Religion and Community in the Roman Near East - Constantine to Mahomet

3rd February 2010 (5.30pm - 6.30pm)

Location: The British Academy, 10 Carlton House Terrace, London, SW1Y 5AH

Wednesday 3 February 2010

In the first few centuries CE, a network of Greek cities came to cover almost all of Palestine, and by the sixth century more than fifty of these places had bishops, who preached and wrote in Greek. In this context, what forms of religious, social or cultural self-expression were open to Jews or Samaritans?

In the fourth-sixth centuries churches were built almost everywhere - but so also were Jewish and Samaritan synagogues - and it was these, not the churches, which produced elaborate representational art on their mosaic floors. Jews also produced the vast corpus of rabbinic literature in Hebrew or Aramaic. But how separate was Jewish life in reality from its gentile environment? Should we think of separation into distinct geographical zones, of peaceful co-existence, or of communal conflict

Wednesday 10 February 2010
Syrians and Saracens: Alternative Christianities?

Aramaic, in various dialects, persisted as a spoken language all through the centuries of Graeco-Roman rule. But, while Hebrew and Jewish Aramaic were long-established languages of culture in which religious texts were composed, at the moment of Constantine's conversion there was not a single community anywhere in the Roman Near East where Greek was not the dominant public language.

Christian literary composition in Syriac, which in origin was the Aramaic dialect and script used at Edessa, had however already begun before Constantine. The subsequent emergence of Syriac as a major language of Christian literary culture, and as expressed in the many beautiful contemporary manuscripts which survive, is of huge significance. But what was the role of Syriac-speaking Christianity in relation to Greek, and to the profound theological divisions of the time? Was it in Greek or in Syriac that the Bible and monotheism were transmitted to the Arabs of the desert?

There is no charge for admission, no tickets will be issued, and seats cannot be reserved. The Lecture Room is opened at 5.00pm The first 80 audience members arriving at the Academy will be offered a seat in the Lecture Room; the next 60 people to arrive will be offered a seat in the Overflow Room, which has a video and audio link to the Lecture Room. Lectures are followed by a reception at 6.30pm.

Snowdrop Tour at the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh - AOUG

13th February 2010 (12:00)

Location: Royal Botanic Garden, Edinburgh, EH3 5

Snowdrop tour at the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh, followed by lunch at the Terrace Cafe.

Meet at 12:00 at the East Gate (Inverleith Row entrance).

Cost of tour: £3.00.