antiquity [joint seminar]
For this joint session of the Ancient Judaism & Christianity seminar and Later Epistles seminar, the conveners welcome proposals for papers focussed on any aspect of the relationship between ancient Judaism (Second Temple period and beyond) and the Later Epistles (the Catholic epistles, Hebrews, and the Deutero-Pauline epistles). Proposals that move beyond questions of origin and derivation are especially welcome. Approaches may include, for example, comparative approaches, reception history, or investigation of ambiguous Jewish-Christian provenance. Relevant texts may include, for example, patristic, apocryphal, rabbinic, and apocalyptic literature.
Andy Boakye andrew.boakye@manchester.ac.uk
Matthew Novenson matthew.novenson@ed.ac.uk
For 2023, the Paul seminar will co-sponsor, with the Ancient Judaism & Christianity seminar, a panel on Yael Fisch’s new book Written for Us: Paul’s Interpretation of Scripture and the History of Midrash (Brill, 2022). The panelists will be Hindy Najman and Philip Alexander.
For our two open-call sessions, we welcome paper proposals especially on the so-called prison letters of Paul (including letters of both undisputed and disputed authorship): Philippians, Philemon, Colossians, and Ephesians.
Tim Carter tim.carter@lst.ac.uk
Kent Brower kbrower@nazarene.ac.uk
This year we are delighted that the second session on Friday morning will be held jointly with the Johannine Seminar Group for a panel review of Simon Gathercole’s The Gospel and the Gospels: Christian Proclamation and Early Jesus Books (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2022). Described as a robust scholarly defence of the distinctiveness of the canonical Gospels, it has won two awards: the Crux Sola Best NT Book Award (2022), and the Christianity Today Book Award in Biblical Studies (2023).
The other two sessions are open to suggestions, much like last year. We would warmly welcome proposals from seasoned scholars, post-doc researchers, and PhD researchers alike on any aspect of synoptic studies, and this year we would particularly glad to receive any proposals on the theme of intertextual and intratextual studies.
The New Testament and Christian Theology
Erin Heim erin.heim@wycliffe.ox.ac.uk
Jamie Davies jamie.davies@trinitycollegebristol.ac.uk
At our gathering in Exeter in 2023, we invite papers on the subject of “the New Testament and Eschatology.” Papers are invited on any aspect of the topic, but we are especially interested to receive proposals for papers that engage Christian theologians in dialogue with the NT, or readings of specific NT texts in conversation with eschatology in the Christian tradition. We particularly welcome papers from those who would not ordinarily present at a New Testament conference, especially those working in systematic theology or at the intersection of New Testament and doctrine. We plan to have three sessions this year: one invited session, and two open calls for short papers.
Tom de Bruin me@tomdebruin.com
Michelle Fletcher michelle.fletcher@kcl.ac.uk
Though not a seminar group, this session includes 20–25 minute papers which showcase research that does not easily fit into one of the established seminar groups. We especially welcome papers that explore novel methodologies, are interdisciplinary, or focus on reception and use of the New Testament, and also those which appeal to a broad section of the Society.