News

Notice of Election of the 2023–2025 NASSCAL Board

The NASSCAL First Fridays workshop taking place October 6 will also be the time that we elect a new Board of Directors. Ideally, this would be done at a bi-annual meeting of the Society, but we do not have an in-person meeting planned for this year (though we are hoping to mount a NASSCAL conference in 2024 or 2025).

Here are the relevant by-laws for election of the NASSCAL board.

Article III.  Nomination and Election of Directors and Officers

Section 1. Nomination.

Nomination for election to the Board of Directors and officers shall be made by a nominating committee. Self-nominations are encouraged and may also be made from the floor at the bi-annual meeting. The nominating committee shall make as many nominations for election to each designated office of the Board of Directors and to each position on the Board not designated as an officer as it shall in its discretion determine, but not less than the number of vacancies that are to be filled.

Section 2. Nominating Committee.

The Nominating Committee shall consist of three members of the Society who shall be appointed by the President. The members will be appointed six months before the bi-annual meeting and will serve until the conclusion of the bi-annual meeting. The list of nominees shall be distributed to the membership at least three (3) weeks prior to the meeting.

Section 3. Election.

Election to the Board of Directors shall take place at each annual meeting. At such election the members or their proxies may cast, in respect to each vacancy, one (1) vote. Voting will take the form of a show of hands; nominated members will be asked to leave the room during voting. The person nominated for each position receiving a majority of the votes cast shall be elected.

Again, because we are not meeting in-person, the election will take place at the online First Fridays workshop.

The nominations committee has put forward the following names to constitute the 2023–2025 board:

Executive

President: Lily Vuong (automatic transition from Vice-President)

Vice-President: Eric Vanden Eykel

Immediate Past President: Brandon Hawk (automatic transition from President)

Student Member: Jonathan Holste

Communications: Jeannie Sellick

Independent Scholar Member: Slavomír Čéplö

Members at large

Mark Bilby (continuing)

Tony Burke (continuing)

Cristian Cardozo

Meghan Henning (continuing)

Jacob Lollar

Hugo Lundhaug (continuing)

Julia Snyder (continuing)

Again, nominations can also come from the floor.

We hope you will join us for the October 6 meeting, to say farewell (and thank you) to the previous board, and welcome to the new.

e-Clavis: Christian Apocrypha celebrates its 250th entry

With today’s addition of the Gelasian Decree, the e-Clavis: Christian Apocrypha, NASSCAL’s comprehensive bibliography of Christian apocrypha research, has reached the landmark number of 250 complete entries.

The site was created in 2015 by Tony Burke, Mark Bilby, and Bradley Rice. The goal was to work with other scholars to compile bibliographies for every known apocryphal Christian text. The individual pages were soon enhanced with links to manuscript images and to various related material objects (iconography, artifacts, holy sites, etc.). There are now almost 500 Manuscripta apocryphorum pages and another 36 Materiae apocryphorum pages.

Of course, the success of a project like the e-Clavis must be measured by its utility. Do people use it? It seems they do: 26000 separate users visited the site in 2022. The editors would like to thank all of the contributors to e-Clavis for their work and everyone who has supported the site—by using it, recommending it to others, and citing it in their publications—over the past eight years.

NASSCAL Member Publication: Sex, Violence, and Early Christian Texts

Cobb, Christy and Eric Vanden Eykel. Sex, Violence, and Early Christian Texts. Lanham, MD: Lexington, 2022.

Abstract: “Examples of sexual violence and mentions of it appear with a disturbing level of frequency in the literature of early Christianity. This collection of essays explores these occurrences in canonical and noncanonical Christian texts from the first until the fifth centuries CE. Drawing from a range of interpretive lenses, scholars of early Christianity approach these writings with the goal of identifying how their authors employ the language of sexual assault, rape, and violence in order to formulate and support various rhetorical and theological claims. Individual chapters also address how and why these episodes of sexual violence have been ignored or, sometimes, read in a way that would make them less problematic. As a collection, Sex, Violence, and Early Christian Texts examines these texts carefully, ethically, and with an eye toward shining a light on the scourge of sexual violence that is so often manifest in both ancient and contemporary Christian communities.”

Contributors: Tara Baldrick-Morrone, Chance E. Bonar, Christy Cobb, Jennifer Collins-Elliott, Arminta Fox, Midori Hartman, LaToya M. Leary Francis, Travis W. Proctor, Joshua M. Reno, Laura Robinson, Jeannie Sellick, Eric Vanden Eykel, Meredith J. C. Warren, Stephen Young

Contributions to Sex, Violence, and Early Christian Texts cover a range of early Christian literature. For NASSCAL’s audience, some of the most notable texts examined include the Acts of Andrew (Cobb) and Protoevangelium of James (Vanden Eykel), although other contributions explore canonical literature like 1 Corinthians and Revelation and patristic literature ranging from 1 Clement and Tertullian to Jerome and Augustine.

e-Clavis: Christian Apocrypha reaches landmark 200th entry

E-Clavis: Christian Apocrypha, NASSCAL’s comprehensive bibliography of Christian Apocrypha research, was created in 2015. As of today, the clavis contains entries for 200 texts, with another 30 in different stages of development. The site also features 400 Manuscripta apocryphorum pages, which contain full descriptions and links to images, and another 26 Materiae apocryphorum pages with information on pilgrimage souvenirs, book covers, and other apocryphal-related artifacts. A work of this scope cannot be done alone; the editors would like to thank the following contributors for their work:

Notice of General Meeting for Election of New NASSCAL Board

The NASSCAL First Fridays workshop taking place October 1 will also be the time that we elect a new Board of Directors. Ideally, this would be done at a bi-annual meeting of the Society, but the pandemic has scuttled plans for face-to-face meetings for the time being. On the positive side, online gatherings allow for participation from a greater number of members and from a wider geographical area.

Here are the relevant by-laws for election of the NASSCAL board.

Article III.  Nomination and Election of Directors and Officers

Section 1. Nomination.

Nomination for election to the Board of Directors and officers shall be made by a nominating committee. Self-nominations are encouraged and may also be made from the floor at the bi-annual meeting. The nominating committee shall make as many nominations for election to each designated office of the Board of Directors and to each position on the Board not designated as an officer as it shall in its discretion determine, but not less than the number of vacancies that are to be filled.

Section 2. Nominating Committee.

The Nominating Committee shall consist of three members of the Society who shall be appointed by the President. The members will be appointed six months before the bi-annual meeting and will serve until the conclusion of the bi-annual meeting. The list of nominees shall be distributed to the membership at least three (3) weeks prior to the meeting.

Section 3. Election.

Election to the Board of Directors shall take place at each annual meeting. At such election the members or their proxies may cast, in respect to each vacancy, one (1) vote. Voting will take the form of a show of hands; nominated members will be asked to leave the room during voting. The person nominated for each position receiving a majority of the votes cast shall be elected.

A call for self-nominations went out in March 2021. Based on the responses to that call, and on discussion among the nominations committee, the following names are being put forward to constitute the 2021-2023 board:

Executive

President: Brandon Hawk (automatic transition from Vice-President)

Vice-President: Lily Vuong

Immediate Past President: Janet Spittler (automatic transition from President)

Student Member: Nathan Hardy

Communications: Lorne Zelyck

Members at large

Mark Bilby

Tony Burke

Greg Fewster

Meghan Henning

Julia Lindenlaub

Hugo Lundhaug

Julia Snyder

Again, nominations can also come from the floor. Another item on the agenda for the October online meeting is the creation of a new position on the executive: Independent Scholars Member. If accepted, the position will begin in 2023.

We hope you will join us for the October 1 meeting, to say farewell (and thank you) to the previous board, and welcome to the new.

NASSCAL First Fridays Workshop Returns for “Season 2”

The monthly NASSCAL First Fridays online workshop series returns September 3 with a paper by NASSCAL President Janet Spittler (University of Virginia): “The Acts of John by Prochorus: Inconclusive Thoughts on Date, Authorship, and Provenance.” The workshop takes place via Zoom on September 3, at 12 pm EDT.

The First Fridays Workshop is a forum for discussing new and in-progress work on apocryphal Christian texts. The workshop meets on the first Friday of every month during the North American Fall and Spring semesters. Papers are circulated one week in advance; each workshop session lasts one hour, the majority of which is dedicated to discussion.

Other scheduled workshops include Jeannie Sellick (October 1), Tony Burke (November 5), and Bradley Rice (December 3).

To participate in the workshop, please email [email protected]. You will then be given the Zoom invitation, the meeting password, and the pre-circulated paper.

e-Clavis: Christian Apocrypha Hits Milestone of 150 Entries

In May of 2019 e-Clavis: Christian Apocrypha, NASSCAL’s comprehensive bibliography of Christian Apocrypha research, celebrated a landmark with the completion of its one hundredth entry. Today, that number has reached 150 and another 50 are currently in development. There are also over 350 related Manuscripta apocryphorum pages, which contain full descriptions and links to images. From its start in October 2015, the e-Clavis has been an open-access resource—no fees are charged for its use and the contributors volunteer their time and expertise to compile and edit the entries. The editors would like to thank the following contributors for their work:

NASSCAL “First Fridays” Workshops Debut September 4

Click on image to enlarge

With the Covid-19 pandemic limiting physical interaction, NASSCAL is postponing its bi-annual meeting and election of board members. But NASSCAL members can meet virtually in the monthly NASSCAL First Fridays online workshop series. The workshop is a forum for discussing new and in-progress work on apocryphal Christian texts. The workshop meets on the first Friday of every month during the North American Fall and Spring semesters, with the exception of December, to avoid conflict and virtual meeting overload with SBL. Papers are circulated one week in advance; each workshop session lasts one hour, the majority of which is dedicated to discussion.

The first workshop will feature Lorne R. Zelyck of St. Joseph’s College at the University of Alberta. He will speak on “The Sisters and Brothers of Jesus in Christian Apocryphal Literature and the Early Church Fathers.” The workshop takes place via Zoom on September 4, at 12 pm EDT.

Other scheduled workshops include Julia Snyder (October 2) and Slavomir Céplö (November 6).

To participate in the workshop, please email [email protected]. You will then be given the Zoom invitation, the meeting password, and the pre-circulated paper.

 

“Early Christian Apocrypha” Launch Party at SBL 2019

NASSCAL is hosting an informal gathering at the 2019 SBL Annual Meeting to celebrate the launch of the series Early Christian Apocrypha. The first two volumes in the series—The Gospel of Pseudo-Matthew and the Nativity of Mary, by Brandon W. Hawk, and The Protevangelium of James, by Lily C. Vuong—were released in July. The Annual Meeting is a great opportunity to pick up the books at a nice discount. Details on the launch party are in the image below.

NASSCAL’s Early Christian Apocrypha Series Debuts with Translations of Two Apocryphal Infancy Gospels

The North American Society for the Study of Christian Apocryphal Literature (NASSCAL) is pleased to announce the publication of the first two volumes in its series Early Christian Apocrypha: The Gospel of Pseudo-Matthew and the Nativity of Mary, by Brandon W. Hawk (vol. 7) and The Protevangelium of James, by Lily C. Vuong (vol. 8). The series is offered as part of the Westar Tools and Translations published by Cascade Books and continues the work of Julian V. Hills, who edited the first six volumes of the series for Polebridge Press. The Early Christian Apocrypha series features fresh new translations of major apocryphal texts that survive from the early period of the Christian church.

The books can be ordered from Wipf & Stock, Amazon, and other online sellers. For more information on the series and the individual volumes (including 20-page previews) visit https://www.nasscal.com/early-christian-apocrypha-series/.