kata ta biblia

a blog exploring Christian origins, biblical studies, social/cultural history, method, education and the journey through academia

SBL Paper Accepted!

I am pleased to announce that my paper, “The Agents of Jesus Meet ‘All the Nations’: Adapting Jesus’ Cultic Reform for the Eschaton,” has been accepted for the 2009 Annual Meeting program unit Construction of Christian Identities at the Society of Biblical Literature in New Orleans. Though I have presented at the regional SBL meeting for the west coast, this will be my first presentation at the national conference.

The basic thesis for the paper is that Jewish eschatological texts anticipate a time when the Gentiles/nations will one day worship the one true God, and with Jesus’ inauguration of the eschaton, his followers carry out the Gentile mission in partial fulfillment of that vision. Here is the abstract:

The Gospels portray Jesus of Nazareth as both cultic reformer within the house of Israel (akin to Amos) and an apocalyptic herald announcing the end of the age. As a reformer, Jesus seeks to extend God’s compassion to groups marginalized by contemporary practices within the Judean cult (e.g., women, the sick, the poor). While Jesus’ inclusivity here is radical, his program is limited to the house of Israel (e.g., Matt 15:24). This paper argues that Jesus’ role as an apocalyptic herald inaugurates not only the eschaton, but also the inclusion of the Gentiles (the “nations”). The role of the Gentiles in the coming judgment is a muddled area within Second Temple Jewish texts. Some texts anticipate a war with Gentile oppressors of the Judeans, other texts see God using the Gentiles as bringing God’s justice upon unfaithful Israelites/Judeans, while many texts also suggest that the Gentiles will some day worship the true God and will join the people of God. The latter category provides the foundation for this paper. From the perspective of Jesus’ followers, Judean cultic leaders have rejected Jesus’ message of radical inclusivity. As Jesus’ death and resurrection marks the beginning of the new age, the followers of Jesus act as his agents to reinterpret his cultic reforms for a mission to the Gentiles—thus initiating the Gentile inclusion anticipated in eschatological texts. One can see the shift in the disciples’ role as Jesus’ agents to the house of Israel first (Matt 10) and later to “all the nations” (Matt 25:31-46; 28:16-20). The pragmatic and theological implications of such a shift dominate the conversation of the early Jesus movement. This paper contrasts this phenomenon with the sectarian particularism of the Qumran community, which constitutes a contemporary group also identified by both cultic reform and apocalyptic eschatology.

And here is information for the program unit (see all program units):

Construction of Christian Identities

Edmondo F. Lupieri
Mauro Pesce

Description: Interdisciplinary study of the making of Christianity as a complex phenomenon (“Early Christianities”), and of conflicting intercultural relations among Mediterranean/Near-Eastern religious groups as contributing to diversified evolution inside early Christianities. Identifying different early Christian groups as matrix of different early Christian writings.

Call for papers: For the Annual Meeting of New Orleans 2009, this Unit plans to invite the speakers for one of its sessions (panel discussion) and to accept papers for the other. The title of the panel discussion is: “From Christianity to Christianities: Ways Back to the Origins.” We would like to explore the possibility to move back from the consolidated situation of Christianity we know better (that of a “Great Church” and of “heresies”) to the complexity of the origins. The title of the open session is: “Rituals, Texts, Individuals and Associations: Competing ways to Construct Identities?” We invite contributions which analyze first century events and/or phenomena pertaining to cultural mechanisms which could have contributed to the construction of a group identity, both among the followers of Jesus and in comparable groups. Please, feel free to send any proposal for papers, the content of which corresponds to the specific subject of the open session and to the lines established in the General Description of the Section.

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4 Comments by Patrick George McCullough  /  March 28, 2009  /  Posted in: conferences, papers, SBL, society of biblical literature
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  • http://patmccullough.com/2009/04/10/summer-research-mentorship-grant/ Summer Research Mentorship Grant « kata ta biblia

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