18th Conference of the European Research Network Plutarch

• Start: 27 September at 19.00h
• End: 29 September at 20.00h

The Faculty of Theology and Religious Studies of the University of Groningen has the pleasure of organizing, on the 27-29 September 2017, the Annual Congress of the European Plutarch Network:

Plutarch and the Ancient Religious Landscape: Paganism, Christianity, Gnosis, and Mystery Cults

Despite its seminal interest for the understanding of the formative period of Judaism, Christianity and Islam the Greco-Roman religious context depicted in Plutarch’s works has not received the attention it deserves. Admittedly, back in 1995, the 6 th International meeting of the Italian section organized by I. Gallo at Ravello (Italy) already focused on Plutarch and Religion. At that time, however, the objective was to study the interface between some religions attested to in the ancient world only, namely Greco-Roman and Egyptian religions, Christianity, and Judaism. Also the 7 th conference of the European Research Network Plutarch organized in Palma de Mallorca in 2000, focused on Mysticism and Mystery Cults. By taking Plutarch as representative of the religious continuum of the Greco-Roman world, differently we intend to deliberately transcend the particular religions in order to focus on religious notions, ideas, rituals and developments that appearing in the author from Chaeronea can also be found in other contemporary religious groups. In this sense Plutarch is the starting point of a much wider analysis that pays heed not only to religion and its cultural context, but also to similarities, differences, parallelisms, and confluences of the ancient religious experience.

European Research Network Plutarch

The European Research Network Plutarch is the European branch of the International Plutarch Society. It comprises eleven research groups from different European countries, including the Universities of Coimbra, Salerno, Florence, Paris-Nanterre, Toulouse, Leuven, Bern, Malaga, Cordoba, Complutense (Madrid), and Groningen. The Research Network comes together once a year to investigate and discuss a particular subject in the writer of Chaeronea and publishes, after the rework and the peer review process, the result of these meetings.

Brill’s Plutarch Series

Since this year the European Research Network Plutarch can count on Brill’s Plutarch Studies, a major academic series edited by Delfim Leão and Lautaro Roig Lanzillotta and published in the Netherlands by Brill Academic Publishers.

Programme

Please download the programme here.

Register

Registration is required to attend the conference and can be done before the end of September 10^th by contacting Luisa Lesage Gárriga (l.lesage.garriga rug.nl). Please state your name, affiliation, and whether you are a (PhD-)student or not. If a certificate of attendance is required, please state so when registering, in order to have it ready for the conference.

Practical information

*The attendance fee includes coffee, tea, refreshments and pastries throughout the two days, as well as two lunches and the closure dinner. The fee can be paid in cash (preferably exact) upon arrival on the conference day.