NEW! Barbara McBride-Smith
Saturday banquet, October 17, 2009

Glenna S. Jackson, Charles W. Hedrick,
David Galston
When Faith Meets Reason
Wednesday, October 14, 2009
For many, the collision between faith and reason is an “edge of smash,” uncomfortable at best, devastating at worst.  Glenna Jackson, contributor to the book, When Faith Meets Reason, will discuss the impact that traveling in Africa has had on her teaching, scholarship, and personal beliefs. Joining her to tell of their faith journeys will be contributors Charles W. Hedrick and David Galston. Together they will explore “the edge of smash” modern traditional believers experience when their faith is confronted by human reason, and they will model ways of engaging the issues with students.

Glenna S. Jackson is Professor in the Department of Religion and Philosophy at Otterbein College in Westerville, Ohio.  Charles W. Hedrick is Distinguished Emeritus Professor of Religious Studies at Missouri State University. David Galston is the Ecumenical Chaplain at Brock University in St. Catharines, Ontario.

James M. Robinson
The Nag Hammadi Library
The Story behind the Story
Thursday, October 15, 2009
The discovery of 13 papyrus books near Nag Hammadi in Upper Egypt brought into sharp focus a slice of early Christianity that lost out to orthodoxy. James Robinson will explore the topic, “Gnosticism—why is it heresy?” He will tell the story of the discovery of the Nag Hammadi manuscripts, as told to him by Muhammad Ali who himself discovered them. He will describe the trafficking, marketing, monopolizing, and publishing of the Library. And he will discuss Gnostic gospels such as Judas, Mary, and others that were in competition with the  four that ultimately made it into the New Testament.

James M. Robinson is the Director Emeritus of the Institute for Antiquity and Christianity and Professor of Religion Emeritus at Claremont Graduate University. Honored as Permanent Secretary of UNESCO’s International Committee for the Nag Hammadi Codices, he is General Editor of The Nag Hammadi Library in English (1977) and the author of many books, including The Gospel of Jesus (2005).

Keynote Address

Mary R. D’Angelo
Sexual Politics and Family Values in the Early Second Century
Friday evening, October 16, 2009
Did ancient Jewish and Christian writers adopt Roman“family values”? According to Mary R. D’Angelo, the answer is a resounding yes. Images of familial piety played a central role in Roman propaganda during the turbulent reigns of Trajan (98–117 ce) and Hadrian (117–138 ce). Using imperial imagery, she will illustrate the ways in which Christians and Jews, while resisting Roman power in some areas, adopted and modified imperial gender protocols and sexual prescriptions, such as requiring submissiveness and childbearing from women and promoting paternal power. That, in turn, enabled them to claim, “We practice the family values you Romans only preach.”

Mary R. D’Angelo teaches in the Department of Theology and in the Gender Studies Program at the University of Notre Dame, specializing in New Testament and Christian Origins. She is the editor of Women and Christian Origins (with Ross Kraemer, 1999), and the author of numerous published articles on women and gender in early Christianity.

Barbara McBride-Smith
Saturday banquet, October 17, 2009

Storyteller, school librarian, theological seminary instructor, and writer, Barbara McBride Smith will perform at the banquet. McBride-Smith has been featured at the National Storytelling Festival in Tennessee seven times, as well as at the National Festival of Homiletics and the International Storytelling Festival in Washington D.C. She is the recipient of the prestigious John Henry Faulk Award for outstanding contributions to the art and folkway of storytelling, and, in 2000, she was inducted into the National Storytelling Association's Circle of Excellence.
     McBride-Smith is the author of two books, Greek Myths Western Style (1998), chosen by the American Library Association as a "Top Ten Title" for adult new readers, and Tell It Together (2001), a recipient of the Anne Izard Storytellers' Choice Award in 2003. Her most recent work includes The Button Box which received a starred review in Publishers Weekly, and It's Not Easy Being a Goddess described by Booklist Magazine as a "fast-paced, witty antidote to road rage." She was chosen “Library Media Specialist of the Year” by the Oklahoma Library Association in 2007.  She lives in Tulsa with her husband, Jesus Seminar Fellow Dennis Smith.

Copyright