Construction of Christian Identities

Call For Papers: At the 2018 meeting, we will explore social categorization and boundary drawing discourse in second-century narrative texts. Our seminar is keen to move beyond traditional analysis of texts in terms of pre-formed scholarly categories like "Christian and non-Christian." We want to begin by asking which categories are invoked in the texts themselves: gender, marital status, slave status, age, hair color, obsession with bananas? We encourage proposals for papers that begin with close attention to these sorts of textual dynamics, and include theoretical and methodological reflection on the implications of the results for the stories we tell about the ancient world. Papers might also reflect on the phenomenon of multiple identities and the way that categorization functions as a discursive tool to accomplish larger ends. NB: For the purposes of this session, any narrative text that the presenter feels has roots in the second century is fair game, even if it is difficult to establish a second-century form of the text. These could include Acts, the Shepherd, texts commonly considered Jewish or Christian "Apocrypha," martyrdom accounts, and comparative studies of texts not generally attributed to "Jewish" or "Christian" authors. The 2018 meeting will also include a review panel on Maia Kotrosits, Rethinking Early Christian Identity: Affect, Violence, and Belonging (Fortress, 2015).

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