Chairs: Christopher Rowland and Christine Joynes
Session 1:
- Ian Boxall (University of Oxford)
- Picturing John's Island: Visual Interpretations of Patmos
Show abstract
John of Patmos' brief and ambiguous autobiographical statement at Rev. 1:9 ('I was on the island called Patmos on account of the word of God and the testimony of Jesus') has sown the seeds of a rich and diverse reception history. It has provoked a range of questions: why did John find himself on this island? What was Patmos like, and can it be located on a terrestrial map? What happened to John while he was there, and how does this relate to the experience of later readers? Is the name Patmos to be understood symbolically, as is the case with other place names in the Apocalypse, such as Armageddon, Babylon and the New Jerusalem? Visual artists offer particularly striking answers to such questions.
This paper will examine aspects of the visual reception history of Rev. 1:9, engaging with both Eastern and Western artists, and attempting to identify the main patterns of Apocalypse exegesis at work. Particular attention will be paid to some of the more interesting visual portrayals of John on Patmos: the Orthodox focus on John and Prochorus; illustrations from the thirteenth century Anglo-Norman Apocalypses such as the Bodleian Douce Apocalypse; Botticelli's panel in his 1490 San Marco altarpiece; and Hans Burgkmair the Elder's St John the Evangelist in Patmos (1508/1518).
Session 2:
- Dr Alison Jack (University of Edinburgh)
- Short Stories and Short Epistles: The Johannine Epistles in Nathaniel Hawthorne's "Young Goodman Brown"
Show abstract
Seeing and knowing; the manifestation of the truth, and the consequences of walking in the dark or in the light: these are the declared themes of 1 John from its opening verses, and they echo throughout the Johannine epistles. These same themes dominate the short story "Young Goodman Brown", in which the central character undergoes some sort of experience which leads him to question everything he has seen and known, where truth is manifested, and whether light is ever powerful enough to penetrate the darkness. Equally, from the end of the Epistle, the themes of love and fear, and the relationship between them, echo in the story, as Goodman Brown struggles to establish loving relationships even with his wife "Faith", ever fearful of the effects of others' demonstrations of loving piety.
Many literary critics have considered the relationship between the story and Calvinism. However, I argue that the engagement of Hawthorne's text is not with that theological doctrine per se, which finds its natural home in other NT texts, but with the confident and rather different assertions of the Johannine epistles. While in Calvinism faith and works are related, but not necessarily and causally connected, the outward appearance and inner reality of faith in the Johannine epistles are closely and necessarily allied. It is this certainty which "Young Goodman Brown" explores and questions. For Goodman Brown, the relationship between outward demonstrations of faith and the underlying motivation of those he observes is under constant suspicion and doubt.
The central concerns of the Johannine epistles live on in "Young Goodman Brown": echoed on the level of language and imagery; challenged within the narrative in the experience of Goodman Brown himself. This paper will consider the wider implications of the short story form and the intertextuality of biblical themes such as these.
Session 3:
- Revd Canon Will Lamb (University of Sheffield)
- Voices from the Margins: Catenae and the Perils of Reception History
Show abstract
Recent years have seen a number of new commentary series, many of which emphasise the importance of reception history. Some of these give a privileged status to patristic readings of scripture. Reviewers have noted the similarities of these commentaries with many of the catenae marginales which emerged in late antiquity and during the Byzantine era. And yet recent assessments of these catenae suggest that their emergence was symptomatic of a 'progressive sterility' in patterns of biblical exegesis. Is the recent resurgence of a similar form of commentary evidence of a similar decline?
In this paper, I will argue that the established consensus about the emergence of catenae needs to be revised. Catenae emerged within the scholastic tradition and served an important pedagogical function. If parallels are to be drawn between catenae and the recent spate of publications, this insight suggests that reception history, far from suggesting the 'progressive sterility' of biblical studies, may instead have a vital role to play in 'the pedagogy of the Bible'.