Forum Third Series (2007 – present)

Forum Third Series began in 2007 and transitioned to an electronic-only journal in 2013. New issues come out every April and October. See an index of articles below.

Volume 10

10,1 (Spring 2021): Early Christian Formation through the Lens of Identity, Canon, and Diversity

• Preface
• If Not Christians, What? – Bernard Brandon Scott, with Erin Vearncombe and Hal Taussig
• Some Observations on the Evolution and Politics of Roman Imperial Canons – Chris Shea
• Becoming a People of the Book Texts, “Scripture,” and “Canon” among Christ Groups in the Second Century CE – Jason Beduhn
• What’s at Stake When “Heresy” Sells? – Deborah Niederer Saxon
• Orthodoxy and Heresy Misnomers and Misnamers – Markus Vinzent

Volume 9

9,2 (Fall 2020): Gender as a Lens to Interrogate Second-Century Jesus Movements

• Preface
• Thinking through Gender in the Second-Century Jesus Movements – Celene Lillie
• The Gender of Martyrdom – Virginia Burrus
• (Re)reading Regulating Sex in the Roman Empire One Year Later – David Wheeler-Reed
• Women: Their Visibility and Agency and Loss of Agency in Early Christian Texts – Joanna Dewey

9,1 (Spring 2020): The Value of Rhetoric in the Ancient Christian Context

• Preface
• Learning from Rhetoric in the Study of Paul: Gal 1:10–20 – Nina E. Livesey
• Is Jesus YHWH? Two De-Judaizing Trajectories of Marcion and Justin – David E. Wilhite
• Prophecy, Christology, and Anti-Judaism in Justin Martyr – Eobert J. Miller
• Re-defining “Solitude”: Monastic Registers of Fictive (and Factual) Family – Lillian I. Larsen

Volume 8

8,2 (Fall 2019): Christianity Seminar: Estimating Authority and Ritual Practice

• Preface
• Cursing and the Apostle – The Fight for Authority in Early Christianity (Tony Burke)
• The Contested Authority of Paul in the Second Century (Jason Beduhn)
• Changing Courses – Eucharistic Origins (Andrew McGowan)
• The Ritual of the Hellenistic Meal – Early Christian Everyday Practice as an Exegetical Challenge (Soham Al-Suadi)

8,1 (Spring 2019): Christianity Seminar: Religious Identity, Violence, and Roman Power

• Preface
• Judith Perkins and “Christian” Identity Formation (Richard S. Ascough)
• Difference and Similarity (Nina E. Livesey)
• Hidden Transcripts of Violence and Partial Recovery in the First Two Centuries (Hal Taussig)
• The Arch of Titus (Bernard Brandon Scott)

Volume 7

7,2 (Fall 2018): God Seminar: The Displacement of Theology

• Preface
• The Meaning of Heresy for Today: On Theo-Political Resistance from Spinoza to Prince (Jeffrey Robbins)
• Surveying Heidegger for Theology’s Future (David Galston)
• Paul Tillich and the Discourse of Political Theology (Clayton Crockett)
• Archive Theology and the God of Paul (David Galston)

7,1 (Spring 2018): Christianity Seminar: Musings on Christian Origins

• Preface
• The Quest for Christian Origins (Burton Mack)
• The Labors of Burton Mack: Scholarship That’s Made a Difference (Ron Cameron)
• Where We Go Next—Big Questions for the Big Picture: A Response to Burton Mack, and Reflections on the Future of the Christianity Seminar (Maia Kotrosits)
• In the Beginning Was the House: Part One: How Social and Identity Formation of Early Christian Groups Took Place (Dennis E. Smith)
• In the Beginning Was the House: Part Two: The Exegetical Data (Dennis E. Smith)

Volume 6

6,2 (Fall 2017): Christianity Seminar: The Language of Apocalyptic

• Preface (Arthur J. Dewey)
• God, ReTALIation, and the Apocalyptic Scenario (Lane C. McGaughy)
• Switchback Codes: Paul, Apocalyptic, and the Art of Resistance (Arthur J. Dewey)
• From the Herodians to Hadrian: The Shifting Status of Judean Religion in Post-Flavian Rome (Heidi Wendt)
• Judean Diaspora, Judean War: Class and Networks (John W. Marshall)

6,1 (Spring 2017): Christianity Seminar: Rethinking Martyrdom in Early Christian Identity

• Preface (Carly Daniel-Hughes)
• Producing and Contesting Martyrdom in Pre-Decian Roman North Africa (Carly Daniel-Hughes)
• Gladiators and Martyrs: Icons in the Arena (Susan M. (Elli) Elliott)
• What Do Fiction, Mass Crucifixions and Killer Seals Add Up To?: Summarizing Breakthroughs in Martyrdom Scholarship Since 1990 (Hal Taussig)
• Sovereignty in Ruins: The Death of Ignatius and Ecologies of Destruction (Maia Kotrosits)

Volume 5

5,2 (Fall 2016): God Seminar: Opening the Discussion on God and the Human Future

• Preface (David Galston)
• Contending with Postmodern Hermeneutics and Biblical Criticism: Thinking Philosophical Theology with the Jesus Seminar (David Galston)
• A Short Précis of The Weakness of God and The Insistence of God (John D. Caputo)
• Moving Words: Theology and the Performance of Proposing (Joseph Bessler)
• Plato and Christian Belief (John Kelly)
• Hylotheism: Life as a Slide Show (Jarmo Tarkki)

5,1 (Spring 2016): Reflections on the Category Gnosticism

• Preface (Maia Kotrosits)
• Questioning the Category of Gnosticism for the Rewriting of the History of Early Christianity: An Appreciation and Extension of the Work of Karen King (Hal Taussig)
• But What Do We Call It?: The Secret Revelation of John and Crises of Categories (Maia Kotrosits)
• What Categories Are Left?: A Conversation with Karen King’s What is Gnosticism? (Bernard Brandon Scott)
• “Are you, or have you ever been, a gnostic?”: Caricatures, Blacklists, and Understanding the Aspirations and Lives of Real People (Michael Williams)

Volume 4

4,2 (Fall 2015): Challenging Common Conceptions of Early Christianity

• Preface (Nina E. Livesey)
• John’s Radical Rewriting of Luke-Acts (Dennis R. MacDonald)
• Acts in Ephesus (and Environs) c. 115 (Richard I. Pervo)
• How Acts Constructed the Itinerary of Paul: Conclusions Excerpted from the Acts Seminar Report (Dennis E. Smith)
• The New Marcion: Rethinking the “Arch-Heretic” (Jason BeDuhn)
• Social Fragmentation and Cosmic Rhetoric: Interpretations of Isaiah in the Nag Hammadi Codices (Maia Kotrosits)
• Second-Century Imaginations of Social Unity: A Survey of the Gospel of Truth, the Letter of Peter to Philip, the Post-Pauline Letter to the Ephesians, and The Thunder: Perfect Mind (Hal Taussig)

4,1 (Spring 2015): Early Christianity in its Mediterranean Contexts

• Preface (Chris Shea)
• Per Omnia Saecula Saeculorum: Worlds Colliding and Created (Arthur J. Dewey)
• Roman Apocalypses: Death, Doom, and Delight in the Early Empire (Chris Shea)
• Women in the Authentic Letters of Paul (Nina E. Livesey)
• The Old Testament and Second-Century Christians (Joseph B. Tyson)
• By the Books: Canon Formation among the Romans (Chris Shea)

Volume 3

3,2 (Fall 2014): Looking Back: Assessing the Work of Rudolf Bultmann

• Preface (Lane C. McGaughy)
• The Legacy of Rudolf Bultmann and the Ideal of a Fully Critical Theology (Schubert M. Ogden)
• Reflections on Konrad Hammann’s Biography of Rudolf Bultmann—with Implications for Christology (Philip Devenish)
• Demythologizing and Christology (William O. Walker, Jr.)
• Kêrygma and History in the Thought of Rudolf Bultmann (Gerd Lüdemann)
• The ‘Gospel’ and the Emperor Cult: From Bultmann to Crossan (Jon F. Dechow)

3,1 (Spring 2014): Syria and Christian Origins

• Preface (Clayton N. Jefford)
• Paneas/Caesarea Philippi and the World of the Gospels (John Francis Wilson)
• Peter’s Antiochene Apostasy—Re‐Judaizing or Imperial Conformism? An Inter‐textual Exploration (Brigitte Kahl)
• Locating the Didache (Clayton N. Jefford)
• Visualizing the Christian Community at Antioch: The Window of the Didache (Nancy Pardee)
• “That By His Passion He May Purify the Water”: Ignatius of Antioch and the Beginning of Mark’s Gospel (Charles A. Bobertz)
• Story and Ritual as the Foundation of Nations (Helmut Koester)

Volume 2

2,2 (Fall 2013): Rethinking the Book of Acts

• Preface (Nina E. Livesey)
• Religious Practices of Early Christian Converts According to Acts 2:41–47 (Dennis E. Smith)
• Is There a There There?: Looking for Antioch in the Former Antioch Source (Richard I. Pervo)
• What Athens Has in Common with Jerusalem: The Speeches in Acts as Historical Record (Richard I. Pervo)
• Circumcision as a Means of Testing the Historicity of Acts 16:1–5 (Nina E. Livesey)
• “And So We Left Troy/Troas”: Pseudo-Luke’s Imitation of the “We-Voyages” in Homer’s Odyssey (Dennis MacDonald)
• Historical issues in Acts 28:11–31 (Gerd Lüdemann)

2,1 (Spring 2013): Galilee and Christian Origins

• Preface (Stephen J. Patterson)
• The Trouble with Q (William Arnal)
• Postcolonial Issues Post-Calvary: Which Imperial Overlay Defined Galilee—the Roman-Herodian, or the Judean-Hasmonean? (Marianne Sawicki)
• A Galilean Provenance for the Gospel of Mark? (Joanna Dewey)
• First-century Christianities: Galilee (James M. Robinson)

Volume 1

1,2 (Fall 2007): The Quest of Christian Origins

• Preface (Mahlon H. Smith)
• When Did Christianity Begin? (Philip E. Devenish)
• Did Christianity Begin with the Resurrection? (Joseph A. Bessler)
• The Resurrection of Jesus and Christian Origins (Daniel A. Smith)
• Acts – A Myth of Christian Origins (Joseph B. Tyson)
• Did Christianity Begin at Pentecost?: Reflections on the Question (Shelly Matthews)
• Did Christianity Begin at Pentecost?: Beginnings and the Ends Thereof (Todd Penner)
• “13 Ways of Looking at a Blackbird”: Paul and the Origins of Christianity (Arthur J. Dewey)
• Christian Origins Seminar Voting Record

 1,1 (Spring 2007): Reconstructing Historical Context

• Preface (Mahlon H. Smith)
• Writing and Imitation: Greek Education in the Greco-Roman World (Rubén R. Dupertius)
• Education in Roman Palestine (Christine Shea)
• The Implications of a Late Date for Acts (Joseph B. Tyson)
• The Apocalypses and Acts of Paul: Do They Know the Pauline Epistles? (Robert M. Price)
• Evidence for a Christian Goddess: The Bendis-Zodiac Relief at Philippi (Valerie Abrahamsen)
• Acts Seminar Voting Record