Sainthood Conference

'An Age of Saints? Sainthood, scepticism and the authority of the Church in
the Mediterranean koine, AD 200-900'.

Two-day Graduate Conference, University of Cambridge, United Kingdom,
1st-2nd September 2007.

Since the publication of Peter Brown's famous 'Holy Man' article in 1971,
the cult of saints has been a prime marker for religious change between the
ancient and medieval worlds. The saint has thus been crucial to scholarly
efforts to delineate not only the religious, but also the social, cultural
and political identity of late antiquity. In this sense, the rise of the
holy man has been unstoppable and meteoric. But is there scope to revisit
the significance of the holy man in late antiquity? How might historians
take account not only of the positive evidence for the change in religious
sensibilities the rise of the cult of saints is supposed to represent, but
also of the significant and too often overlooked areas of resistance to it
that were expressed during this period? How was the cult of the saints,
their relics and their icons, used either to consolidate or challenge the
authority of the institutional Church and its bishops? What was the
influence exerted upon these developments throughout the late antique and
early medieval periods by surviving non-Christian traditions, especially
Greek and Hellenistic philosophy? Was the articulation of religious
authority experienced differently in different parts of the Mediterranean
and its hinterland? If so, why?

From the outset, it is important to note that, despite the emphasis on the
cult of the saints, scepticism and authority are loosely defined. Within the
overarching interest in secular or sacred opposition to, or competition
with, the cult of the saints, possible themes include: the sceptical
position towards sainthood established within contemporary literature;
tensions between public and private modes of interaction with the divine;
opposition to ecclesiastical involvement within the cult of the saints, or
the establishment of ecclesiastical paradigms of cultic practice; opposition
to asceticism as the 'spiritual ultimate'; medical, philosophical or
theological objections or corrections to contemporary models of sainthood;
the literary topos of the hagiographic doubter; variant models of authority
constructed within and around the cult of the saints in general; tensions
created by ascetic groups in relation to the ecclesiastical and imperial
instituions; heresy; iconoclasm; etc.

However, these themes are by no means exhaustive.

The conference is aimed particularly at doctoral students in the first,
second or third years of their research, with an emphasis on the friendly
and interested sharing of ideas. Papers which offer some perspective on the
unity, or divergence, of east and west are particularly welcome, but of
course this is not essential. The conference is not limited to the
Greco-Roman tradition, and we will look to include scholars of the
post-Roman West (Visigothic Spain, Frankish Gaul and Anglo-Saxon England)
and of the non-Greek East (Syriac and Coptic Christianity, Judaism and
Islam).

We are endeavouring to provide two nights' accommodation and meals, probably
at Trinity College. We must warn in advance, however, that we shall
unfortunatley be unable to offer travel expenses. No registration fee is
currently envisaged.

Currently we are looking for the submission of abstracts (c.500 words).
Papers (30 mins) will ideally be presented in English - but this is not
mandatory, as those in French, German and Italian will also be considered.

Please forward your abstracts by e-mail attachment to Mr Phil Booth
(pb281@cam.ac.uk) or Mr Matthew dal Santo (mjd79@cam.ac.uk), preferably by
30th June 2007.