9 January, 2025
We are deeply honoured to welcome Professor Emmanouela Grypeou, Associate Professor at the Department of History of Religions at Stockholm University, Sweden, to lead a session of the Eastern Christianity in Interfaith Contexts Reading Group.
Here are the details of this fascinating event.
Title: Heavenly Hours: Creation and Time in the Syriac Testament of Adam
Abstract: The text known as the ‘Horarium’ describes the hours of the night and/or day in which elements of the creation pray and give praise to God. The text attests to significant Jewish and Christian biblical and para-biblical traditions, including liturgical, angelological, magical, and demonological elements. This popular and influential text from Late Antiquity is attested in a complex manuscript and recension tradition and is preserved in Greek, Syriac, Armenian, Ge‛ez, Georgian, and Arabic. As it also forms part of the Syriac ‘Testament of Adam’, it has been regarded by certain scholars as a Christian work originally composed in Syriac. However, a Jewish provenance in the Second Temple period has also been suggested. In this paper, I will re-consider the issue of its provenance as well as Sitz im Leben, and I will argue that we need to place this textual tradition in the context of Eastern exegetical reflections about time as part of the creation in connection with monastic interest and contemplation about the heavenly liturgy, daily worship and set hours of prayer.
Speaker: Professor Emmanouela Grypeou, Associate Professor at the Department of History of Religions at Stockholm University, Sweden
Speaker’s Biography: Emmanouela Grypeou is an associate professor of the History of Christianity at Stockholm University in Sweden. Previously, she has held research and teaching positions at the University of Erfurt, Humboldt University Berlin, University of Cambridge, University of Oxford, and as a visiting scholar at the University of Virginia. Her research focuses on the interactions between Eastern Christianity with Judaism and Early Islam respectively, as well as on apocalypticism and eschatology.
Chair: Professor Sebastian Brock, FBA, University of Oxford, UK.
Date: 9 January, 2024
Time: 17:00-18:00 GMT | 9:00-10:00 PT | 12:00-13:00 ET
Venue: online
If you would like to join the Eastern Christianity in Interfaith Contexts Reading Group, please sign up here.
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