During the period September 2018 through December 2019, I shall be on extended research leave, before retiring fully at the end of that period. In addition to tidying up some existing loose ends (mainly to do with Jerome and Cassian) and helping with institutional developments related to the Center, I shall be focusing on two projects with a view to publication:
- A public lecture, "Hagiography in its Place: Jerome's Life of Hilarion." After general reflections on the way vitae tell us as much about places as about persons, I shall explore how Jerome uses his biography to offer comment on his experience of Roman Palestine.
- A public lecture, "The 'Ascetic Imperative': Early Christian Essentials." I shall reassess what Geoffrey Harpham meant by the phrase in the title of his 1987 book, and whether it still has its use for our understanding of the early Christian period. I shall then ask, given the wide variety of ascetic practice at the time, what "imperatives" lay at the root of all ascetic enterprises.