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.

7 October Walter Moberly, ‘On puzzling over a textual puzzle’

14 October Matthjis den Dulk (Netherlands), ‘J.B. Lightfoot and the Fickle Galatians’

Michaelmas term 2024

21 October Sofia Puchkova, ‘Imperial Christianity and Bishop's Authority in Theodore of Mopsuestia's Biblical Exegesis’

28 October John Barclay, ‘Threatened with Sale? The Situation, Strategy and Purpose of Paul's letter to Philemon’

4 November Crispin Fletcher-Louis (Gloucestershire), ‘The Divine Heartset: A New Approach to Paul’s Letter to the Philippians and its famous Christ Hymn’ 

11 November John Behr (Aberdeen), ‘Refiguring Scripture’

18 November Kostas Lygouris (Durham), ‘God's physis: theology and poetics in Nonnus of Panopolis' Paraphrase of John's Gospel’

25 November No seminar

2 December Nick Moore, ‘Jude and the Watchers in the Early Church’

9 December Lewis Ayres, ‘Intimations of Divine Life in Athanasius’