18 October 2017
Bilbao Campus
Providing the new cultural circumstances (growing urbanization, globality, secularization), it can be particularly stimulating to look back on the origins of christianity in order to explore the way in which the future of faith, religion and christianity can be faced. Christianity, a movement which was born in a rural world, was able to be embodied and prosper in the urban context of the Roman Empire, as well as to transform it.
Several questions arise regarding the latter process. Were different strategies used for Christianity to become part of an urban culture? Which were the characteristics, the function and evaluation of this process? How could it be that a movement with rural origins was able to adapt itself at a quick pace in the middle of hostile circumstances to an emergent urban civilization?
The Faculty of Theology has organized a seminar under the name of "City and Countryside in Early Christianity" to think about this matter. This seminar which is aimed at teachers and PhD students will be performed by Gerd Theissen, emeritus professor of the University of Heidelberg and one of the greatest figures in the current biblical research. The seminar will be held the 18th of October from 16:00 to 18:30 in Mensajero room.
A second talk will be open to the public under the name of "The Transformation of the Movement of Jesus in the Rural World in Hellenistic Cities". This will occur the 19th of October at 19:00 in Ellacuria room. Together with Gerd Theissen, professor Rafael Aguirre from the Faculty of Theology of the University of Deusto will also take part in this seminar, and he will be dealing with "The Cultural Place of the Biblical Interpretation and the Work of Gerd Theissen".
