2020 Enoch Seminar Online

Title: Concepts of Evil in Second Temple Judaism and Christian Origins

Participation is by invitation only. It is not a public conference (in streaming), but a workshop among invited specialists.

Chairs: Gabriele Boccaccini and Lorenzo DiTommaso (with Kelley Coblentz Bautch, Loren Stuckenbruk and Jason Zurawski)

Tentative Date : June 29 - July 1-2 (Monday - Tuesday-Wednesday-Thursday)

Daily schedule (Eastern American Time): 10am-11:30am / 12:00pm-1:30pm / 2:30pm-4pm

Topics (to be decided): Suggested questions for each of the main sessions:

Description (by Lorenzo DiTommaso)

One point for participants to keep in mind is that the tenor of their presentations/responses ought to be prospective rather than retrospective. A survey of past work is not really appropriate; likewise a statement of an issue that has been chewed over for a long time. A new idea/thesis/approach would be ideal, of course. But a statement of a major issue or question that has come to light in view of recent scholarship would be excellent, as well, especially if it is “thick,” in the sense that it contains ideas that could be unpacked and debated in group discussion for mutual profit.

Another point, following somewhat from the first, is that each presentation is only 10-15 minutes. Unlike normal Enoch Seminars, we do not require participants to pre-circulate their papers. So the emphasis is on brevity, clarity, and, to a certain degree, generality, at least within the session parameters. Accordingly, participants should expect that they will be given ample time to revise/amplify their ideas for publication in the conference volume, ideally in dialogue with the formal responses (which, as discussed, will also be published) and informal group discussion.

A third point is that the questions are quite open-ended. On the one hand, this allows panelists and respondents maximum room for exploration within the compass of the session topic. On the other hand, we are issuing invitations to targeted specialists in the expectation they require the least in the way of guidance and have the most likelihood of sizing up the question and offering meaningful responses to it. For this reason participation is by invitation only. It is not a public conference (in streaming), but a workshop among invited specialists.

This will be a new kind of conference experience for most of us, I suspect. We've had to tweak a few things in order to accommodate the new medium, according us maximum fluidity in the conference architecture without sacrificing traditional scientific rigour. I'm really excited about it, and also delighted that the Enoch Seminar has taken the initiative, since the likelihood of online everything over the intermediate future seems fairly high.

My final point is that the Seminar must carry on despite these difficult times, not only to maintain continuity and connexions, but also because the Republic of Letters of which we are citizens may bend with stormy winds but it cannot and will not break

Schedule

Monday, June 29, 2020: Opening Session

• 12:00pm- 1:30pm -- Welcome and Opening Remarks. "Enoch Seminar Life Achievement Award"

• 2:30pm-4pm [Chair Lorenzo DiTommaso] -- 3. What was the nature and extent of Zoroastrian, Mesopotamian, Egyptian and Greco-Roman influences on the diverse notions of evil in Second Temple Judaism?

Tuesday, June 30, 2020: Three sessions

• 10am-11:30am [Chair Kelley Bautch] -- 2. Which are the different ways in which evil was understood to enter into the world? Which historical or social circumstances prompted the preference from one or the other? Was it a case of a religious development in response to fundamental changes in the religious environment? In both cases, where and why?

• 12:00pm-1:30pm [Chair Jason Zurawski] -- 4. How do non-apocalyptic texts of the period engage with the issue of the origin of evil and the theological problems it raises? Is there literary evidence, explicit or implicit, for contemporary debate regarding the existence of multiple explanations for the origin of evil in the world, particularly regarding the ways that each explanation addresses theological and existential issues?

• 2:30pm-4pm [Chair Lorenzo DiTommaso] -- 5. Are evil human or superhuman figures a necessary and functional part of the earliest expressions of evil, or did they develop later?

Wednesday, July 1, 2020 -- Three sessions

• 10am-11:30am [Chair Loren Stuckenbruck] -- 6. The origin of evil in the Dead Sea Scrolls.

• 12:00pm-1:30pm [Chair Gabriele Boccaccini] -- 7. How is the problem of evil and its origin addressed in the Parables of Enoch and the Synoptics?

• 2:30pm-4pm [Chair Gabriele Boccaccini] -- 8. Do Paul and John stand in line with trajectories already evident in the Synoptics and Jewish apocalyptic literature of the era, or do they represent a new direction? Do we have evidence of divergent notions on the origin of evil in the early Jesus movement?

Thursday, July 2, 2020 -- Three sessions & Conclusion

• 10am-11:30am [Chair Jason Zurawski] -- 9. How is the problem of evil and its origin addressed in Rabbinic literature? Does it/they stand in line with trajectories already evident in the Jewish literature of the Second Temple Period, or does it represent a wholly new explanation?

• 12:00pm-1:30pm [Chair Kelley Bautch] -- 10. How is the problem of evil and its origin addressed in "gnostic" (Valentinian, Sethian, Mandaean) literature? Do they stand in line with trajectories already evident in the Second Temple Period, or represent a wholly new explanation?

• 2:30pm-4pm [Chair Loren Stuckenbruck] -- 1. If "apocalyptic is the mother of theology," is the problem of evil the mother of "apocalyptic"?

• Final comments

Confirmed Participants

• #@ Paul Anderson (George Fox University, USA)
• Luca Arcari (University of Naples, Italy)
• # Kenneth Atkinson (University of Northern Iowa, USA)
• #@ Harold W. Attridge (Yale University, USA)

• # Florentina Badalova Keller (Freie Universität Berlin, Germany)
• #@ Albert I. Baumgarten (Bar-Ilan University, Israel)
• Kelley Coblentz Bautch (St Edward's University, USA)
• Giovanni Bazzana (Harvard University, USA)
• @ Gabriele Boccaccini (University of Michigan, USA)
• # Darrell Bock (Dallas Theological Seminary, USA)
• Miryam T. Brand (USA)

• # Piero Capelli (University of Venice, Italy)
• Alberto Camplani (University of Rome La Sapienza, Italy)
• Rodney Caruthers (Ashland Theological Seminary, USA)
• # John & Adela Collins (Yale University, USA)
• # Sidnie White Crawford (University of Nebraska-Lincoln, USA)

• April DeConick (Rice University, USA)
• Lorenzo DiTommaso (Concordia University Montreal, Canada)
• # Jan Dochhorn (Durham University, England)
• Rachel Dryden (PhD Candidate, University of Cambridge, England)

• # Torleif Elgvin (NLA University College, Norway)
• Jason von Ehrenkrook (USA)

• @ Deborah Forger (Dartmouth College, USA)
• # Steven Fraade (Yale University, USA)
• Ida Froelich (Catholic University Budapest, Hungary)

• # Angela Kim Harkins (Boston College, USA)
• #@ Matthias Henze (Rice University, USA)

• David R. Jackson (Australia)

• Paul Kim (Methodist Theological School in Ohio, USA)
• Alexander Kulik (Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Israel)

• # Mark Leuchter (Temple University, USA)
• # John R. (Jack) Levison (Southern Methodist University, USA)
• # Liv Ingeborg Lied (Norwegian School of Theology, Norway)
• # Timothy Lim (University of Edinburgh, Scotland)

• Paul Mandel (Schechter Institute of Jewish Studies, Israel)
• James McGrath (USA)

• Eric Noffke (Waldensian School of Theology, Italy)

• @ Gerbern Oegema (McGill University, Canada)
• Isaac Oliver (USA)
• #@ Andrei Orlov, Marquette University (USA)

• Chad Pierce

• # Annette Reed (New York University, USA)
• Adele Reinhartz (University of Ottawa, Canada)
• Benjamin Reynolds (Tyndale University, Canada)

• Joshua Scott (PhD Candidate, University of Michigan, USA)
• Ryan Stokes
• # Michael Stone (Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Israel)
• Loren Stuckenbruck (University of Munich, Germany)
• David Suter (USA)

• # Joan Taylor (King's College London, England)

• # Benjamin Wold (Trinity College Dublin, Ireland)
• Archie Wright (Regent University, USA)
• Ben Wright (USA)

• Jason Zurawski (University of Groningen, Netherlands)

...

Perspective participants

• # Joseph Angel (Yeshiva University, USA)
• Daniel Assefa (Ethiopia)

• # Jonathan Ben-Dov (University of Haifa, Israel)
• Katell Berthelot
• Christfried Boettrick
• Daniel Boyarin

• William Campbell
• Calum Carmichael
• # Esther Chazon (Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Israel)
• Randall Chestnut

• # James Davila (University of St Andrews, Scotland)
• # David A. DeSilva (Ashland Theological Seminary, USA)
• Devorah Dimant
• Vicente Dobroruka
• # Lutz Doering (University of Münster, Germany)
• Henryk Drawnel

• Kathy Ehrensperger
• Pamela Eisenbaum

• Daniel Falk
• Crispin Fletcher-Louis

• # Gabriella Gelardinini (Nord University, Norway)
• Charles Gieschen
• # Matthew Goff (Florida State University, USA)
• # Lester Grabbe (University of Hull, England)
• Eric Gruen

• # David Hamidovic (University of Lausanne, Switzerland)
• # Charlotte Hempel (University of Birmingham, England)
• Martha Himmelfarb
• # Karina Hogan (Fordham University, USA)

• Tal Ilan

• # Jutta Jokiranta (University of Helsinki, Finland)

• John Kampen
• # Jonathan Kaplan (University of Texas at Austin, USA)
• # Paul Kosmin (Harvard University, USA)
• # Robert Kraft (emeritus, University of Pennsylvania, USA
• Helge Kvanvig

• # David Lambert (University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, USA)
• # Michael Langlois (University of Strasbourg, France)

• Amy-Jill Levine
• Judith Lieu
• William Loader
• Jared Ludnow

• Grant Macaskill
• Paul Mandel
• # Eric Mason (Judson University, USA)
• Luca Mazzinghi
• # Eva Mroczek (University of California Davis, USA)

• Hindy Najman

• Anders Petersen
• Pierluigi Piovanelli
• # Anathea Portier-Young (Duke University, USA)

• Tessa Rajak
• Jacques van Ruiten

• # Michael Satlow (Brown University, USA)
• Carlo Segovia
• Shayna Sheinfeld
• # Gregory Sterling (Yale University, USA)

• Balatz Tamasi
• Eibert Tigchelaar

• #@ James VanderKam (University of Notre Dame, USA)

• James Waddell

• Azzan Yadin

• Ziony Zevit

• Nicola Denzey Lewis
• Chris Keith
• Dylan Burns
• Karen King
• Liv Lied
• Jason Silverman
• Emma Wasserman
• Rebecca Wollenberg
• * Amy-Jill Levine
• Paula Fredriksen
• Daniel Boyarin
• Andrei Orlov

...