calgary conference report

Now that was fun! I just spent the past two days at the University of Calgary at the conference on "Common Judaism Explored: Second Temple Judaism in Context." It was actually described as more of a "workshop," a chance to get several scholars together to present papers and provoke discussion related to E. P. Sanders' idea of "common Judaism" from his Judaism: Practice & Belief 63 BCE-66 CE. It was thus a small group--I counted 25 there the first day, including the 13 presenters and the two chairpersons, and even fewer the next day. This size made for maximum interaction and discussion, both within the sessions and during the breaks.

Here's my list of highlights from the conference, both academic and otherwise:

• Listening to the presentations. The papers were stimulating, with some being more "works-in-progress" than others. Personal favourites included Anne Moore's paper on understanding "kingdom of God" as metaphor rather than symbol, Cecilia Wassen's on demonology and exclusion in the DSS, Lee Levine's on ancient synagogues as the focal point of common Judaism, and Boaz Zissu's survey of recent archaeological work on Judean mikvaoth...
• Hearing Seth Schwartz and Lee Levine go at it in a scholarly smackdown. Okay, it really wasn't quite like that, but it was fun to watch the back-and-forth of such unswerving and animated opinions...
• Rubbing shoulders with the likes of Ed Sanders, Lee Levine, Adele Reinhartz, Al Baumgarten, and others. It occurred to me more than once that if I could just harness all the knowledge on early Judaism found within that one room and infuse it into my brain I'd be...a lot smarter than I am now. And a lot richer, 'cause I could patent the technology used to do that and offer smart chips for less than the cost of a PhD...
  
• Watching scholars from Jewish and Christian backgrounds of all stripes engage in honest, substantive, and gracious discussion about early Christianity and Judaism...
• Having Ian Scott provide me with the key to a whole segment of my doctoral research--I hope...
  
• Chatting for a few minutes with Ed Sanders, one whose influence in New Testament studies has been enormous...
• Hearing Tessa Rajak dialogue with Al Baumgarten. The range of accents represented in the group was an aural treat...
• Relishing the irony that the event was held in a lecture theatre adjacent to the sponsoring Calgary Institute for the Humanities--which is located in the Biological Sciences building...

Here's a group picture with most of the conference participants, with a list of names as I remember them (sorry to those who are "Unknown"!):

Left to right (follow the heads): Unknown, Anne Moore, Jim Robinson, Al Baumgarten, David Miller, Seth Schwartz, Ian Scott, Lee Levine, Tessa Rajak, Susan Haber, Lincoln Blumell, Wayne McCready, Anders Runesson, Unknown, Cecilia Wassen, Adele Reinhartz, Unknown, Ed Sanders, Eliezer Segal, Michael Pahl, Dan Poxon, Boaz Zissu.

You can click here for a larger picture.