Religious Identity and Transversality in Nascent Christianity, Early Rabbinic Judaism, and Formative Islam (2012 Assefa/González Ferrín/Lourie/Piñero/Segovia), course

From 4 Enoch: The Online Encyclopedia of Second Temple Judaism

Religious Identity and Transversality in Nascent Christianity, Early Rabbinic Judaism, and Formative Islam (2012) is an interdisciplinary online Postgraduate English/Spanish Expert Course offered at the Camilo José Cela University in Madrid, Spain. Directed by Carlos A. Segovia with Daniel Assefa, Emilio González Ferrín, Basil Lourié, and Antonio Piñero Sáenz.

Contents 1 Overview 2 University 3 Modality 4 Term Dates 5 Contents 6 Board 7 Inscription 8 External links

Overview

The study of early Judaism and nascent Christianity has undergone a most remarkable hermeneutical shift in the past decades. To begin with, the Second Temple period (that is, the period extending from the Babylonian exile to the destruction of Jerusalem in 70 CE) proves now crucial for the study of the intra-controversial shaping of the ancient Jewish religion. We furthermore tend to regard such period as a time in which many Judaisms, rather than a single, monovocal, Judaism, arose and developed, each one with its own specific theology and socio-historical background in spite of their undeniable interrelations. As a corollary, an entirely new understanding of the Jewish roots and the Jewish setting of earliest Christianity is nowadays emerging. In addition, scholars are increasingly drawing their attention upon the complex historical process through which Rabbinic Judaism——which can no longer be interpreted as a mere continuation of Second Temple mainstream Judaism——acquired its contour lines at the very same time that Christianity became a separate religion, and they moreover tend to regard the partings of the ways between both traditions as a rather late and non at all unambiguous phenomenon. Finally, the renewed study of Islamic origins currently under development in several scholarly circles helps us to shed new light upon the Jewish-Christian milieu out of which Islam emerged, in fact, much later than hitherto considered. But how does all this affect our notion of religious identity? Is the latter per se a fixed category, or should we rather look into the boundary-drawing strategies which produced our respective religious identities and self-representations—as Jewish, Christians, and Muslims—in late antiquity? The course aims at exploring afresh these and other related issues which are of paramount importance in our present days for all those who regard interreligious dialogue not just as a desirable opportunity, but also——and perhaps chiefly——as a groundbreaking challenge.

The course aims at providing both an overview and a clear notion of the new perspectives set forth in contemporary scholarship on Rabbinic, Christian, and Islamic origins. The student will thus achieve an updated knowledge of Rabbinic, Christian, and Islamic beginnings in light of their historical and theological settings. Therefore, she/he will be able to better understand the role played by the notion of religious identity in the formation of each separate religion, as well as the conceptual limits of such notion. In addition, she/he will also be enabled to critically analyse the implications of these issues for contemporary interreligious dialogue.

University

Camilo José Cela University, Madrid, Spain

Modality

English/Spanish on-line Postgraduate Course (500 hours / 20 ECTS). Blackboard Digital Learning Environment.

Term Dates

March - June 2012.

Contents

• 1. Introduction
  • Contemporary Scholarship on Rabbinic, Christian and Islamic Origins and Its Implications for Present Interreligious Dialogue. Carlos A. Segovia (Camilo José Cela University, Madrid, Spain). Spanish/English, 2 weeks.
• 2. Rethinking Judaism
  • 2.1. Second Temple Judaism and Christian Origins: Towards a New Hermeneutical Paradigm. Daniel Assefa (Capuchin Franciscan Institute of Philosophy and Theology, Addis Abeba, Ethiopia). English, 2 weeks.
  • 2.2. Second Temple Judaism and Rabbinic Origins: Continuity and Rupture. Carlos A. Segovia (Camilo José Cela University, Madrid, Spain). Spanish/English, 2 weeks.
• 3. Rethinking Christianity
  • 3.1. New Perspectives on Christian Beginnings (I): Early Christian Groups and Tendencies. Antonio Piñero Sáenz (Complutense University of Madrid, Spain). Spanish, 2 weeks.
  • 3.2. New Perspectives on Christian Beginnings (II): The Jewish Legacy in the Early Church (Early Christian Monasticism and Patristics). Basil Lourié (Scrinium, Saint Petersburg, Russia). English, 2 weeks.
• 4. Rethinking Islam
  • 4.1. New Perspectives on Islamic Origins (I): Towards a New Historical Interpretation. Carlos A. Segovia (Camilo José Cela University, Madrid, Spain). Spanish/English, 2 weeks.
  • 4.2. New Perspectives on Islamic Origins (II): Scholarly Controversies. Emilio González Ferrín (University of Seville, Spain). Spanish, 2 weeks.

Additional lectures and video-conferences will also be programmed.

Board

• Director:
  • Carlos A. Segovia, PhD. Associate Professor in Religious Studies, Camilo José Cela University, Madrid, Spain. Vice-Director and Associate Editor, 4 Enoch: The Online Encyclopedia of Second Temple Judaism and Christian Origins.
• Professors:
  • Daniel Assefa, PhD. Rector, Capuchin Franciscan Institute of Philosophy and Theology, Addis Abeba, Ethiopia. Member of the Enoch Seminar: International Scholarship on Second Temple Judaism and Christian Origins. Associate Editor, 4 Enoch: The Online Encyclopedia of Second Temple Judaism and Christian Origins.
  • Emilio González Ferrín, PhD. Professor in Islamic Studies, University of Seville, Spain. Director, Cátedra Al-Ándalus, Fundación Tres Culturas, Seville, Spain.
  • Basil Lourié, PhD. Editor in Chief, Scrinium: Revue de patrologie, d’hagiographie critique et d’histoire ecclésiastique, Saint Petersburg, Russia. Member of the Enoch Seminar: International Scholarship on Second Temple Judaism and Christian Origins.
  • Antonio Piñero Sáenz, PhD. Emeritus Professor in New Testament and Early Christian Literature, Complutense University of Madrid, Spain.
  • Carlos A. Segovia, PhD. Associate Professor in Religious Studies, Camilo José Cela University, Madrid, Spain. Vice-Director and Associate Editor, 4 Enoch: The Online Encyclopedia of Second Temple Judaism and Christian Origins.

Inscription

From January 1 to February 15, 2012.

External links

Camilo José Cela University, Masters and Postgraduate Courses http://www.ucjc.edu/index.php?section=estudios/titulaciones/catedras/catedra-federico-mayor/IDENTIDAD-RELIGIOSA-Y-TRANSVERSALIDAD-en