Feierliche Erffnung | Opening Ceremony

Thringer Staatskanzlei | State Chancellery of Thuringia Regierungsstrae 73 99084 Erfurt

DIENSTAG,11. JUNI 2013 Ab 16.30 Einlass 17.00 18.30 Musikalischer Programmpunkt Gitarren-Duo der Musikschule Erfurt Gruwort der Thringer Ministerin fr Bundesund Europaangelegenheiten und Chefin der Thringer Staatskanzlei Frau Marion Walsmann Gruwort des Vizeprsidenten fr Forschung und wissenschaftlichen Nachwuchs der Universitt Erfurt Herr Prof. Dr. Patrick Rssler Gruwort des Dekans des Max-Weber-Kollegs fr kultur- und sozialwissenschaftliche Studien Herr Prof. Dr. Wolfgang Spickermann Gruwort des Leiters des ERC-Projekts Lived Ancient Religion: Questioning Cults and Polis Religion und Einfhrung zum Projekt Herr Prof. Dr. Jrg Rpke Musikalischer Programmpunkt Gitarren-Duo der Musikschule Erfurt Festvortrag Sieh mich an! Mein Vater war berhmt: Selbstdarstellungen von Priestern im rmischen Nahen Osten als Mittel zur Herstellung situationsbezogener Bedeutung Frau Prof. Dr. Rubina Raja (Aarhus) 18.30 20.00 Stehempfang mit Getrnken und Buffet Ca. 20.00 Ende der Veranstaltung

TUESdAY, 11 JUNE 2013 16.30 Admission 17.00 18.30 Music Guitar-Duo of the Erfurt School of Music Welcome Address of the Thueringen Minister for European Affairs and Head of the State Chancellery of Thuringia Marion Walsmann Welcome Address of the Vice President for Research and Young Researchers Prof. Dr. Patrick Rssler Welcome Address of the Dean of the Max-WeberCenter for Advanced Cultural and Social Studies Prof. Dr. Wolfgang Spickermann Welcome Address of the Director of the ERCProject Lived Ancient Religion: Questioning Cults and Polis Religion and Introduction to the Project Prof. Dr. Jrg Rpke Music Guitar-Duo of the Erfurt School of Music Public Lecture Sieh mich an! Mein Vater war berhmt: Selbstdarstellungen von Priestern im rmischen Nahen Osten als Mittel zur Herstellung situationsbezogener Bedeutung Prof. Dr. Rubina Raja (Aarhus) 18.30 20.00 Reception with beverages and buffet Ca. 20.00 End

Musikalische Darbietung Musical Performance Veronica Mller-Schimmel Elias Huff Gitarren Duo | Guitar Duo Musikschule Erfurt

Image: Altar with sacrificed ram, Rome, Vat. Mus. Inv. 531 (Arnhold 2013) Contact: marlis.arnhold@uni-erfurt.de Organizers: Prof. Dr. Jrg Rpke Prof. Dr. Rubina Raja Dr. des. Marlis Arnhold Dr. Valentino Gasparini

UNIVERSITT ERFURT Max-Weber-Kolleg fr kultur- und sozialwissenschaftliche Studien Nordhuser Str. 74, 99089 Erfurt Forschungsgebude 1 (Haus 27) Tel.: +49(0)361/737-2800 Email: ilona.bode@uni-erfurt.de www.uni-erfurt.de/maxwe

This project is funded by the European Union

Opening Conference for the ERC Research Project Lived Ancient Religion: Questioning Cults and Polis Religion 11th to 14th June 2013 | Thringer Staatskanzlei and Augustinerkloster, Erfurt

Sharpening the Knife: Making Religion Effective in Everyday Life

The conference: Looking at methodology, sharpening its knife As the title of the conference indicates, methodology is crucial for research in the history of ancient religions. The concept of lived religion, chosen as a starting point, has been developed for the description and analysis of contemporary religion (Meredith McGuire). It does not address how individuals replicate a set of religious practices and beliefs preconfigured by an institutionalised official religion within their biographies or, conversely, opt out of adhering to tradition. Of course, considering the relationship of individuals to tradition, such an assumption could in principle work in either a religiously pluralistic or a mono-confessional society. Instead, lived ancient religion focuses on the actual everyday experience, on practices, expressions, and interactions that could be related to religion. Such religion is understood as a spectrum of experiences, actions, beliefs and communications hinging on human communication with super-human or even transcendent agent(s), for the ancient Mediterranean usually conceptualised as gods. Ritualisation and elaborate forms of representation are called upon for the success of communication with these addressees. When concentrating on practices, one should accept and account for incoherence rather than coherence (even in research into contemporary religion), the stressed role of mediality and the importance given to knowledge and biographical coherence. Ancient religions are only partially receptive to techniques established in social studies to create new data by means of empirical or experimental procedures. It cannot be hoped that extensive descriptions of rituals stem from people whom we know to have practiced them, or that people whose reflection on religion is preserved in the literary tradition left other evidence of personal practices. The generalisation of the individual instance (hardly ever representative in a methodologically plausible way) is just as problematic as the reliability of elite descriptions of mass behaviour this is, of course, the overall situation in the historical critique of sources. By drawing on the model of lived religion, scattered evidence could be contextualised and interpreted by relating it to individual agents, their use of space and time, their forming of social coalitions, their negotiation with religious specialists or providers, and their attempts to make sense of religion in a situational manner and thus render it effective. This is not a material statement about any logical priority of the individual, but a methodological option, which provides a radical alternative to cults and polis religion and a way to overcome the latters deficits. The lived religion approach as proposed by the Erfurt project induces methodological modifications in the process of selecting and interpreting the evidence, as it focuses on experience rather than symbols; embodiment rather than ritual; and culture in interaction rather than habitus, organisation or culture as text. In order to bring such an approach to bear on the available evidence, research will have to concentrate on individual appraisal and interaction in diverse social spaces: the primary space of the house and familial interaction (including familial funeral space); the secondary space of religious experience and interaction in voluntary or professional associations, the spaces shared by many individuals or groups in the public sites of sanctuaries or festival routes; and finally the virtual space of literary communication and the intellectual discourses formed therein. To analyse the whole continuum of social interaction ranging from domestic cult to public spaces and professionals is of particular importance. The use and construction of these social spaces by individual agents have to be indexed topographically, for instance, by domestic or commercial, urban, and extra-urban, open or architecturally defined sites. This form of indexing enables the contextualisation of religion in everyday life. A further dimension has to be considered: When were these spaces used in terms of calendar dates or frequency? Clearly, the permanent use of an amulet differs from a one-time ritual (that might, however, be remembered time and again). Religious traditions form part of such an environment; therefore they should not be studied as if they were an independent variable, but rather as a product of providers of religious knowledge and services, priests or professionals. Most of the evidence at our disposal is best to be interpreted neither as authentic individual expression nor as institutional survival, but as media, as the results of a culture created in interaction. The scope of this conference is to bring together scholars working in different fields and types of sources to propose and discuss methodological approaches that have proven or might prove helpful for elucidating the dimensions of lived ancient religions. Short contributions of about 20 minutes leaving enough time of discussion for each contribution and for cross-reference starting from different types of evidence (but concentrating on methodology within the oral presentation) should create a panorama of innovative approaches and inspire further elaboration and new ideas. For the time being we suggest grouping contributions and discussions into five groups, each bringing together expertise of various disciplines.

Program of the Conference at Augustinerkloster, Erfurt WEdNESdAY, 12TH JUNE I The Role of Objects (Chair: Rubina Raja) 09.00 09.45 Lucinda Dirven (Amsterdam): Imagining Religion in Mithraic Cults. The Case of Dura-Europos Lara Weiss (Erfurt): Conceptualizing the Creation of the Sacred: Mass Production Vs. Handmade Figurines Coffee Ulrike Egelhaaf-Gaiser (Gttingen): Semper odoratis spirabunt floribus arae: Sacrificed Poems in the Third Book of Statius Silvae Michael Satlow (Providence, RI): Vows and Curses in Late Roman Palestine Lunch Guided tour through the medieval city THURSdAY, 13TH JUNE III Meaning in Situations (Chair: Marlis Arnhold) 09.00 Anton Bierl (Basel): Lived Religion and Construction of Meaning in Greek Literary Texts and Contexts. Genre, Situation, Occasion, Intention Eric Rebillard (Ithaca, NY): Everyday Christianity in Third-Century Carthage Coffee Vered Noam (Tel Aviv): Ritual Impurity and Human Intention Christopher Smith (Rome): Aus altrmischen Priesterbchern Lunch Poster session Venue: Evangelisches Augustinerkloster zu Erfurt Augustinerstrae 10 99084 Erfurt FRIdAY, 14TH JUNE V Learning and Memory (Chair: Harry Maier) 09.00 09.45 Jrg Rpke (Erfurt): The Implicit Reader of Antiquarian Literature: Questions in Ovids Libri fastorum Katharina Waldner (Erfurt): Reading, Knowledge and Religious Practice: The Derveni Papyrus and its Context Coffee Final discussion (Chair: Jrg Rpke, Rubina Raja) Lunch

09.45 10.30 11.00 11.45 12.45 14.00

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10.30 11.00 12.30

11.45 12.45 14.00

Departure

IV Appropriation (Chair: Jrg Rpke) 15.00 15.45 Karen King (Harvard): Religion(s) of the Book/Textual Communities. Michal Bar-Asher Siegal (Beer Sheva): The Transmission and Collections of Traditions in Anthologies Coffee Zsuzsa Varhelyi (Boston): Just Like the Emperor and his Family: Appropriating the Emperors Religion in the Roman Empire Angela Standhartinger (Marburg): The Beginning of the Eucharist or Constructing the Lords Supper Dinner at Augustinerkloster

II Group Styles (Chair: Richard Gordon) 16.00 Markus Vinzent (London): Practical and Cognitive Dissonance: Jewish Liturgical Traditions, Innovations and Counter-rites in Marcions Roman Community Coffee Marlis Arnhold (Erfurt): The Last One Shuts the Door: Cult-Groups Communicating Through (In)Visibility John North (London): Funeral Rituals and the Significance of the Nenia Dinner at Augustinerkloster

16.45 17.15 18.00 19.15

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19.00