NAPS 2024: “Early Christian Creativity and Cultural Production”
Some time ago, I read Chris Keith’s The Gospel as Manuscript while simultaneously getting my head wrapped around how to frame the closest thing to a “methodology” section in my doctoral thesis. As I read, I realized there were a handful of conversations happening in adjacent fields that would likely never intersect but could really benefit from doing so.
One example readily at hand is the name “Early Christianity” or “Christian Origins” in some departments. Some scholars treat these like an extension of New Testament studies or biblical studies (by which I mean, using a set of presumptions and methods shared with those fields), while others use these labels more like an on-ramp for Early Christian Studies/Patristics (which has its own set of disciplinary methods and approaches). The second and third centuries can sometimes feel like a kind of liminal space in Christian history, and, because of this, scholars sometimes underutilize one another’s work due to disciplinary isolation.
After a few conversations, I decided to organize a session for next year’s North American Patristics Society annual meeting which allows a few overlapping interests in this liminal space to converse with one another. Disciplinary echo-chambering won’t be fixed by a single panel, but panels allow us to facilitate thoughtful interactions that might help move the needle someday.
Over the past several months, I’ve been working with Dr. Jeremiah Coogan to put together a session that reflects this sense of cross-disciplinary interest pertaining to recent studies in cultural production. We landed on the theme of “Early Christian Creativity and Cultural Production.” I’ll post the full session description here:
Early Christian intellectuals and cultural producers participated in broader innovations in literary and artistic forms. This session on “Early Christian Creativity and Cultural Production” analyzes how early Christian creatives contributed to their broader cultural contexts. In particular, the session seeks to: examine how early Christians innovated upon existing modes of cultural production (literary and artistic); investigate how authorial and artistic decisions impacted the reception of cultural artifacts by Christian audiences; interrogate continuities and discontinuities between early Christian creatives and their non-Christian counterparts; and assess how early Christians innovated upon or redefined contemporary textual, artistic, or visual boundaries.
We aim to invite conversation between scholars of early Christianity (including New Testament, early Christian studies, and patristics) and scholars of classics, philosophy, ancient history, and Jewish studies. Peer-reviewed publication of the collected papers is anticipated.
While the topics and scope of the session excite me, I’m even more thrilled about the group of panelists who have agreed to participate. Presently, the list of participants includes Teresa Morgan, Jared Secord, and Mark DelCogliano (who plans to serve as our respondent). I will also present on Clement and the limits of literary production, and Coogan will chair the session. As mentioned in the above description, we hope to publish the proceedings in a format accessible to you (and already have an early expression of interest in such a thing!).
It would be inappropriate to overshare; however, I wanted to write up an announcement for a few reasons:
First, I am really excited about it. While I have presented at various conferences as a student, I haven’t yet pre-arranged a session for one. Getting the experience to define a session, identify potential participants, and narrow down publication options has been a fruitful endeavor—and while it’s a slight detraction from my thesis, I also anticipate my participation will show me new ways my research could be applied in the future.
Second, I want to put the session on your radar if you are planning to attend NAPS. It’s going to be fun, I think, and I hope you try to make time for it. I won’t spoil the abstracts for you, but the diversity and—forgive me—creativity of these papers will be a treat. I hope we are able to foster an environment that is both enriching and a breath of fresh air among the stifled nature of academic conferences.
Third, I want to publicly say thanks to Dr. Coogan for his help on the session. Being a student is an intimidating thing, and he has been available to answer questions about the process, guide me through brainstorming, and offer input on the session description and potential participants. He has given me far more attention than I deserve as someone he isn’t responsible for supervising (or, as someone he doesn’t even know very well)! I look forward to continued interaction with his work in the future.
Lastly, this website serves as a place to “host” my work online. Like those portfolio projects many of us had to do as undergraduates—or, many of you have to force your students to do—putting things like this “out there” allows me to look back over the course of my doctoral program to see if/how I have grown, changed, or shifted. It also serves as an easy way to update friends, family, and acquaintances what is going on in my academic life, which is often too boring or confusing to talk about in normal conversation.
Beyond these points, the process has reminded me the value of investing in people. Scholarship is a grind, and as a distance learner it can be especially trying. Events like this have the chance to facilitate some of the best aspects of scholarly activity precisely because it allows for real-time interaction between thoughtful human beings. The opportunity to get several thinkers with varied perspectives and backgrounds in the same room to discuss how early Christians both related to and diverged from their contemporaneous cultural producers has been a joy, and I look forward to getting to do more of it in the future.
Stay tuned for further details, and I hope to see you at NAPS 2024 in Chicago!