Please join us for the next installment in our "No More Than A Page" series. This series gives an opportunity for faculty and advanced graduate students to receive feedback on their research in process. Presenters provide attendees with a one-page summary of their current research and attendees engage in a lively discussion.
For September's event, Dr. Albert Harrill will present “The Devil Recast as Fortune in Early Christian Ethics." His paper tests new ways to conceptualize early Christian participation in broad cultural practices that cut across traditional religious boundaries. In Stoic philosophy of the Roman imperial era constructions of Fortune, personified in cult and literature as a goddess (Latin Fortuna, Greek Tyche), included short moral commands to play the soldier and vanquish her. Dr. Harrill will explore this cultural background as a promising context in which to read the “devil” figure in the New Testament epistle to the Ephesians, which helps to solve an exegetical crux often deemed insoluble.
You can find his one-page summary at the bottom of this page.
This event is free and open to the public. Co-sponsored by the Humanities Institute.
J. Albert Harrill is a Professor of History and Director of Graduate Studies for the History Department. He is also an affiliate faculty member in the Department of Classics. Dr. Harrill received a Ph.D. and M.A. in New Testament and early Christian literature from the University of Chicago, and B.A. (highest honors) in religious studies from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. He is a biblical scholar and historian of Christian origins.
Professor Harrill studies and teaches the early Jewish and Greco-Roman environment of Christian origins in order to interpret the New Testament writings in their ancient context. He approaches the New Testament as fully a part of and implicated in the Greco-Roman world. Slavery is one case study in this larger research endeavor.
A copy of Dr. Harrill's page is available upon request. Please email religion@osu.edu to request a copy.
The Humanities Institute and its related centers host a wide range of events, from intense discussions of works in progress to cutting-edge presentations from world-known scholars, artists, activists and everything in between.
We value in-person engagement at our events as we strive to amplify the energy in the room. But we also recognize the fact that not all our guests will be able to visit our space. Zoom access will be available to this event upon request. If you wish to have such access, please send your request to Connor Behm: behm.42@osu.edu.