Biblical Studies and Patristics

Convenor: Dr Jane Heath (j.m.f.heath@durham.ac.uk). Please contact with any queries, e.g. if you would like to attend the seminar online.

Meetings: Mondays (3-4.30pm) in Seminar Room C in Abbey House and online. 

Description:

Attendance at this seminar is restricted to research postgraduates and staff working in the Biblical Studies and Patristics and to others on the seminar's mailing list. Anyone who is not a member of the seminar but who wishes to attend a specific meeting should contact Dr Jane Heath (j.m.f.heath@durham.ac.uk).

The Biblical Studies and Patristics research seminar meets each Monday of the term. On weeks with a visiting speaker, an informal drinks reception will be held immediately after the seminar in the common room. Attendance is restricted to postgraduates and staff working in the Biblical Studies and Patristics and to others on the seminar's mailing list, but anyone who is not a member of the seminar who wishes to attend a specific meeting should contact the Seminar Convenor.

The Seminar brings together the substantial Biblical Studies and Patristics research community associated with the Department. The core members are the full-time academic staff who specialize in Biblical (and related) studies together with postgraduate students working in this field either by research or coursework. Normally there is an academic presentation followed by discussion. Guest speakers from the UK and overseas constitute a significant part of the programme. From our own number, presentations by both staff and research students occur regularly. To allow access worldwide to our proceedings, some seminars have been recorded and placed on the web.

A recent development is the establishment of links with staff and postgraduates in the Department of Biblical Studies of Sheffield University and Manchester University. A very successful study day with presentations by both research postgraduates and staff of work in progress has been held annually for the past several years.

The Seminar also benefits from the Durham-Duke exchange programme. Recently, two Durham postgraduates have spent time at Duke University and one Duke postgraduate has spent six months with us in Durham.

Social events each term contribute to the conviviality of the seminar.

Epiphany term 2025

13 Jan Francis Watson: Justin, Martyrdom, and the Beginning of Christian Philosophy

20 Jan Jan Dochhorn: The Virginal birth in Luke 1–2

27 Jan Chris Jameson: John the Commentator: How Narrative Asides Critically Engage Reception History for Readers

           Isaac Frisby: Giver of (biological) life: the Spirit and the Waters in the Fathers

3 Feb Kostas Lygouris: God's physis: theology and poetics in Nonnus of Panopolis’ Paraphrase of John's Gospel

10 Feb Nikita Banev: The Nicene-Constantinopolitan Creed in the context of the ninth-century missions to Moravia and Bulgaria

17 Feb Amy Saunders: “Conjugal Pairs:” Gendered Procreative Couples among the Aeons in Irenaeus and Nag Hammadi 

            John Baskaran: A Pious Inscriber: Gregory of Nazianzus’ Self-image as a Pastor

24 Feb David Janzen: The Hermeneutical Misunderstanding of Meaning in White Biblical Studies, and an Ethical Solution

3 Mar Ed Creedy: Clement of Alexandria's hermeneutic of “the Arts”

10 Mar Annalisa Philips Wilson: All Things are from God: Head Coverings and Causation in 1 Cor 11.2–16

17 Mar Elizabeth Hare: A Time to Weep and a Time to Laugh: The Purpose and Place of Emotion in Biblical Wisdom Literature