WINNIPEG, MB – The University of Winnipeg and the Faculties of Arts and Theology present a public lecture by Jean-Daniel Dubois (École Pratique des Hautes Études, Paris, France), a specialist in Coptic language and literature and author of numerous publications on early Christianity, Gnosticism, and various apocryphal writings. Dubois’s lecture, On Reading the Forgotten Gospels: Apocryphal Literature and the Origins of Christianity will be on Tuesday, October 5, 2010 at 7:30 pm in Convocation Hall, University of Winnipeg (515 Portage Ave). This lecture is free and open to the public.
Christianity Before it Became Fully Institutionalized
The recently published Gospel of Judas is just one among many apocryphal, non-canonical texts that have survived from antiquity in various Christian languages. Some, like the Gospel of Thomas or the Acts of Pilate, transmit non-canonical words of or details about Jesus; others, like the acts of various apostles, focus on first disseminators of the new faith; still others, like the many apocalypses, concern the revelation of what is still to come. What they all have in common is that they preserve – and are ready to reveal to a discerning reader – aspects of ancient Christianity that have been largely forgotten and yet, perhaps, worth remembering, as they offer glimpses of Christianity from a time before it became fully institutionalized.
International Scholars
Attending the lecture will be several international scholars with expertise in Latin, Greek, Slavic, Armenian, Georgian, Syriac and Ethiopic apocrypha. This is a rare opportunity to ask the experts about the lost or largely forgotten literature of early Christianity.
This lecture is part of the Workshop on Editing the Apocryphal Acts of Pilate, supported by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada and hosted by the faculties of Arts and Theology at the University of Winnipeg on Oct. 4 – 5, 2010.
