About

The apostle Paul was a figure at the intersection of Jewish, Roman, Hellenistic, and various local cultures of the Greco-Roman world. To understand Paul is to situate him at the cross-section of cults, customs, economics, empire, provinces, politics, family, farms, markets, magic, philosophy, languages, and social mores of antiquity. Scholars continue to study Paul within this environment and analyse the interface between Paul and this pre-Christian “pagan” world.

Ridley College is holding a one-day scholarly symposium on Paul within Paganism on Monday 22 July 2024 (this is the day before the annual meeting of the Society of New Testament Studies conference at the Australian Catholic University).

Tickets are $60 full price or $50 for students (including postgraduate students). Includes morning tea, lunch and afternoon tea.

Registration from 8:30am.

Please contact us if you would like suggestions for accommodation in the area.

Program

08:30-09:00am Registration

09:00-10:00am Plenary #1

Brian Rosner: Paul’s Ethics and Pagan Sources: Derivation or Direction?

10:00-10:45am Main Papers

Todd Still: Turning to God from Idols: Social Dislocation and Resocialization for Paul’s Thessalonian Converts

Lyn Kidson: Paul’s Shaman Legacy in the Pastoral Epistles

10:45-11:15am Morning Tea

11:15am-13:00pm

Breakout Session #1

Carsten Claußen: A philosopher’s cloak for Paul? The Areopagus speech (Acts 17:16–34) as a portrait of the apostle’s interaction with Paganism

David S. Starling: Making a Scene? Paul, the Theatre and the Corinthian Correspondence

Ruben A. Bühner: Did Paul Attend Hellenistic Sport Competitions?

Breakout Session #2

David Moffitt: Ransom Redivivus: Paul and Pagan Theologies of Sacrifice to Chthonic Gods

Chris Porter: One Step Too Far - Limits of a Social Categorisation Paradigm

Michael Kok: Pauline Myths of Origin in the Light of their Graeco-Roman Context

13:00-14:00pm Lunch

14:00-15:30pm

Breakout Session #3

Michael F. Bird: Paul and Seneca on Mercy

Rebecca Muir: Epictetus and Paul on human nature and the nature of creation

Breakout Session #4

Murray Smith: The coming of God among the gods: Paul’s polemical and pastoral application of Israel’s coming of God tradition in 1 Thessalonians 4:13–18

John Anthony Dunne: The Washing Dead: Bodily Resurrection and Paul’s Ambivalence to Corinthian Ritual Innovation of Baptism in 1 Corinthians 15:29

15:30-16:00pm Afternoon Tea

16:00-17:00pm Plenary #2

Jörg Frey: Paul the Jew within Greco-Roman Paganism: Epistolography, Language, and Rhetoric

Location

Get directions

Ridley College
170 The Avenue, Parkville VIC 3052

Contact Event Organiser