Office of the Secretary Treasurer John J. O'Keefe Department of Theology Creighton University Omaha, NE 68178 no. 1 September, 1998

Conferences

The Thirteenth Annual NAPS Meeting was held at Loyola, Chicago, 28-30 May, 1998. The Executive Board met Thursday morning. A full report of the Board’s activities is available at the NAPS Web site.

Because of the growth of the NAPS meeting, the Board created a new appointed position, "Director of Annual Meetings." Ken Steinhauser has accepted this posititon.

Congratulations to new Board members: Joseph Lienhard (Vice President until 2000) and Maureen Tilley (Member-at-large until 2001)

Retruning Board: Susan Harvey (Pres, 2000), John O’Keefe (Sec/tres, 2000), Rebecca Lyman (MatL, 2000), Theresa Shaw (MatL, 2000), Dennis Trout (MatL, 2000).

NAPS will not meet in 1999. Members are encouraged to attend 13^th International Conference on Patristic Studies at Oxford, August 16-20, 1999.

Requests for invitations should be addressed to:

Professor R.W. Thomson

13^th International Conference on Patristic Studies

Oriental Institute

Pusey Lane

Oxford OX1 2LE (England)

 

Announcements

A new edition of the NAPS directory is in preparation and should ready for mailing in October.

This summer’s mailing revealed overwhelming support for a NAPS email list. JHUP has agreed to host it. This list is not intended to compete with Elenchus as a discussion forum. It will serve as an information distribution system for the membership. If you returned the form, you will be added automatically when the list is created.

A Conference on Elites in Late Antiquity will be held February 13 and 14, 1999 at the University of California, Los Angeles. By concentrat-ing on manifestations of elite culture from the third to the seventh centuries A.D., the conference aims to be an important contribution to the ongoing efforts to define the essence of Late Antiquity. The Conference is designed as a workshop to generate intensive discussion. It is divided into four sessions: Elite Realities and Mentalities, Ecclesiastical Elites, Elitism in Art and Literature and Challenges to Elite Awareness. Abstract submissions for the presentation of 20-minute papers in the four sessions are invited from faculty, graduate students and independent scholars in the US and abroad.

Please send an abstract of no more than 500 words by October 15, 1998 to one of the co-organizers, who may also be approached for further inquiries:

Prof. Claudia Rapp

Dept. of History, UCLA

Box 951473

Los Angeles, CA 90095-1473

email: rapp@history.ucla.edu.

 

Prof. Michele Salzman

Dept. of History, UC Riverside

Riverside, CA 92521-0204

email: msalzman@ucracl.urc.edu

 

Syriac Symposium III

The Aramaic Heritage of Syria June 17 - 20, 1999, University of Notre Dame. The symposium welcomes contributions from individual scholars, and proposals for panels on the full range of Syriac/Aramaic studies relating to language and literature, cultural interplay, and institutions; including, but not limited to: Syriac Christianity, Judaism and Christianity, Syriac/Armenian Studies, early Christian-Muslim contacts, and Christian Arabic. Send paper title and 250 word abstract by Nov. 1, 1998. In association with Syriac Symposium III -SyrCOM-99: Third International Forum on Syriac Computing - June 18 & 19.

Address all correspondence to:

Syriac Symposium III

Center for Continuing Education, Box 1008

Notre Dame, IN 46556 USA.

 

Information telephone: (219) 631-6691

fax line: (219) 631-8083.

Email: cce.1@nd.edu

 

Congratulations to Jane Merdinger. Her book, Rome and the African Church in the Time of Augustine, was co-winner of the Morris Forkosch Prize for best book in intellectual history published in 1997.

A special issue of the Coptic Church Review that deals with Cyril of Alexandria has been published. Topics: Maged S. A. Mikhail, "Pagans and Christian in Fifth-Century Egypt;" Rodolph Yanney, "Cyril of Alexandria: biblical Expositor;" Robert Wilkin, "A Synopsis of St. Cyril’s Christological Doctrine;" John McGuckin, "Saint Cyril and the Popular Piety of the Copts."

 

Books

Abraham Malherbe, Frederick Norris, and James Thompson, eds. The Early Church in Its Context: Essays in Honor of Everett Ferguson, Brill, 1998.

David Frankfurter, Religion in Roman Egypt: Assimilation and Resistance, Princeton, 1998.

Columba Stewart, Cassian the Monk, Oxford, 1998.