Program

Friday 3rd of November

9:30-9:45 Opening of the seminar and presentation of speakers Mette Bjerregaaard Mortensen and Anders Klostergaard Petersen 

Asceticism in Israelite-Jewish Religion:

9:45-10:15: Hans Jørgen Lundager Jensen, Aarhus University: Asceticism in Early Judaism: Collective and Individual

10:15:10:45: Brief discussion of the paper

10:45:11:15: Coffee break

11:15-11:45: Jason Zurawski, University of Groningen: Askēsis: Education for the Agōn of the Corporeal World in Hellenistic Judaism

11:45-12:15: Brief discussion of the paper

Asceticism as a General Phenomenon in the History of Religion:

12:15-12:45: Anders Klostergaard Petersen, Aarhus University: Continuity and Discontinuity relating to the Phenomenon of Asceticism throughout the History of Religion: From a Ritually to an Ideologically Determined Form of Asceticism ― or from Hunter-Gatherers’, Agricultural, and Urban Types of Religion to Cosmos and Global Forms of Religion.

12:45-13:15: Brief discussion of the paper

13:15-14:15 Lunch 

Asceticism in the Context of Early Christianity:

14:15-14:45: Jan Bremmer, Groningen University: Athanasius’ Life of Antony: Marginality, Spatiality and Mediality

14:45-15:15: Brief discussion of the paper.

15:15-15:45 Coffee break

15:45-16:15: Laura Feldt, University of Southern Denmark: Training in the Forest: Asceticism, Writing, and the Fantastic in The Life of the Jura Fathers (Gaul, ca. 520)

16:15-16:45: Brief discussion

16:45-17:15 Ingvild Gilhus, University of Bergen: Between Animals and Angels – Challenges of the Ascetic Life

17:15-17:45: Brief discussion of the paper

18:30-: Festive dinner at Restaurant Früd16 

Saturday 4th of November

Asceticism in the Wider Context of the History of Religion:

9:30-10:00: Einar Thomassen, Bergen University: Asceticism at the Threshold between Christianity and Formative Islam

10:00:-10:30: Brief discussion of the paper

Coffee Break 10:30-11:00 

Asceticism in the Context of Formative Islam:

11:00-11:30 Michael Bonner, University of Michigan: Poverty and (or versus?) Asceticism in the Qur’ân

11:30-12:00: Brief discussion of the paper

12:00-12:30: Mette Bjerregaard Mortensen, Aarhus University, Spatial Expressions of Ascetic Tendencies in the Qur’ân

12:30-13:00: Brief discussion of the paper

13:00-14:00: Lunch 

14:00-14:30: Guillaume Dye, Free University of Brussels: Ascetic and non-Ascetic Layers in the Qur’ân.

14:30-15:00: Brief discussion of the paper

15:00-15:30 Coffee break  

15:30-16:00: Carlos Segovia, Saint Louis University, Madrid Campus: Asceticism and the Early Quranic Milieu: A Symptomatic Reading of Q 17:79, 43:36, 73:1-8, 74:43, 76:26, and 108

16:00-16:30: Brief discussion of the paper  

16:30-17:45: Closure of the Seminar: What Have We Learned and how Do We Move forward? ― Anders Klostergaard Petersen: Brief summary leading to general discussion 

17:45-18:00 Possible publication ― Mette Bjerregaard Mortensen 

19:00 Drinks and festive dinner at the Petersen house Nørregade 38, 2nd T.L.