From Justin Strong <justindavidstrong@gmail.com>:linebreak======================linebreaklinebreakE-Conference:linebreak“The Animal in the New Testament and Graeco-Roman World”linebreaklinebreakMainz, GermanylinebreakJune 15–17, 2023linebreaklinebreakFree Digital Registration:linebreakSend an email with subject: “Digital Registration“ to: fable.project@uni-mainz.delinebreaklinebreakFor limited free in-person registration, please inquire with the subject: “In-Person Registration,” and provide your name and affiliation.linebreaklinebreakContext, Motivation, and Subject of the Conference:linebreaklinebreakThe Gospel tradition opens with “a voice shouting in the wilderness” (Mark 1:3). John the Baptist appears, feral in his habitat, diet, and clothed with camel hair (1:4–6). Pneuma descends “as a dove” (1:10). Jesus is “in the midst of beasts and angels” in the wild (1:12–13). He invites his followers to “fish for humans” (1:17). The daily lives of Jews, Christians, and pagans were filled with animals—in their physical world, in their stories, and in their abstract thinking.linebreaklinebreakGiven the ubiquity of animals and the remarkable density of animal language in the New Testament and its world, remarkably little scholarship has been devoted to understanding them. What insights emerge when we de-center the human to bring non-human animals and notions of animality to the center stage?linebreaklinebreakThis conference explores these questions. Applying an Animal Studies paradigm to Antiquity, these papers decenter the human to address non-human animals as subjects. They identify ways in which humans find themselves and others to be like animals, addressing basic notions of human and animal nature. They highlight the human-like traits in animals, such as sentience, subjectivity, and intentionality. They question the human/animal distinction, and interrogate the demonic, angelic, and monstrous spaces in between. This event is funded by the DFG project hosted in Mainz: “The Ancient Fable Tradition and Early Christian Literature” (https://gepris.dfg.de/gepris/projekt/495720705)linebreaklinebreakConference Program:linebreaklinebreakClassical ContextslinebreakKeynote: Animal Emotions in Greco-Roman ‘Popular’ Science and Philosophy and in Imaginative GenreslinebreakStephen Newmyer (Duquesne University)linebreaklinebreakDo Non-human Animals Have a Soul and λόγος? Perspectives from Pagan, Jewish, and Christian ThoughtlinebreakHedwig Schmalzgruber (University of Graz)linebreaklinebreakSed ille, qui oculos centum habet, si uenerit. On Focalization in Ancient Verse Fables and in the New TestamentlinebreakUrsula Gärtner (University of Graz)linebreaklinebreakZoomorphism in Early Christianity: From Written Sources to Archaeological TraceslinebreakDomenico Benoci (Pontifical Institute of Christian Archaeology)linebreaklinebreakGospelslinebreakAbout Sheep and Their Keepers: Parallels in Literary UsagelinebreakUrsula Ulrike Kaiser (Technical University of Braunschweig)linebreaklinebreakHow are the Children before the Dogs? Reading Jesus’s Encounter with the Syrophoenician Woman within Ancient Child-Dog SymbolismlinebreakJohn Van Meeran (University of Heidelberg)linebreaklinebreakThe Choice to Untie a Donkey, Ox or ‘Daughter of Abraham’linebreakEmma Swai (Liverpool Hope University)linebreaklinebreakKeynote: Humanimals, Godanimals, Demonimals: Is the Animetaphorical Habitat of the New Testament Dangerous for Nonhuman Animals?linebreakStephen Moore (Drew University Theological School)linebreaklinebreakPaul, Peter, and JohnlinebreakOf Men, Dogs, and ‘Mutilated Monsters’: Paul’s Use of Dehumanizing Terminology in Phil 3:2 and BeyondlinebreakGregory Lamb (Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary)linebreaklinebreak‘Is God Concerned with Oxen?’ (1 Corinthians 9:9-10)linebreakJoel White (Freie Theologische Hochschule Giessen)linebreaklinebreakPaganism’s Champion: Interpreting the Diabolical Lion Metaphor of 1 Peter 5.8 alongside Early Jewish LiteraturelinebreakNoel Cheong (Oxford University)linebreaklinebreakAnimals and the Eschaton: Outside are the Dogs. And the Rest?linebreakMichelle Fletcher (King’s College London)linebreaklinebreakExtra-Canonical ContextslinebreakJesus, Goats, and Other Animals in the Epistle of BarnabaslinebreakTravis W. Proctor (Wittenberg University)linebreaklinebreakAnimals’ Sight of God? Justin Martyr on the Transmigration of Souls (Dialogue with Trypho 4)linebreakJonathan H. Young (University of Oxford)linebreaklinebreakA Venomous Snake of Toxic Speech and Other Animals Illustrating Biblical Ethics in the Apocryphal Acts of the ApostleslinebreakSusanna Luther (University of Göttingen)linebreaklinebreakKeynote: Between Antelopes and Hyenas: Animals in Egyptian Ascetic and Monastic TextslinebreakIngvild Sælid Gilhus (University of Bergen)linebreaklinebreak