To see a full list of events by semester, see below.

Spring 2024 Events

EARLY CHRISTIAN SEMINARS

Feb. 7
Dr. Nathan Tilley (ECS)
“And we shall be changed”: Resituating the Eschatology of Evagrius of Pontus within Late Ancient Philosophies of Change

March 7 
Dominic Cassella (TRS)
"Reconstructing Augustine's Argument for the Immortality of the Soul"

Fall 2023 Events

EARLY CHRISTIAN SEMINARS

October 11 | 5:15 PM 
Dr. Jason BeDuhn, Professor of the Comparative Study of Religions and Asian Studies, Northern Arizona University
"Rethinking Asceticism through the example of the Manichaeans"

October 31 | 5:15 PM 
Dr. Robin Darling Young and Joseph Wilson Trigg, introduced by Reverend Stephanos Alexopoulos
"Wrestling with the Greek of the Contra Celsum"

November 14 | 5:15 PM 
Dr. Christian Hornung, Professor für Alte Kirchengeschichte und Patrologie at the faculty of Catholic theology in Bonn, and director of the Franz Joseph Dölger-Institut zur Erforschung der Spätantike
"Patristics in Germany: Current questions and perspectives"

 

Spring 2023 Events

 EARLY CHRISTIAN SEMINARS

March 28 | 5:15 PM 
Rev. Vasilije Vranic, Ph.D., St. Luke Serbian Orthodox Church, Potomac MD
“Theodoret of Cyrrhus or Maximus the Confessor? The Scholion in Vat.gr. 469, fol 85v.”

April 4 | 5:15 PM 
Sr. Maria Kiely, Ph.D., Adjunct Assistant Professor, Department of Greek and Latin
"The Penult Rule through the Ages: Some Things Never Change"

Fall 2022 Events

 EARLY CHRISTIAN SEMINARS

October 25 | 5:15 PM 
Michael Hensley, Dept. of Semitic and Egyptian Languages and Literatures
“How an Empire Found its Language: Multilingualism and the Epigraphic Habit in the Aksumite World.”

Nov. 2 | 12:30 PM | 
Dr. Samuel Pomeroy, Alexander von Humboldt Postdoctoral Fellow, Forschungsstelle-Origenes, Münster
"The Debate Regarding the ‘Equality’ of the Nation-Angels in Patristic Literature"

Spring 2022 Events

 
EARLY CHRISTIAN SEMINARS
Dr. Janet Timbie, Department of Semitic and Egyptian Languages and Literatures
"Who Speaks Through the Prophets?" Shenoute of Atripe's Reaction to Manichaeism in Egypt 
Thursday, March 31, 5:15 PM
 
Mr. Charles Carman, Program in Church History
Patristic and Modern Interpretations of the Binding of Isaac
Tuesday, April 12, 5:15 PM (Zoom)

Dr. William J. McCarthy, Department of Greek and Latin
The Question of the Prudentian Reception of Statius
Thursday, April 28, 5:15 PM
 

Fall 2021 Events

 

Spring 2021 Events

 

EARLY CHRISTIAN SEMINARS

Mr. Casey Knott, Doctoral Candidate, Center for Medieval and Byzantine Studies

'Into the center of the arena': Asceticism and the Culture of Urban Performance in Late Antique Constantinople
Friday, March 19, 5:10 PM (Zoom)

Fall 2020 Events

 

Spring 2020 Events

ROUNDTABLE DISCUSSION

"Patristics in the Public Square: Reflections on Advising the Museum of the Bible"
Monday, Feb. 3, 5:00 PM  

Dr. Stan Rosenberg (Catholic Univeristy PhD '99) 
Vice President for Research and Scholarship, Council for Christian Colleges and Universities 
Executive Director, Scholarship and Christianity in Oxford 
Faculty of Theology and Religion, Oxford University

GRADUATE SYMPOSIUM: PATRISTIC RECEPTIONS IN A MODERN AND POSTMODERN AGE

Thursday, February 27th, 6:30 PM  

Presentations:
On Sarah Coakley's "God, Sexuality, and the Self: An Essay On the Trinity"
Zachary Thornburg
Early Christian Studies
The Catholic University of America

On Robert Markus' Saeculum
Patrick Jones
School of Theology & Religious Studies
The Catholic University of America

All graduate students welcome

EARLY CHRISTIAN SEMINARS

Cancelled due to COVID-19:

"Theosis in Christology: The Body of the Resurrected Christ"
Monday, March 30, 5:00 PM

Fr. Vasilije Vranic, Ph.D. , Visiting Scholar, Center for the Study of Early Christianity
Greek and Latin Library

Seminars are restricted to invited guests and members of the ECS/CUA community. Please direct inquiries to Center for the Study of Early Christianity.

Fall 2019

PUBLIC LECTURE

  • Wednesday, Sept. 25
    Annual Mellon Lecture: What is the 'Ascetic Imperative'?
    Prof. Philip Rousseau
    , Andrew W. Mellon Professor of Early Christian Studies

CONFERENCE

  • Friday, Oct. 4
    Treasures New and Old: Christian Culture and Cultures in the Patristic Age

Spring 2019

EARLY CHRISTIAN SEMINAR  

  • Thursday, March 7
    Benjamin Lewis, Doctoral Candidate, Greek and Latin, "The Sequence of Senses: Symbolic Patterns in Augustine's Confessions"

  • Tuesday, April 2
    Carl Vennerstrom, Doctoral Student, Early Christian Studies, “Homeric Scholia, Hellenistic Education, and Ascetic Pedagogy: the Scholia of Evagrius Ponticus”

  • Tuesday, April 16
    Ross Twele, Doctoral Student, Theology and Religious Studies, “Discovering Nicaea: early Latin responses to the Trinitarian Controversy”

Fall 2018

PUBLIC LECTURE

  • Thursday, Sept. 20
    Annual Mellon Lecture
    Prof. Philip Rousseau, Andrew W. Mellon Distinguished Professor of Early Christian Studies "Hagiography in Its Place: Jerome's Life of Hilarion

EARLY CHRISTIAN SEMINAR

  • Monday, Nov. 5
    Sr. Maria Theotokos Adams, Doctoral Candidate, School of Theology and Religious Studies "Eusebius of Caesarea and the Paschal Computus at the Advent of Christian Historiography"

 

Spring 2018

EICHSTÄTT/WASHINGTON SEMINAR ON CLASSICAL AND CHRISTIAN CULTURE

  • March 19-23
    Classical and Christian Education

Fall 2017

PUBLIC LECTURE

  • Thursday, Sept. 28
    Annual Mellon Lecture
    Prof. Philip Rousseau, Andrew W. Mellon Distinguished Professor of Early Christian Studies "The One and the Many in the Early Church"
MAGNUS ES, DOMINE
  • Tuesday, Sept. 12
    The Confessions of Saint Augustine at Catholic University

    Dr. William Klingshirn (Greek and Latin), "The Confessions in the Classical Curriculum."
    Dr. Kevin White (Philosophy), "The Confessions in the School of Philosophy."
    Dr. Thomas Clemmons (STRS), "The Confessions in the Discipline of Theology."

  • Wednesday, Oct. 11, Thursday, Oct. 12, Friday, Oct. 13
    Marathon Reading of Saint Augustine's Confessions

    Oct. 11: books 1-5, trans. Prof. Vernon J. Bourke (1953)
    Oct. 12: books 6-9, trans. Msgr. John K. Ryan (1960)
    Oct. 11: books 10-13, trans. Sr. Maria Boulding, OSB (1997)

  • Friday, Dec. 1
    Graduate Student Conference on Saint Augustine's Confessions

Spring 2017

PUBLIC LECTURE

  • Monday, May 22
    Prof. Lorenzo Perrone, Università di Bologna, Dipartimento di Filologia Classica e Italianistica "The Work of Origen in Light of the New Homilies on the Psalms

EARLY CHRISTIAN SEMINAR

  • Thursday, March 16
    Dr. Kate Wilkinson, Associate Professor of Women's and Gender Studies, Towson University "Freedom and Virginity"

  • Monday, March 20
    Kathleen Kirsch, Doctoral Candidate, Dept. of Greek and Latin "Vincent's Victory: The Martyr as Miles in Prudentius' Peristephanon V"

  • Monday, April 3
    Sr. Maria del Fiat Miola, SSVM, Doctoral Candidate, Center for the Study of Early Christianity "Report from the Cloister in Arles: Material Traces of a Sixth-Century Monastery"

  • Monday, April 10
    Karen Carducci, Doctoral Candidate, Department of Greek and Latin "Writings on Stones: Lapidaries from the Elder Pliny's to Isidore's

 

Fall 2016

PUBLIC LECTURE

  • Thursday, September 15
    Annual Mellon Lecture
    Prof. Philip Rousseau, Andrew W. Mellon Professor of Early Christian Studies "Jean Mabillon and Monastic Renewal"

EARLY CHRISTIAN SEMINAR

These events meet in McMahon Hall 207 (The Greek and Latin Library) on the following Thursday evenings at 5:15pm:

  • Thursday, November 17
    Johanna Schenk, Department of Classical Philology, Catholic University of Eichstätt-Ingolstadt "The Letters of Avitus of Vienne: Portrayals of a Late Antique Bishop"

 

Spring 2016

PUBLIC LECTURE

  • Thursday, April 7
    Dr. Christian Hornung, Heisenberg Fellow (German Research Foundation), University of Siegen "Monachus et sacerdos: Reconsidering the asceticism of the clergy in late antique Christianity" 

EARLY CHRISTIAN SEMINAR

These events meet in McMahon Hall 207 (The Greek and Latin Library) on the following Thursday evenings at 5:15pm:

  • Thursday, March 10
    Sean Moberg, Center for the Study of Early Christianity "Spiritual Formation in Early Monasticism and Ancient Philosophy"

  • Thursday, April 14
    Colby Scott, Department of Semitic and Egyptian Languages and Literatures "St. Ephrem the Syrian on Marriage and Celibacy: A Textual Study on Ephrem's Second Verse Homily on Reproof"

 

Fall 2015

PUBLIC LECTURE

  • Thursday, September 10
    Annual Mellon Lecture Philip Rousseau, Andrew W. Mellon Professor of Early Christian Studies "On First Looking into Gregory the Great's >Moralia

EARLY CHRISTIAN SEMINAR

These events meet in McMahon Hall 205 (The Greek and Latin Library) on the following Thursday evenings at 5:15pm:

  • November 5
    Yuliya Minets, Center for the Study of Early Christianity "The miraculous ability to speak in foreign languages in early Christian literature"
    "Demons speaking in tongues" [Dinner Discussion].

  • November 19
    Edward Naumann, Department of Greek and Latin. "Augustine and the Damnation of Baptized Infants."

Spring 2015

EARLY CHRISTIAN SEMINAR

  • January 29
    Alex Poulos, Department of Greek and Latin. "Cynicism in the Poetry of Gregory of Nazianzus"
    "The newly discovered homilies of Origen of Alexandria" [Dinner Discussion].

  • April 16
    Leo Hunt, Department of Greek and Latin. "Transcendence and Creative Action in the Thought of Maximus the Confessor: A Radical Break with the Neo-Platonic Tradition"

LUNCHTIME SEMINAR

  • March 27
    Karl Shuve, University of Virginia. "Re-thinking the Nuptial Metaphor in Late Antiquity."
    12:00 noon, 131 Marist Hall

Fall 2014

PUBLIC LECTURE

  • Thursday, September 11
    Annual Mellon Lecture
    Philip Rousseau, Andrew W. Mellon Distinguished Professor; Director of the Center "The Politics of Humility Revisited."
  • Thursday, October 30
    Lecture
    Alberto Quiroga, University of Granada. "Current Trends in the Understanding of Late Roman Rhetoric." Raffaella Cribiore, New York University, will attend.

EARLY CHRISTIAN SEMINAR

  • October 16
    Sean Moberg, Early Christian Studies "Philosophy in the Desert: Spiritual Exercises in the Apophthegmata Patrum."

  • November 6
    Ky Heinze, Early Christian Studies "Reinterpretation and Demonization of Sacrifice in the Imperial Era."

  • November 20
    Joshua Gonnerman, School of Theology and Religious Studies "Platonism and Grace in Augustine."

LUNCHTIME SEMINAR

  • October 31
    Alberto Quiroga, University of Granada. "Sirens, Charlatans and Belletrists. The Rhetoric of Incompetence." 

    Visiting Scholar Raffaella Cribiore will attend.