Manifesto on how to write early Christian history

 Triggered by Roberto Alciati who (together with Laura Carnevale) has discussed my book "Writing the History of Early Christianity" (CUP, 2019) in ASE 37 (2020), 547-573 and extracted from it a first list of salient points from it, putting it into a manifesto, in my forthcoming response to him (ASE 2021), I have attempted to reformulate this list as follows:

(1) Anachronism, inbuilt into any historical exegesis, points us into

the direction, into which our reasoning moves, and makes us realize

from where we start.

(2) Every scholar starts with her or his preconceived paradigms,

hence, the realisation of these paradigms does not remove them, but

allows to know the partial, if not limited nature and scope of one’s own

insights which creates space for other, even competing and contradicting

views and opinions. Instead of an attempt of constant widening one’s

scope and reach, it is an admittance of a never attainable truth or, in

positive terms, of truth that is open for responsible reformulations.

(3) Using categories alien to the period in question is necessary,

though they should be critically conceptualised and defined, particularly

when they are semantically close or even similar to terms current in the

subject area’s time.

(4) Doing and writing history is as important as reflecting on historiography,

both are to be developed neither the latter as reflexion nor as

preliminarily outlined assumptions, but as coflexions.

(5) Doing and writing history is more about the ‘how’ things happen,

rather then when and what happened. Facts per se explain little, if the

little facts we can still know are not explained.

(6) Facts, material and objects of the past or, what sometimes emphatically

or unreflectedly is called ‘evidence’ is, as the name states,

‘made by humans,’ first by scholars who unearth them before they can

be searched for what they may have been. At the same time facts and

material of the past are targets, often unruly and objecting stumbling

blocks for forgers. There is rarely something both more similar and

more different than facts and fakes. The first, be it made by scholars,

be it produced by the past, thrives for what is special, individual, uncommon,

the second, be it made by contemporaries or past people is

done with the intention of imitation, replication, fitting in or deviance. A

search for the specific will help to come closer to facts and expose fakes.

(7) Retrospection dissects and interrupts flows, coherences and commonalities,

hence is geared to expose fakes and replace ideologies and

teleologies with suggestions, though these need not be only cautious

ones, but could also be firm ones, yet open to substantiated criticism.

(8) There is no hierarchy between primary sources and secondary

literature, but retrospective historiography suggests the study and the

targeting simply of objects and facts. In an anachronological approach

the more recent ones and in a critical, systematic study the more impacting

objects have to be dealt with first.

(9) In retrospection, we aim at understanding individuals rather than

groups of people or abstract entities.

(10) ‘Realia’ are taken and highlighted as props in the recreation

of the past, instead of providing the basis for an understanding of the

process through which we see the past, they are the outcome of such

processes.

Bursary for doing a PhD “Divine property: Solutions from Late Antiquity and the Early Middle Ages” Project A1a

At the Collaborative Research Centre (SFB) Transregio 294 “The Structural Transformation of Property”, which is hosted at the Universities of Jena and Erfurt, the following academic research position is advertised at the University of Erfurt, part of the project A1 “Divine property: Solutions from Late Antiquity and the Early Middle Ages”. (Project leaders: Proff. Dres. Jörg Rüpke and Markus Vinzent) The part-time position (26 hours per week) is available as soon as possible. 

1 Research assistant Pay category E 13 TV-L (65 %) Field of work 

• Participation in the research tasks as well as the preparation and realization of events of the interdisciplinary Collaborative Research Centre "The Structural Change of Property" (https://www.uni-erfurt.de/max-weber-kolleg/forschung/forschungsgruppen-undstellen/forschungsgruppen/sonderforschungsbereich-transregio-294-strukturwandel-des-eigentums) 

• Work on project A1a „Ancient and late antique ideas of Divine property“ within the Collaborative Research Centre. The successful applicant will investigate in particular the question to what extent thinking about divine property and God/Gods as owners changed the concepts and forms of human property. For this purpose, poetic texts from the late republican-imperial Latin literature will be analyzed with regard to their concepts and forms of argumentation. They will be interpreted against the background and in their effect on contemporary sacral, social, and economic practices. 

• willingness to pursue an academic qualification (for example a doctorate) at the University of Erfurt Requirements 

• excellent degree (Master or equivalent) in Religious Studies, Classics or Ancient History • knowledge of Latin or (preferably: and) Greek 

• methodical reflectiveness of the thesis 

• willingness to engage with the methods and concepts of the Collaborative Research Centre “The Structural Transformation of Property” 

• documented interest in pursuing a doctorate in an interdisciplinary research environment www.uni-erfurt.de Comments/Remarks The position is available as soon as possible and will end on 31/12/2024. This call for applications is addressed to applicants who meet the requirements of the German law on temporary scientific contracts. General conditions of employment of the Thuringian University Act (Thüringer Hochschulgesetz, ThürHG) § 91 pass. 5 apply. The University of Erfurt is an equal opportunity employer in compliance with the Thuringian Equal Opportunities Act (Thüringer Gleichstellungsgesetz). The vacancy notice is addressed equally to male, female or diverse applicants. Women are underrepresented in the advertised area and are therefore particularly encouraged to apply. Applicants with disabilities are given preference in cases of equal qualification. Application Deadline Please submit your application with CV, copies of your final school and university degrees, a copy of your MA or diploma thesis, and an outline of the project you would like to pursue (5 pages) as pdf-files (maximum of 15 MB) by 20 January 2021 to: University of Erfurt, Max-Weber-Kolleg, Postfach 90 02 21 

• 99105 Erfurt mwk.bewerbungen@uni-erfurt.de Data Privacy For the electronic submission of your application, please find the necessary encrypting certificate with the public key for secure transmissions to the e-mail address given below under https://www.uni-erfurt.de/personal-und-recht/ausschreibungen, listed under the respective Call for Applications. Secure transmission of your data cannot be warranted if you do not make use of this encrypting method. In sending your application files in electronic form, you agree to having your e-mail scanned for harmful coding, viruses and spam, to the temporary saving of the necessary data of your correspondence and to the conducting of further correspondence via e-mail without further encryption. By submitting your application, you also agree to the further processing of the submitted personal data within the application process. This agreement can be withdrawn at any point in written or electronic form, without specifying your reasons. Please note that withdrawal of your agreement may lead to your application not being further considered for the position applied for. All further regulations regarding data privacy according to Art. 13 of the General Data Protection Regulation (EU) 2016/679 may be found under https://www.uni-erfurt.de/personal-und-recht/ausschreibungen/ (download Data Protection Information for Applicants). Notice The University of Erfurt does not refund any costs incurred in the application process.

My CUP book on Writing the History of Early Christianity is about to appear

Here the blog post of Cambridge University Press that appeared today:

 http://www.cambridgeblog.org/2019/02/writing-the-history-of-early-christianity-a-new-book-by-markus-vinzent/

Looking forward to holding the book in my hand.

Patristics under threat in Italy

From the many messages, related to the 16th International Conference on Patristic Studies, I received the following one on the precarious state of Patristics in Italy, a message so full of passion, hope and despair that I thought I should share it with you:

Dear Markus,

I regret to confirm that I cannot -- at least physically -- participate at the present Conference. I am very very sad for this: I prepared an intriguing communication according to your indications and I was very joyful all the time expecting such an occasion to "breath" the Patristic pure air. Unfortunately, the economic status of my University is close to a "default" -- so to use an instant term. In the last biennium I reserved a short amount of euros just for my Oxford's expenses and also for any other necessity connected to the event. However, a Rector 's decree prevented me (and, of course, other associate professors) from using money to subscribe for congresses and for inviting colleagues. One might wonder: Is this not a harakiri for a university? Anyway, this is for the being time Italy. Moreover, the academic situation of Patristic studies -- and, in general, of the whole Classical realm -- is marching towards a collapse. The whole idea of Classical Studies is under attack in the Italian context dominated by (dis-)human scientists and, especially, by paedagogists and docimologists. Plus, the danger is not overt, but concealed in the political usual manner. The energies and food to resist such a globalized attack are poor and random-like, at least as for those scholars who -- like me -- do not have academic power and/or academic relations capable of yielding "apotropaic" fear...  What one might oppose to this? I have not but my personal efforts and scientific honesty. ...

As I usually say, my job is working "in partibus infidelium", and this is an interesting task for a scholar as well as for a christian. However, despite the number of papers written by me in the last years, I did not have my very chance to show in an appropriate context my account of Greek Patristic philosophical approach. This is the topic I was prepared to submit to your judgement at Oxford.
The state of affairs prevented me from having this opportunity. At least, for the the moment. I hope I could have another chance.
Finally, you could give me a great joy taking me, next week, as a "virtual" participant to the Conference: be sure that every day during the conference I will be spiritually unite to each participant by praying and studying Fathers in my room as it is possible.
Economy robbed me the joy to stay with you: however, it cannot robbe me the joy of connecting my soul with yours, Colleagues of any Country, as friendly as possible.