NASSCAL

NASSCAL Member Publication: Brent Landau and April DeConick in Gnosis: Journal of Gnostic Studies

The inaugural issue of Gnosis: Journal of Gnostic Studies features an article by NASSCAL founding member and current Secretary Brent Landau and several contributions by member (and journal co-editor) April DeConick. The complete table of contents for the issue are given below. For more information on the journal visit Brill Online.

“Introducing Gnosis: Journal of Gnostic Studies,” April D. DeConick and Lautaro Roig Lanzillotta

“Gnostic Countercultures: Special Issue,” April D. DeConick and Lautaro Roig Lanzillota

“The Countercultural Gnostic: Turning the World Upside Down and Inside Out,” April D. DeConick

“‘I Turned away from the Temple’: Sethian Counterculture in the Apocryphon of John,” Grant Adamson

“Transgressing Boundaries: Plotinus and the Gnostics,” John D. Turner

“Forbidden Knowledge: Cognitive Transgression and ‘Ascent Above Intellect’ in the Debate Between Plotinus and the Gnostics,” Zeke Mazur

“The Apocalypse of Paul (NHC V,2): Cosmology, Anthropology, and Ethics,” Lautaro Roig Lanzillotta

“Gnosis Undomesticated: Archon-Seduction, Demon Sex, and Sodomites in the Paraphrase of Shem (NHC VII,1),” Dylan M. Burns

“Gnostic Self-Deification: The Case of Simon of Samaria,” M. David Litwa

“Demon est Deus Inversus: Honoring the Daemonic in Iamblichean Theurgy,” Gregory Shaw

“The Coming of the Star-Child: The Reception of the Revelation of the Magi in New Age Religious Thought and Ufology,” Brent Landau

“The Great God Pan,” Sarah Iles Johnston

“Alan Moore’s Promethea: Countercultural Gnosis and the End of the World,” Wouter J. Hanegraaff

“Children of the Light: Gnostic Fiction and Gnostic Practice in Vladimir Sorokin’s Ice Trilogy,” Victoria Nelson

“Symbolic Loss, Memory, and Modernization in the Reception of Gnosticism,” Matthew J. Dillon

“Gnostic and Countercultural Elements in Zora Neale Hurston’s ‘Hoodoo in America’,” Margarita Simon Guillory

NASSCAL Member Publication: Charles Hedrick’s Parabolic Figures or Narrative Fictions?

Charles W. Hedrick. Parabolic Figures or Narrative Fictions? Seminal Essays on the Story of Jesus. Eugene, OR: Cascade, 2016.

Charles Hedrick is a founding member of the NASSCAL board. He describes the book in a post on his blog Wry Thoughts about Religion:

In the book I contend that parables do not teach moral and religious lessons; they are not, in whole or part, theological figures for the church. Rather parables are realistic narrative fictions told to Judean peasants, and like all effective fiction literature the stories are designed to draw auditors (and now readers) into their story worlds where auditors and readers make discoveries about themselves by finding their ideas challenged and subverted—or affirmed, by the stories.The parables have endings but not final resolutions, because the endings raise new complications for careful readers, which require further resolution. The narrative contexts and interpretations supplied by the evangelists constitute an attempt by the early church to bring the secular narratives of Jesus under the control of the church’s later religious perspectives. Each narrative represents a fragment of Jesus’ secular vision of reality.

As I began this approach to parables over twenty years ago, I found myself moving further outside the mainstream of parables scholarship, both ecclesiastical and critical. I explored a literary approach to the parables in a series of early essays that, among other things, set out what I considered the basic rationale for a literary approach to the parables of Jesus. These early essays form the central section of the book, published in recently edited form along with previously unpublished critiques of a strictly literary approach to the parables and my response to my critics.

New Entries for e-Clavis: Christian Apocrypha

e-Clavis: Christian Apocrypha is a comprehensive bibliography of Christian Apocrypha research assembled and maintained by members of the North American Society for the Study of Christian Apocryphal Literature (NASSCAL).

The site was launched in February, 2016 with 12 entries. A number of new entries have been completed in the interim. These are:

Acts of Cornelius

Hospitality of Dysmas (CANT 78.4)

Hospitality and Ointment of the Bandit (CANT 78.2)

Hospitality and Perfume of the Bandit (CANT 78.3)

Papyrus Oxyrhynchus 210

Rebellion of Dimas (CANT 78.2)

Revelation of the Magi

Secret Gospel of Mark

e-Clavis is always looking for volunteers to contribute entries for unassigned texts. Contact members of the editorial board for more information.

NASSCAL Member Publication: Bulletin for the Study of Religion Nag Hammadi Discovery Panel

NASSCAL President Tony Burke has contributed to a panel on the Nag Hammadi discovery in the recent issue of the Bulletin for the Study of Religion (vol. 45.2, June 2016), edited by NASSCAL member Philip L. Tite. The panel is a response to two recent articles by NASSCAL member Mark Goodacre (2013) and Nicola Denzey Lewis and Justine Blount (2014) challenging the standard account of the origins of the Nag Hamadi codices. Full description of the issue HERE; panelists’ papers listed below.

Editor’s Introduction: “Windows and Mirrors: Texts, Religions, and Stories of Origins,” Philip L. Tite (University of Washington) – (pp. 2-3)

“Telling Nag Hammadi’s Egyptian Stories,” Dylan Michael Burns (Free University of Berlin) – (pp. 5-11)

“Finding Early Christian Books at Nag Hammadi and Beyond,” Brent Nongbri (Macquarie University) – (pp. 11-19)

“True Stories and the Poetics of Textual Discovery,” Eva Mroczek (University of California, Davis) – (pp. 21-31)

“What Do We Talk About When We Talk About the Nag Hammadi Library?” Tony Burke (York University) – (pp. 33-37)

“The 70th Anniversary of the Discovery of the Nag Hammadi Codices: A Few Remarks on Recent Publications,” Paul-Hubert Poirier (Université Laval) – (pp. 37-39)

“Rethinking the Rethinking of the Nag Hammadi Codices,” Nicola Denzey Lewis (Brown University) – (pp. 39-45)

“Fakes, Forgeries, and Fictions” Preview: Caroline Schroeder’s “Gender and the Academy Online”

Recent developments in the story of the Gospel of Jesus’ Wife have led to a flurry of commentary online about the text, in particular about the issue of provenance. Caroline Schroeder has contributed to that discussion. Schroeder was an integral part of the Gospel of Jesus’ Wife panel at the 2015 York University Christian Apocrypha Symposium. Since her paper has been mentioned in the recent discussion, we asked the publisher of the forthcoming volume of proceedings from the Symposium for permission to post a preview of the article. The volume will be published in Fall 2016 and features also two additional papers from the panel by Mark Goodacre and James McGrath, along with a response by Janet Spittler.

Pre-publication draft to appear in Tony Burke, ed., Fakes, Forgeries, and Fictions: Writing Ancient and Modern Christian Apocrypha. Proceedings from the 2015 York University Christian Apocrypha Symposium (Eugene, OR: Cascade, 2016).

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Gender and the Academy Online:

The Authentic Revelations of the Gospel of Jesus’ Wife

Caroline T. Schroeder

Usually I write about dead people. Dead people cannot ostracize you, dead people cannot eviscerate you in another publication, dead people can be safer objects of inquiry than the living. This paper, however, analyzes the living—the way we as a field responded to the appearance of the Gospel of Jesus’ Wife fragment (GJW), and what that says about Biblical Studies. In particular, I wish to look at issues of authenticity. The authenticity of the fragment itself lay at the center of the maelstrom. I seek to untangle more nebulous markers of authenticity as well. I argue that the debate about the authenticity of the document hinged in no small part on these other markers of authenticity (in addition to the traditional means of documenting an ancient text). First, GJW simultaneously exposed our society’s privileging of “hard” scientific modes of inquiry to determine authenticity over traditional humanistic ones and the inadequacy of those scientific methods to provide the certainty we crave. Second, even our traditional humanist research methods proved unsatisfying in the absence of very particular political and ethical commitments—namely, transparency about provenance. Third, the debate demonstrated that deeply entrenched social markers of authenticity of individuals—status, gender, identity—affect the academic production of knowledge. Finally, the authentic revelations of this text include the deep conservatism of our field, which includes a distrust of digital scholarship and digital publishing (including the openness it enables).

Download a PDF of the entire article.

Christian Apocrypha Sessions for the 2016 SBL Annual Meeting

Christian Apocrypha
11/19/2016
4:00 PM to 6:30 PM
Room: Room TBD – Hotel TBD

Theme: Helmut Koester: In Memory of His Contributions to the Study of Christian Apocrypha
A panel in memory of Helmut Koester, one of the most influential scholars of the Christian Apocrypha in North America, assessing his ongoing legacy for this field.

Brent Landau, University of Texas at Austin, Presiding (5 min)
Philip Sellew, University of Minnesota-Twin Cities, Panelist (15 min)
Christine Thomas, University of California-Santa Barbara, Panelist (15 min)
Christoph Markschies, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin – Humboldt University of Berlin, Panelist (15 min)
Break (10 min)
Stephen Patterson, Willamette University, Panelist (15 min)
Ann Graham Brock, Iliff School of Theology, Panelist (15 min)
Cavan Concannon, University of Southern California, Panelist (15 min)
Robyn Walsh, University of Miami, Panelist (15 min)
Discussion (30 min)

Christian Apocrypha
11/20/2016
1:00 PM to 3:30 PM
Room: Room TBD – Hotel TBD

Theme: Apocryphal Acts: New Texts and Approaches

Tony Burke, York University, Presiding
Michael Flexsenhar III, The University of Texas at Austin
Creating a Christian World: Martyrdom, Memory, and ‘Caesar’s Household’ in the Apocryphal Acts (20 min)
Discussion (5 min)
Valentina Calzolari, University of Geneva
The Armenian Acts of Paul and Thecla (20 min)
Discussion (5 min)
Ivan Miroshnikov, Helsingin Yliopisto – Helsingfors Universitet
Towards a New Edition of the Coptic Acts of Andrew and Philemon (20 min)
Discussion (5 min)
Break (5 min)
Jonathan Henry, Princeton University
Thomas in Transmission: Some Noteworthy Witnesses to the Acts and Passion of Thomas (20 min)
Discussion (5 min)
Sung Soo Hong, The University of Texas at Austin
“The Word of the Father Shall Be to Them a Work of Salvation”: Thinking with the Chaste Body of Thecla (20 min)
Discussion (5 min)
Business Meeting (20 min)

Digital Humanities in Biblical, Early Jewish, and Christian Studies
Joint Session With: Digital Humanities in Biblical, Early Jewish, and Christian Studies, Christian Apocrypha
11/21/2016
1:00 PM to 3:30 PM
Room: Room TBD – Hotel TBD

Theme: Christian Apocrypha and Digital Humanities

Joseph Verheyden, Katholieke Universiteit Leuven, Presiding
Brent Landau, University of Texas at Austin
What No Eye Has Seen: Using a Digital Microscope to Produce a New Transcription of Papyrus Oxyrhynchus 210, a Possible Apocryphal Gospel (30 min)
Janet Spittler, University of Virginia and Tony Burke, York University
Founding an Academic Society in the Digital Age: The North American Society for the Study of Christian Apocryphal Literature (30 min)
Jennifer Barry, University of Mary Washington
BandofAngels.org: Accessing Women’s History through the Digital Humanities (30 min)
Tara Andrews, University of Bern (CH)
When a text isn’t exactly a text: Digital editions and apocrypha (30 min)
James F. McGrath, Butler University
Learning from Jesus’ Wife: The Role of Online Scholarship in Creating and Exposing a Forgery (30 min)

Christian Apocrypha
11/21/2016
4:00 PM to 6:30 PM
Room: Room TBD – Hotel TBD

Theme: Violence and Healing in the Christian Apocrypha

Janet Spittler, University of Virginia
Causality and Healing of Disease in the Acts of John (20 min)
Discussion (5 min)
Patricia A Duncan, Texas Christian University
Philosophical Foundations of (Self) Healing and Exorcism in the Pseudo-Clementine “Homilies” (20 min)
Discussion (5 min)
Christine Luckritz Marquis, Union Presbyterian Seminary, Presiding (5 min)
Judith Hartenstein, Universität Koblenz – Landau
Violence in the Gospel of Mary (BG 1) (20 min)
Discussion (5 min)
Break (10 min)
Annette Merz, Protestant Theological University Amsterdam Groningen
Paul before the lion in the Acts of Paul, Tertullian, and the Zliten Mosaic (20 min)
Discussion (5 min)
Matthias Geigenfeind, Universität Regensburg
The Apocryphal Revelation of Thomas – Unique, but Underappreciated (20 min)
Discussion (5 min)

NASSCAL Publication Series: Early Christian Apocrypha

The Early Christian Apocrypha series is the second of two NASSCAL publishing partnerships with Polebridge Press. The goal of this particular partnership is to provide a venue for Christian Apocrypha scholars in the society to publish accessible and up-to-date translations of the more widely-known texts of the apocryphal “canon.” The More New Testament Apocrypha series published by Eerdmans, also created as a venue for the work of North American scholars, focuses primarily on late antique texts. Together these two series (and, of course, the Studies in Christian Apocrypha monograph series with Polebridge) offer excellent and, we hope, exciting opportunities for our colleagues to share their work, not only with their fellow scholars, but also non-scholars interested in Christian Apocrypha. If you would like to contribute to the series please contact one of the series editors. The complete press release is presented below.

____________________________________

EARLY CHRISTIAN APOCRYPHA SERIES

Polebridge Press, in collaboration with the North American Society for the Study of Christian Apocryphal Literature (NASSCAL), is pleased to announce the continuation of the Studies in Christian Apocrypha series.

The Early Christian Apocrypha series features fresh new translations of major apocryphal texts that survive from the early period of the Christian church. These non-canonical writings are crucial for determining the complex history of Christian origins. Each translation is accompanied by appendices, textual notes, translation notes, cross references and index. An extensive introduction also sets out the challenge of recovering and reconstructing the original text.

The North American Society for the Study of Christian Apocryphal Literature is a scholarly organization dedicated to the study of the Christian Apocrypha. The society was founded in 2014 with the goal of fostering collaboration between North American scholars in the field and cognate disciplines. It welcomes participation from scholars at all stages of their careers, including graduate study.

Forthcoming

8. The Infancy Gospel of James, by Lily Vuong with Brandon Hawk (2017)
9. The Infancy Gospel of Thomas, by Tony Burke (2017)
10. The Gospel of Pseudo-Matthew, by Brandon Hawk (2017)

Published Volumes

1. The Acts of Andrew, by Dennis R. MacDonald
2. The Epistle of the Apostles, by Julian V. Hills
3. The Acts of Thomas, by Harold W. Attridge
4. The Acts of Peter, by Robert F. Stoops Jr.
5. Didache: The Teaching of the Twelve Apostles, by Clayton N. Jefford
6. The Acts of John, by Richard I. Pervo with Julian V. Hills
7. The Acts of Paul and Thecla, by Julian V. Hills (forthcoming 2017)

Series Editors

Tony Burke, York University
[email protected]

Janet Spittler, University of Virginia
[email protected]

Brent Landau, University of Texas at Austin
[email protected]

Stephen Patterson, Willamette University
[email protected]

NASSCAL Monograph Series: Studies in Christian Apocrypha

The North American Society for the Study of Christian Apocryphal Literature (NASSCAL) is pleased to announce Studies in Christian Apocrypha, a book series produced in collaboration with Polebridge Press. Christian Apocrypha is a term encompassing Christian texts—such as the Gospel of Thomas, the Acts of John, and the Apocalypse of Peter—that are not included among, but nevertheless bear some relation (in form, content or otherwise) to the texts of the New Testament. Apocrypha have been part of the Christian tradition almost from the beginning. Indeed, so ubiquitous is apocryphal literature that it must be embraced as a fundamental aspect of Christian thought and expression.

The Studies in Christian Apocrypha series will feature work on the Christian Apocrypha from any time period and in any of its myriad forms—from early “lost gospel” papyri, through medieval hagiography and sermons incorporating apocryphal traditions, up to modern apocryphal “forgeries.” We welcome submissions in the form of monographs, critical editions, collected essays, and multi-author works. The series is also the venue for the proceedings of the bi-annual NASSCAL meetings.

Series Editors

Tony Burke, York University
[email protected]

Janet Spittler, University of Virginia
[email protected]

Pierluigi Piovanelli, University of Ottawa
[email protected]

Stephen Patterson, Willamette University
[email protected]

How to Submit Proposals

Initial inquiries should take the form of a 3–5 page proposal outlining the intent of the project, its scope, its relation to other work on the topic, and the audience(s) you have in mind. Please include a current CV and 1–2 sample chapters, if available. Send proposals and inquiries to Tony Burke at [email protected].

NASSCAL Member Publication: Scott Brown, “Mar Saba 65: Twelve Enduring Misconceptions”

Edmund P. Cueva and Javier Martínez, eds. Splendide Mendax: Rethinking Fakes and Forgeries in Classical, Late Antique, and Early Christian Literature. Groningen: Barkhuis, 2016.

Featuring a contribution by NASSCAL member (and contributor to the 2011 and 2015 York Christian Apocrypha Symposium Series) Scott Brown, “Mar Saba 65: Twelve Enduring Misconceptions” (pp. 303-30). From the publisher’s abstract (full information including table of contents at Barkhuis):

Scholars for centuries have regarded fakes and forgeries chiefly as an opportunity for exposing and denouncing deceit, rather than appreciating the creative activity necessary for such textual imposture. But should we not be more curious about what is spurious? Many of these long-neglected texts merit serious reappraisal, when considered as artifacts with a value beyond mere authenticity. We do not have to be fooled by a forgery to find it fascinating, when even the intention to deceive can remind us how easy it is to form beliefs about texts. The greater difficulty is that once beliefs have been formed by one text, it is impossible to approach the next without preconceptions potentially disastrous for scholarship.

The exposure of fraud and the pursuit of truth may still be valid scholarly goals, but they implicitly demand that we confront the status of any text as a focal point for matters of belief and conviction.

Many new and fruitful avenues of investigation open up when scholars consider forgery as a creative act rather than a crime. We invited authors to contribute work without imposing any restrictions beyond a willingness to consider new approaches to the subject of ancient fakes and forgeries. The result is this volume, in which our aim is to display some of the many possibilities available to scholarship when the forger is regarded as “splendide mendax” – splendidly untruthful.

NASSCAL Member Publication: Stephen Patterson, The Lost Way

Stephen J. Patterson. The Lost Way: How Two Forgotten Gospels Are Rewriting the Story of Christian Origins. San Francisco: Harper Collins, 2016.

From the publisher’s web site:

In this rigorously researched and thoughtful study, a leading Jesus Seminar scholar reveals the dramatic story behind the modern discovery of the earliest gospels, accounts that do not portray Jesus exclusively as a martyr but recover a lost ancient Christian tradition centered on Jesus as a teacher of wisdom.

The church has long advocated the Pauline view of Jesus as deity and martyr, emphasizing his death and resurrection. But another tradition also thrived from Christianity’s beginnings, one that portrayed Jesus as a teacher of wisdom. In The Lost Way, Stephen Patterson, a leading New Testament scholar and former head of the Jesus Seminar, explores this lost ancient tradition and its significance to the faith.

Patterson explains how scholars have uncovered a Gospel that preceded at least three of those in the Bible, which is called Q. He painstakingly demonstrates how historical evidence points to the existence of this common source in addition to Mark—recognized as the earliest Gospel—that both Matthew and Luke used to write their accounts. Q contained a collection of Jesus’s teachings without any narrative content and without accounts of the passion, though being the earliest version shared among his first followers—scripture that embodies a very different orientation to the Christian faith.

Patterson also explores other examples of this wisdom tradition, from the discovery of the Gospel of Thomas; to the emergence of Apollos, a likely teacher of Christian wisdom; to the main authority of the church in Jerusalem, Jesus’s brother James. The Lost Way offers a profound new portrait of Jesus—one who can show us a new way to live.