Sunday, September 2, 2007

Conference honoring Elliot Wolfson

At the end of October there is being planned a conference to honor Elliot Wolfson. Wolfson received an external faculty grant from the Rice Humanities Research Center to come to Rice this semester and teach a course on Jewish mysticism.

A symposium is being orchestrated to celebrate his work. It is called, "Venturing Beyond the Beyond: A Symposium on the Aesthetics and Hermeneutics of Elliot R. Wolfson." When and where? Friday, October 26-27, in the Kyle Morrow Room at Fondren Library.

I have submitted a presentation called, "'We have been sent out of the world': Gnosis and Religious Experience in Valentinian Christianity." Inspired by Wolfson's most recent article, "Inscribed in the book of the living," (JSJ 38: 2007, 234-271), the focus of this lecture will be understanding Gnosis as experiential, with particular attention paid to its liturgical and ritual aspects.

I will keep you posted in terms of all the speakers and times as those are put together by Marcia Brennan and Jeffrey Kripal, the symposium's hosts.

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