Session 1: General Session
Susan E. Benton, Baylor University, ‘Modeling Women Leaders in Ekklesia’
Scholarship on Greco-Roman associations and Roman history has uncovered numerous
significant women who contributed in collegia, defying previous conceptions about women’s roles in ancient society. Although there were “limits of participation,” as Riet van Bremen memorably wrote, inscriptional evidence reveals women who carved out places for themselves. In previous research, I have argued that women patrons and mothers in associations provide fitting counterparts for comparison to New Testament women in the early ekklēsiai, enabling development of a model for the types of activities the women in early Christianity likely undertook.1 This presentation uses the earlier models for Phoebe and Prisca to provide patterns of analysis, envisioning Apphia and Nympha and their engagement in Lycus Valley Christ groups. In conversation with Huttner, Harrison and Welborn’s Vol. 5 in The First Urban Churches series, and further recent scholarship on the Lycus Valley, I explore how the brief Biblical mentions of these women likely allude to their significant ecclesial influence.
Naomi Reiss, University of Edinburgh, ‘Imprisonment in Roman Penal Ideology and Christian Martyr Literature’
Recent studies demonstrate that imprisonment was a vital part of the Roman penal system. This wider reality is reflected in the prominence of the prison in much early Christian literature. However, by the time of Constantine the prison system was coming under increasing pressure, and the appropriateness of imprisonment as a punishment was questioned in some quarters. This paper will consider a range of third- and fourth-century material, including the letters of Cyprian, Constantine’s legal reforms, and Libanius’ Orations, in order to unpack the ways in which Roman attitudes towards imprisonment are mirrored in early Christian texts, and especially in martyr literature. Working from the hypothesis that martyrdom was not solely about death but more broadly about the experience of carceral punishment, which could take many forms, this paper explores the often fraught conversation within Christian communities about what exactly did constitute martyrdom, and the contested place of imprisonment in early Christian identity formation.
Sarah Parkhouse, University of Manchester, ‘Gospel Writing in Late Antiquity: Poetic Retellings of the Passion’
The impulse to retell the story of Jesus began with Matthew’s reworking of Mark and continues to transpire in churches, schools, and public places throughout the world today. Each new retelling changes the story in various ways to align with new contexts and audiences. It is commonly acknowledged among scholars of early Christianity that gospel writing proliferated in the first and second centuries and extended beyond those that became the canonical four. Yet, we rarely consider what happened to the phenomenon of gospel production after the long second century. This paper examines a selection of late antique Christian epics as “gospels”, on the basis that they lie within the tradition of relaying the story of Jesus that began in the first century. To make the case, this paper will focus on how the works of Proba, Eudocia, Juvencus, and Nonnus retell the Passion story in various ways, focusing on questions of gospel production, genre, contexts, and canonicity.
Session 2: Joint Session with NT & Christian Theology “The Four Last Things: death, judgement, heaven and hell”
Irene Barbotti, Trinity College Dublin, ‘“This being so, this is the judgment of God” (Ps.-Cl. Hom. 12,29). Exploring the Judicial Background of Couplings of Beatitudes and Woes in Early Christian Writings’
This paper examines the judicial framework underpinning the pairing of beatitudes and woes in
early Christian literature. By analysing these paired sayings, it traces the development of the eschatological judgment motif, structured around the contrast between the reward of the righteous and the punishment of the wicked. Building on prior observations of the link between beatitudes and woes in Second Temple Jewish and New Testament texts (cf. Pogor 2022), the study advances the discussion in two key directions. First, it expands the textual corpus to include lesser-studied early Christian writings—such as the Gospel of Thomas, the Didache, the Pseudo-Clementine Homilies, the Book of Thomas the Contender, and the Apostolic Constitutions and Canons—where this literary form also plays a significant role. Second, it argues that the beatitude–woe pairing constituted a distinct literary form already in Second Temple literature and retained, in early Christian usage, its original focus on the expectation of imminent eschatological judgment, thus offering fresh insights into the Jewish roots and theological evolution of this motif in early Christianity.
Piotr Ashwin-Siejkowski, King’s College London, ‘Valentinus’ Harvest: Chasing the Shadow of a Theologian’
In the early third century work the Refutation of all Heresies we find a poem, whose author is identified as Valentinus. The hymn depicts a positive, not frightening, climax of the visible reality as a collection of the fruits. In my discussion, I place this cosmological hymn close to some parallel motifs of harvest in the New Testament, but also, I reaffirm its setting within the second century philosophical mind of the author, especially influenced by the eclectic Middle Platonic cosmology. Looking through this poem, we can see that Valentinus, while wishing to ground his poem in the New Testament metaphors, eliminated their apocalyptic connotations and creatively and succinctly combined them with his philosophical position. The hymn does not allow any speculations about other aspects of the philosophical position of the author (such as e.g. ethics or anthropology), but his understanding of salvation linked with the image of a baby/Saviour. It offers a very positive comprehension of the final moment of the current world.
Tyler Hoagland, Independent Scholar, ‘Judgment and Consequences: The Shepherd of Hermas and the Gospel of Matthew in Conversation’
The ninth parable of the Shepherd of Hermas provides a convoluted collection of spiritual possibilities. The vision and its interpretation describe at least thirteen possibilities for the state of an individual’s relationship to church and Christ, with both positive and negative outcomes for some failings in the preliminary judgment of the Son of God. And while some errors, like apostasy and false teaching, have dire consequences, others, even the dreaded double-minded, are redeemable. This paper places this parable in conversation with the Gospel of Matthew, particularly the passages concerning judgment from the Sermon on the Mount (7:1–5) and the parable of the sheep and the goats (25:31–46). By including Matthew in the conversation, several things become clearer in the Shepherd. First, the established concern in the Shepherd regarding the activity of the wealthy reinforced. Second, judgment considers the impact of errors on the community and the potential for community restoration and reparations. Finally the identity of the judge as the Son of God points the reader towards the final judgment.