Pilgrims Way to Canterbury

Walking along in the footsteps of pilgrims is a wonderful experience. This is part of the North Downs Way which allegedly follows the route of pilgrims to Canterbury and to the tomb of St Thomas a Becket. It is not of course the exact path but it's close enough for me to find the experience almost religious.

On another day at another time, I'll do more of the walk than my mother and I did today. But for now, this suffices. And whilst I am an enthusiast of cyber-pilgrimages, there's nothing quite like the real thing. 

Interfaith Presentation on Sacred Texts Deirdre Good, Professor of New Testament, will join a rabbi and a Muslim scholar on Sunday, May 20, at the Congregation of Saint Saviour of The Cathedral of St. John the Divine in New York City in teaching a course on The Uses and Abuses of Sacred Texts: The Hebrew Bible, The New Testament and The Qu’ran. What do these sacred texts really say about contemporary issues? When public figures justify their opinions and biases by quoting from one of these holy books, are these proof texts legitimate? Can these quotes, taken out of context, be valid as proofs of “higher values”? Together, Prof. Good, Rabbi Leonard Schoolman and Dr. Hussein Rashid will invite participants to study frequently quoted texts and see what they really mean. The registration fee of $20 includes lunch beginning at 12:45 pm, with the course running from 1:15 pm to 3:15 pm. To learn more, visit the congregation’s website.

Jesus was literate

Chris Keith has a book, The Pericope Adulterae, the Gospel of John, and the Literacy of  Jesus (New Testament Tools, Studies, and Documents 38; Leiden: E.J. Brill,  2009), in which he argues cogently (according to Michael J. Kruger) that the pericope of the woman taken in adultery is designed to show that Jesus was indeed literate and that --since it is an independent pericope--it was perhaps inserted into the text in the third century CE to answer accusations and pagan challenges that Jesus and Jesus' followers were illiterate. Previous scholarship on "the woman taken in adultery" focuses on what Jesus wrote, not that he wrote, and this is a helpful refocus. There is of course much more to say about the book, a revised dissertation. 

Neoplatonism, anyone?

Good overview and discussion of Neoplatonism over on BBC Radio 4 in the programme "In Our Time" introduced and moderated by Melvin Bragg with various scholars. Here's an introduction to Neoplatonism, and Plotinus.

When Plato dies, the academy falls into the hand of Plato's successors. In 155 BCE Carneades leads the academy in the direction of a school of skeptical philosophy. Plato is appropriated in various ways including Epicureanism. Neoplatonism takes Plato's divisions between sensible material world and the world of forms, including the form of the good, and seeks to return to the true essence of Plato by unveiling true meanings of Platonic texts. Everything that is comes from unity and the intelligible world of forms which then devolves into multiplicity. The notion of "the One"goes back to Plato's Republic in which the form of "the Good" is the ultimate value and source of all. It is compared to the sun and it brings all things into being. Plotinus also had several mystical experiences of ecstatic union with "the One." Union with "the One" is achieved through a program of rigorous philosophy and self-discipline turning away from the sensible world.

Plotinus' (d.270CE) biography was written by Porphyry and his writings the Enneads are well known. Educated in Alexandria, he also went east on military campaigns perhaps encountering Indian philosophy. Settling in Rome, Plotinus opened a public school for aristocracy and other interested people as a public sage.

Successors of Plotinus like Porphyry and other Neoplatonists are in dialogue with Christianity, Judaism, and even Islam particularly for a defense of monotheism. Iamblichus was much more interested in magic and theurgy. Proclus is the most important late Neoplatonist who lived and wrote in Athens. He integrates pagan religious belief into his philosophy. The ruins of his house have been discovered with remains of animal sacrifice in it.

These are the discussants:

Angie Hobbs
Associate Professor of Philosophy and Senior Fellow in the Public Understanding of Philosophy at the University of Warwick

Peter Adamson
Professor of Ancient and Medieval Philosophy at King's College London

Anne Sheppard
Professor of Ancient Philosophy at Royal Holloway, University of London

Meet the Romans with Mary Beard +Update

is an excerpt from a BBC series "Meet the Romans" currently on BBC 2. Mary Beard is a wonderfully accessible commentator on the Roman world.

Update: There's quite a controversy about one aspect of the series: Mary Beard's appearance. Ridiculous really. Here's her defense. In the meantime, most comments about the programme have been positive. 

Virtual Pilgrimages at Trinity Wall Street April 15-May 20

Everyone is welcome to join us this coming Sunday at Trinity Wall Street for all sessions or only parts!

Virtual Pilgrimages

Eastertide 2012

Trinity Wall Street

Sunday mornings at 10 a.m. April 15, 22, 29, May 6, 13 and 20

To understand pilgrimages, it's essential to know the quintessential journey of the ancient world in the Hellenistic period: Homer's Odyssey, the journey of Odysseus from Troy to his home in Ithaca. Therefore, this mini-course will start with Homer's Odyssey so as to identify themes of the journey including hospitality, human identity and deception, and the meaning of home. Then we will continue with journeys in the Hellenistic period including: 1) Philo's Treatise on the Preliminary Studies, in which the 1st Century Alexandrian writer Philo depicts Abraham's journey as the movement of the soul from bodily passions towards true wisdom and virtue through paideia, education; 2) real pilgrimages e.g. to the Asklepion in Pergamon and to the House of John in Ephesus and 3) otherworldly journeys in apocalypses like Enoch, the Testament of Abraham, and Revelation.

Helpful text: Pilgrimage in Graeco-Roman and Early Christian Antiquity eds. Jas´ Elsner and Ian Rutherford (OUP 2005)

April 15 Homer's Odyssey—Prof Peter Meineck, New York University (interactive map of Odysseus' Journey: http://www.classics.upenn.edu/myth/php/homer/index.php?page=odymap)

April 22 Journey as metaphor: Philo of Alexandria, The Preliminary Studies (see http://www.earlychristianwritings.com/yonge/book18.html)

April 29 Otherworldly Journeys: Apocalypse of Abraham (see http://www.cimmay.us/pdf/box_landsman.pdf), Testament of Abraham (see http://www.newadvent.org/fathers/1007.htm), The Apocalypse of Paul (see http://www.gnosis.org/naghamm/ascp.html)

May 6 Pergamon—Professor Brigitte Kahl, Union Theological Seminary

May 13 Ephesus--Professor Katherine Shaner, General Theological Seminary

May 20 Ethos of pilgrimage: mindset and impact—Green pilgrimages 

Jesus' tomb?

ABC has a segment reporting the recent announcement about Jesus' tomb. Professor James Tabor is interviewed and also Professor Mark Goodacre.  Here is the site of the discoverers. Mark Goodacre has been posting on the topic for several weeks and here are his 10 problems. A full discussion can be read on the ASOR blog which I urge everyone to read.

The American Schools of Oriental Research (ASOR), founded in 1900 and located at Boston University, is the preeminent society for individuals interested in the archaeology and history of the eastern Mediterranean. ASOR is an international organization that has about 1,500 individual members and about 85 member institutions. ASOR supports and encourages the study of the peoples and cultures of the Near East, from the earliest times to the present. It is a non-profit 501(c)3 organization and is apolitical and has no religious affiliation.

Update: useful Q&A with Profs Eric Meyers and Mark Goodacre from Duke on the topic here. They include assessments of Prof Tabor's scholarship and their collegiality, the context for the topic (Easter/Passover) and their take on the subject. Prof James Tabor replies here.