Antiquitopia

So I found out (a couple days ago now) that my paper proposal for the Society of Biblical Literature's Group, Esotericism and Mysticism in Antiquity , has been accepted.  Here is my title and abstract: “God and the Senses:   Smelling, Tasting, and Touching God in Early Christianity” The study of ancient Jewish and Christian mystical thought, writings, and practices has typically focused on divine visions and auditions, how seeing and hearing God is portrayed or represented or the practical steps involved to see or hear God in a ritual context, whether esoteric or in broader liturgical contexts.   While justified by many of the writings themselves, this focus nonetheless overlooks that much ancient Jewish and Christian mystical thought and practice engaged all five senses.   In this paper, I propose to investigate how early Christian writings variously spoke of encountering God not only by sight and hearing, but also by smelling, tasting, and...

One of the most enjoyable and best -attended sections I went to at the SBL this year was the panel on Biblioblogging. While as the speakers noted that blogging has been greatly expanding the past five years in the field of biblical studies (broadly conceived), it is measured not only by the number of bloggers but the number of unofficial and now official gatherings of the bloggers (many of whom know each other by their blog names rather than their real names--even when their real names are not secrets). As has been the case the past few years, there was a dinner (which I was unable to attend), a lunch organized by J ohn Hobbins . This year, the bloggers have an official group that meets to discuss issues of blogging, online publication, and burgeoning online technologies in research and instruction. The meeting I attended had a nice panel from a well-established scholar to a more recent dissertation defender and all in between; it included scholars on the Dead Sea Scrolls, New Test...

After a nasty break-up and trial separation, it seems the SBL and AAR have decided they want to be together after all. As a member of both organizations, I am happy to see this. This next year is going to be particularly ridiculous, since they are meeting in the same city--Atlanta--just a few weeks apart. We were already to meet together in San Francisco next year, but now we will also be meeting the following years in Chicago and Baltimore, which will be cold! Here is the joint letter from Kent Richards and Jack Fitzmier, the presidents of the two organizations: June 28, 2010 We are pleased to announce that on June 10, 2010, the Society of Biblical Literature and American Academy of Religion signed a Letter of Intent that outlines an agreement to hold concurrent Annual Meetings beginning in San Francisco in the fall of 2011. These meetings will Occur in the same city—though the venue will change from year to year; Occur at the same time—the weekend before the US Thanksgiving holid...

I just returned to my apartment from SBL in Boston. I had a fantastic time! I probably wore myself out more than usual, giving three presentations (two official and one in a closed session). All three went well, and I received substantive suggestions, and two of the sessions even went into all-out brainstorming sessions from the papers. It was an exhilarating and exhausting time. I also got to meet in person several bloggers. I now have a face and body in mind for Ken Schenck at Quadrilateral Thoughts , James McGrath at Exploring Our Matrix , and I met John Hobbins from Ancient Hebrew Poetry . I will try to report more in depth at a later date (perhaps during the Thanksgiving weekend).