The Calvin W. Didier Annual Seminar on Religion and Contemporary Thought was endowed in 1993 as a retirement tribute to Reverend Didier in honor of a ministry mindful of the many voices of the spirit and the profound changes we continue to experience in contemporary thought and culture. This yearly seminar is dedicated to spiritual growth through the best comprehensive thinking in religion, the arts, letters and science. We seek to present inspiring and acknowledged leaders in their various fields.
The Didier Seminar 2024:
Recovering Lost Voices with Stephen J. Patterson and Elizabeth Schrader Polczer
April 19 – 21
Sign up here.
House of Hope is fortunate to have two leading biblical scholars for The Didier Seminar this year who are helping to recover lost voices from early Christianity: Stephen J. Patterson and Elizabeth Schrader Polczer. Their discussions will include where their research overlaps and diverges.
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Stephen J. Patterson A scholar, teacher, and writer, Patterson is the George H. Atkinson endowed chair in Religious and Ethical Studies at Willamette University, where he teaches courses on the history of religion. He writes and lectures widely on the hidden histories of earliest Christianity, especially the lost gospels, Q and the Gospel of Thomas. Patterson holds graduate degrees from Harvard and Claremont, and he was a Fulbright Fellow in Germany. In nine books and more than seventy-five articles, essays and reviews, he has explored the origins of Christianity, especially through texts often overlooked because they are not in the Bible. For more than 20 years Patterson was professor of New Testament at Eden Seminary in St. Louis. He was also a leading figure in the Jesus Seminar and has appeared on many documentaries in connection with his work on the Gospel of Thomas, Q, and the quest for the historical Jesus. He will speak on his award-winning book: The Forgotten Creed: Christianity’s Original Struggle against Bigotry, Slavery, & Sexism. Copies of his book will be available in the church office for purchase. |
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Elizabeth Schrader Polczer Elizabeth Schrader Polczer is Assistant Professor of New Testament at Villanova University, having recently defended her PhD in Early Christianity and New Testament at Duke University. Her studies focus on textual criticism, Mary Magdalene, and the Gospel of John. Elizabeth transitioned to religious scholarship after a career as a singer/songwriter. After writing a song about Mary Magdalene, Elizabeth enrolled in the M.A. program at General Theological Seminary. Her interest in the text of John’s Gospel culminated in the publication of her Master’s thesis in the Harvard Theological Review. She has published additional peer-reviewed papers in the Journal of Biblical Literature, TC: A Journal of Biblical Textual Criticism, and The Comparative Oriental Manuscript Studies Bulletin. Elizabeth has presented her peer-reviewed research at a wide variety of academic institutions including Duke University, Princeton University, Vanderbilt Divinity School, Pepperdine University, Elon University, Wheaton College, Perkins School of Theology, the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, the University of Regensburg (Germany), the University of Leipzig (Germany), and dozens of churches across the US and Canada. |
Schedule:
Friday, April 19:
6:30 p.m. Dessert Reception
7:30 p.m. Lecture and Q&A with Stephen H. Patterson: Christianity’s First Creed and America’s Original Sin
Tucked into the folds of Paul’s Epistle to the Galatians there lies an ancient creed: there is no Jew or Greek, no slave or free, no male and female. Where did it come from and why did Paul include it in his letter to the Galatians? The answer will surprise and perhaps challenge you to see Christianity in an entirely new light.
Saturday, April 20:
9 a.m. Coffee, Tea, and Breakfast Treats
9:30 – 10:45 a.m. Lecture and Q&A with Elizabeth Schrader Polczer: Recovering Mary Magdalene in the Manuscripts of John’s Gospel: A Case of Textual Suppression?
In the world’s oldest manuscript of John’s Gospel, copied ca. 200 AD, the name “Mary” has been crossed out twice. A study published in the Harvard Theological Review further demonstrates that in dozens of gospel manuscripts, the name “Mary” has been changed to “Martha,” or Mary is presented as performing tasks usually attributed to Martha. What could this mean? This lecture examines the most ancient manuscripts of John’s Gospel, and explores the possibility that Mary Magdalene’s intended role was deliberately suppressed by copyists.
11 a.m. – Noon A Conversation with Stephen J. Patterson and Elizabeth Schrader Polczer
Sunday, April 21:
10 a.m. Worship with Stephen J. Patterson preaching There is No Jew or Greek
11:15 a.m. Sunday Enrichment: Q&A with Stephen J. Patterson
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2020 Theologian John Haught: The New Cosmic Story: Inside our Awakening Universe
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2018 Dr. J. Andrew Overman: When Stones Speak: Digging Deeper into Jesus Movements, Formative Judaism, and the Rise and Expansion of Islam
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2016 Diana Butler Bass: What Does It Mean To Say “I Am Spiritual But Not Religious”?
2015 Rev. Dr. Marilyn Salmon: Jesus Then and Now
2014 Dr. Amy-Jill Levine: Jesus, Judaism and Christianity
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2008 Dr. Philip Jenkins: The Next Christendom
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2006 Dr. Don Swearer: Buddhism
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2004 Rev. Dr. (Sir) John Polkinghorne: Belief of God in and Age of Science
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2000 Dr. Richard Horsley: Jesus, Paul, and the New World Order
1999 Rev. Dr. Marcus Borg: Jesus in Contemporary Scholarship
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