Symposium on Immanence and Transcendence in Antiquity

Today and tomorrow the latest symposium of the Monotheism-Polytheism Graduiertenkolleg will be concerned with the question of transcendence and immanence.

Johannes Zachhuber, Oxford: “Transzendenz und Immanenz als Interpretationskategorien antiken Denkens im 19. und 20. Jahrhundert”
Anna Clark, Oxford: “Imperial Divine Qualities”
Walther Sallaberger, Munich: “Natur und Kultur im Spiegel des mesopotamischen Pantheons”
Jula Wildberger, Paris: “Göttliche Immanenz und Person in der Stoa”
Jens Halfwassen, Heidelberg: “Transzendenz als Grundmotiv der antiken Metaphysik”
Stefan Alkier, Frankfurt: “Machtfragen. Theologie und Kosmologie der Johannesapokalypse”
Jean Louis Ska, Rom: “Herrlichkeit Gottes im Alten Testament”
Kianoosh Rezania, Göttingen, “Immanenz und Transzendenz im Zoroastrismus: Ihre Absenz, ihre Nachbarkonzepte und ihre Entwicklung”
Antonio Loprieno, Basel: “Götterbilder-Gottesbilder-Weltbilder. Evolutionstheorie und Kulturwissenschaft am Beispiel ägyptischer Todesvorstellungen”
Todd Lawson, Toronto: “Transendence and Immanence in the Quran. A Critique of Categories”

In my view this symposium is very welcome. The categories of immanence and transcendence are frequently deployed in biblical scholarship with little consideration of their potential limitations or problems.

OTSEM in Göttingen

The annual meeting of OTSEM begins today and runs until Wednesday. This is a meeting of graduate students, post-docs and faculty in Old Testament from Scandinavian institutions and the university of Göttingen. This year Oxford are joining for the first time. As well as two keynote addresses (R. Smend, “Wellhausen as OT scholar”; J. Barton, “Law and Narrative in the Pentateuch”), there are also papers by the doctoral students and post-docs.

There is a great deal of good material, but of particular interest are:

Francis Borchardt (Helsinki), Letter of Aristeas 1-40 and Judean National Identity

Gunnar Magnus Eidsvåg (SMT Stavanger), Samaritans in LXX Amos 6

Anne Katrine Gudme (Copenhagen), Modes of Religion: An Alternative to ‘Popular’/‘Official’ Religion

Hanne Løland (MF Oslo), Wishing for Death of Fighting for Life? Death Wish as Negotiating Strategy in the Hebrew Bible

Juha Pakkala (Helsinki), The Date of the Oldest Edition of Deuteronomy

Harald Samuel (Göttingen), From Priest to Patriarch: Genealogical Speculation around Levi

Ruth Sauerwein (Göttingen), A Few Observations on the Title “Man of God” in the Elisha Cycle

Peter Skippervold (Oslo), A Tradition of Interactive Learning in the Hebrew Bible?

Ola Wikander (Lund), Drought, Death and the Sun in Ugarit and Ancient Israel

Launch at SBL

There will be a formal launch of the Early Jewish Monotheism(s) project at the annual meeting of the SBL in New Orleans. Friends of the University of Göttingen, Humboldtians and those interested in the research project are warmly invited to attend the reception at 9pm, November 23rd 2009 in Orleans/Rosalie/St Claude in the JW Marriott New Orleans.