Graphic Signs of Religion, Identity, and Authority in Antiquity

Friday, April 4, 2025 - Saturday, April 5, 2025 | The Heights Room (Corcoran Commons and McElroy 237  | Register to Attend 

  

Jane Jacobs with Mary and Bob at peace march, 1967

In collaboration with the School of Critical Studies (Theology & Religious Studies) at the University of Glasgow and the Joseph Chair of Catholic Spirituality at Boston College, we are pleased to announce an international conference exploring “Graphic Signs of Religion, Identity, and Authority in Antiquity.”

The modern world is, in many ways, a world driven, and sometimes even defined, by digital images that are projected on screens, transmitted to televisions, and glowing on smartphones. Although the ancient world is separated from the digital age by several millennia, it is a world no less filled with vast occurrences of graphic signs in numerous contexts including altars, inscriptions, manuscripts, stamps, seals, amulets, household objects, and traditional media for art. When, in the fourth century, St. Augustine observed Quo signo crucis omnis actio Christiana describitur (“By that sign of the cross every Christian act is described”; De doctrina Christiana, 2.150), he was not only expressing a sentiment concerning a graphic sign relevant for his day and context but also bringing to expression a principle of graphic signs of religion and identity found in both previous and subsequent eras: graphic signs are presentations of beliefs and norms and distinctive markers of identity and authority.

This conference brings together senior and mid-career scholars in order to provide both scholarly paper presentations designed to advance the scholarship being done on a variety of interrelated topics as well as workshops designed to facilitate discussion and encourage graduate student involvement in collective reflect on how graphic signs have shaped, and continue to shape, religion, representations of authority, and corporate and individual identity. Registration is requested for sessions and workshops, but not required for the public, plenary lecture on Friday night.

Schedule and Registration

Friday, April 4, 2025 | Location TBD | Register to Attend

9:00-10:30 AM

Graphic Signs of Religion and Identity in the Ancient Near East 1 

  • Madadh Richey (Brandeis University): “Miniature Monsters: Inscriptions and the Social Contexts of First-Millennium BCE Divine-Combat Cylinder Seals”
  • Karen Sonik (Auburn University): “Beyond the Body: Signifying Identity in Mesopotamia” 
  • Jordan Miller (University of Cambridge): “Sublimated Signs: Anti-Graphs and Dioramas in Ancient Egyptian Hieroglyphic Writing”
11:00 AM-12:30 PM

Graphic Signs of Religion and Identity in the Ancient Near East 2

  • Brent Strawn (Duke University): “Contemplating God: Encountering Divinity in the Stamp Seals from the Southern Levant”
  • Alice Mandell (Johns Hopkins University): “The Pharaoh as the Sun God in the Canaanite Amarna Letters”
  • David Vanderhooft (Boston College) “Graphemes and Glyptics as Markers of Religious Affiliation in Second Temple Judaism”
2:00-3:30 PM

Workshops A and B

  • Cory Crawford (Ohio University): “Iconic Politics and the Philosophy of Perception: Cases in Ancient Near Eastern Art and Text”
  • Tim Hogue (University of Pennsylvania) “Papyrus, Plaster, Basalt, and Bible: Ancient Levantine Writing Technologies in Research and Pedagogy”
3:45-5:15 PM

Graphic Signs of Religion and Identity in the Second Temple Period 1 

  • Ranjani Atur (University of Minnesota) “Presence and Personhood: Rethinking the Motives Behind Votives”
  • Jessica Lamont (Yale University) “Magic, Ritual, and Religious Identity in Roman Corinth”
  • Mark McClay (Hillsdale College) “Art as a Sign of Religion: Aesthetic Complications in Pliny the Elder and Clement of Alexandria”
7:00-8:00 PM

Plenary Lecture 

  • Sarah Iles Johnston (Ohio State University) “Inscribing Beliefs on Stones: Case Studies from the Roman East”

Saturday, April 5, 2025 | Location TBD | Register to Attend

9:00-10:30 AM

Graphic Signs of Religion and Identity in the Second Temple Period 2 

  • Jodi Magness (UNC – Chapel Hill) “Stone Weights from Qumran and Ein Feshkha”
  • Ann Kuttner (University of Pennsylvania) “Worshipful Watching and the Hellenistic Greek Image:  The Spectacle of Reverence in the Telephos Frieze of the ‘Great Altar’ of Pergamon”
  • Gregg Gardner (University of British Columbia) “Mass Producing the Menorah in Roman Palestine”
11:00 AM-12:30 PM

Workshops C and D 

  • Felicity Harley-McGowan (Yale University) “Engraved gems and the crafting of Christian iconography in the 3rd century”
  • Dieter T. Roth (Boston College) “The Staurogram: Writing a Picture of the Crucified Christ”
2:00-3:30 PM

 Graphic Signs of Religion and Identity in Early Christianity

  • Robin Jensen (Notre Dame) “The Christogram: From Imperial Sign to Symbol of Resurrection”
  • Emauele Scieri (University of Glasgow) “Sense-lines, Quotation Markers, and other Editorial Signs in ‘Codex H’ of the Pauline Epistles”
  • Garrick Allen (University of Glasgow) “From Paul to Caesarea to Byzantium: Graphic Signs of a Religion in a Late Ancient Biblical Manuscript”

Speakers

Madadh Richey

Madadh Richey
Assistant Professor of Hebrew Bible, Brandeis University

Karen Sonik

Karen Sonik
Professor of Art and Art History, Auburn University

Jordan Miller

Jordan Miller
Research Associate (VIEWS), University of Cambridge

Brent A. Strawn, D

Brent A. Strawn, D.
Moody Smith Distinguished Professor of Old Testament and Professor of Law, Duke University

Alice Mandell

Alice Mandell
Assistant Professor and the William Foxwell Albright Chair of Biblical and Ancient Near Eastern Studies,
Johns Hopkins University

Brent A. Strawn, D

David Vanderhooft
Associate Professor of Hebrew Bible, Boston College

Cory Crawford

Cory Crawford
Associate Professor of Classics and Religious Studies, Ohio University

Timothy Hogue

Timothy Hogue
Assistant Professor of Hebrew Bible and Ancient Israelite History and Culture, University of Pennsylvania

Ranjani Atur

Ranjani Atur
Assistant Professor of Classical & Near Eastern Religions & Cultures, University of Minnesota

Jessica Lamont

Jessica Lamont
Assistant Professor of Classics, Yale University

Mark McClay

Mark McClay
Assistant Professor of Classics, Hillsdale College

Sarah Iles Johnston

Sarah Iles Johnston
College of Arts and Sciences Distinguished Professor of Religion, Ohio State University

Jodi Magness

Jodi Magness
Kenan Distinguished Professor for Teaching Excellence in Early Judaism, UNC – Chapel Hill

Ann Kuttner

Ann Kuttner
Associate Professor of History of Art, University of Pennsylvania

Gregg Gardner

Gregg Gardner
Professor and The Diamond Chair in Jewish Law and Ethics, University of British Columbia

Felicity Harley-McGowan

Felicity Harley-McGowan
Lecturer in the History of Art, Yale Divinity School

Dieter T. Roth

Dieter T. Roth
Associate Professor of New Testament, Boston College

Robin Jensen

Robin Jensen
Patrick O’Brien Professor of Theology, University of Notre Dame

Emauele Scieri

Emauele Scieri
Research Assistant in Theology and Religious Studies, University of Glasgow

Garrick Allen

Garrick Allen
Professor of Divinity and Biblical Criticism, University of Glasgow

Campus Map and Parking

Campus Map and Parking:

Parking is available at the nearby Beacon Street and Commonwealth Avenue Garages.

Boston College is also accessible via public transportation (MBTA B Line - Boston College).

Directions, Maps, and Parking

Visitor Parking Information

Boston College strongly encourages conference participants to receive the COVID-19 vaccination before attending events on campus.

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