Jarred Mercer: Losing Our Innocence: The Spirituality of Children in Augustinian Perspective

In the early Christian period children were often held up as a spiritual exemplum. Following Christ was to ‘become like a little child’ (Matt 18.3). Early Christians expressed what this looked like in various ways, and often made sense of the command to childlikeness by equating it with a call to innocence—as embracing a call to innocency that can be seen in children before they are corrupted by sin (often in particular sexual sin; e.g. Tertullian De monogamia8). Much of the Christian understanding of childlikeness (and therefore in some sense Christlikeness) became dependent upon a vision of the child as innocent and pure. The emphasis on the child’s innocence in this context is seen clearly throughout the early Christian centuries from New Testament texts, to the Shepherd of Hermas, to Irenaeus, Clement, Origen, Tertullian, Cyprian, Chrysostom, Leo, and many others. In and following Augustine’s developments on how Christians understand sin and its transmission, how do people begin to explain the spiritual quest to ‘childlikeness’? Augustine’s view that children are indeed not innocent, as previous tradition had overwhelmingly assumed, causes significant difficulty to Christian communities seeing themselves as moving toward holy and right living by ‘becoming like a child’. However, the concept is much too ingrained in the Christian imagination to lose it’s hold. This paper will explore how the Augustinian perspective comes to terms with previous tradition’s emphasis on the spiritual nature of children as the aim of the Christian life.

Carly Daniel-Hughes: Controversies over Infant Baptism and Infant Mortality in Tertullian of Carthage

Despite high infant morality rates in the Roman Empire, Roman parents commonly grieved the death of infants and small children, in commemorative monuments that attended funerary rites. Yet material remains indicate that these deaths were memorialized less frequently than those of older children. Scholars have suggested the fact that infant death was treated differently than other forms of death reflects broader Roman cultural debates about the status of infants and small children. For instance, Seneca the Elder and Plutarch, wondered to what degree these short or “unrealized” lives should be mourned and what kind of funerary practices were suitable for them. Early Christians likewise had varying understandings of infancy, and these shaped their sacramental practices, particularly baptism. As is well known, Tertullian’s predecessor, Cyprian, challenged local bishops and defended the necessity and practice of infant baptism. This paper argues that already in Tertullian’s lifetime, African Christians were both engaging in, and debating this rite (though Tertullian himself rejected the practice). It does so by examining Tertullian’s discussion of the status of infants possessing both soul and body in De anima, with his comments cautioning against infant baptism in other treatises (notably De baptismo), and considers how Tertullian both relies on and reconfigures Roman understandings of the juridical status of infants and children as he challenges those who would baptize infants. Ultimately, Tertullian’s arguments will be considered in light of shifting understandings of childhood and changing practices of commemorating the deaths of infants and small children in late antiquity.

Maria Doerfler: The Sense of an Ending: Childhood Death and Parental Benefit in Late Ancient Rhetoric

In late antiquity, as in the present era, a society's youngest members were also among its most vulnerable. Demographers suggest that 35 to 50% of children in the Roman Empire died before reaching their tenth year, whether as the result of war, natural disaster, accident, or disease.

Despite such a high rate of childhood mortality, however, families evidently experienced the death of a child or infant as grievous. Christian homilists accordingly sought to reassure parents concerning the fate of the untimely departed, and the divine justice and mercy displayed by their passing.  This was the case, in fact, even in instances where the deceased children in question had not been members of the congregation, but were merely part of the scriptural narrative, as, for example, in the case of the “Holy Innocents” allegedly killed by Herod in Matthew 2:16-18.

On occasion, moreover, late ancient writers and exegetes went beyond projecting favorable circumstances for the dead, and focused instead on the benefits bereaved parents could expect to reap as a result of having so "sacrificed" their children. Such boons ranged from enjoying personalized intercession to experiencing the crowns of vicarious martyrdom. These might have proved cold comfort to the grieving; they nevertheless provide a glimpse into the emergence and transformation of late ancient thought on parental bereavement and at the surprising tenacity of familial bonds.

“Family and Children in the Patristic Tradition” conference, Final call for papers (deadline: 8/15/11)

The Stephen and Catherine Pappas Patristic Institute of Holy Cross Greek Orthodox School of Theology in Brookline, Massachusetts, has slots for a few additional short (20 min) papers at its October 13-15, 2011 conference on "Family and Children in the Patristic Tradition." 
Abstract deadline: no later than Monday, August 15, 2011.
Confirmed plenary speakers include: Véronique Dasen (Fribourg University, “Picturing child and family in the Roman period”), Cornelia B. Horn (St. Louis University, “Children and family in the patristic period: Past, present, and future perspectives”), David G. Hunter (University of  Kentucky, “Family and christianization in the early church”), John W. Martens (University of St. Thomas, “How Christians spoke against the sexual abuse of children in the patristic and late antique world"), Candida Moss (University of Notre Dame, “Abandonment of family/children in the New Testament and some early martyrological literature”), and Mark Tarpley (Southern Methodist University, “Child formation in the thought of Gregory of Nazianzus”).

Conference Announcement and Call For Papers:
Family and Children in the Patristic Tradition
 October 13-15, 2011
Holy Cross Greek Orthodox School of Theology
Brookline, Massachusetts

Portion of Icon of the Entry into Jerusalem,

Stavronikita Monastery, circa 1546

The Stephen and Catherine Pappas Patristic Institute of Holy Cross Greek Orthodox School of Theology is pleased to announce its annual thematic conference on “Family and Children in the Patristic Tradition,” which will be held next Fall on the school’s campus in Brookline, Massachusetts beginning Thursday evening, October 13, and ending with dinner on Saturday, October 15, 2011.

The Conference Theme: Children play a surprising role in several of the narratives in the canonical gospels. They are even viewed by Jesus as paradigmatic of the Kingdom of God, -- “to such as these the Kingdom of Heaven belongs” (Mat 19:14).  In other writings of the New Testament, and in the later patristic corpus, the treatment of children is more varied and complex, including shared viewpoints with the Greco-Roman culture.  The purpose of our conference is to engage those patristic writings, Greek, Latin and Syriac, that treat the subjects of family and children; we will seek to examine both theological and socio-historical treatments of the family and children, attempting to deal with any gaps between the theoretical and the historical.  Paper proposals that examine the use of “family” and “children” as metaphors will also be welcomed, including those treating monasticism.

Confirmed Plenary Speakers:

• Véronique Dasen (Fribourg University, “Picturing child and family in the Roman period”)
• Cornelia B. Horn (St. Louis University, “Children and family in the patristic period: Past, present, and future perspectives”)
• David G. Hunter (University of  Kentucky, “Family and christianization in the early church”)
• John W. Martens (University of St. Thomas, “How Christians spoke against the sexual abuse of children in the patristic and late antique world)
• Candida Moss (University of Notre Dame, “Abandonment of family/children in the New Testament and some early martyrological literature”)
• Mark Tarpley (Southern Methodist University, “Child formation in the thought of Gregory of Nazianzus”)

Call for short papers:

For short (approximately 20 minute) papers, please submit a one-to-two paragraph abstract by no later than Monday, August 15, 2011.  Abstracts should:  1) present a clear thesis; 2) indicate knowledge of the sources; 3) show awareness of relevant methodological, historiographical, or philosophical issues; and 4) treat subject matter that falls within the parameters of Late Ancient and Patristic studies.  Please send your abstract, registration, or any inquiries, to Dr. Bruce Beck, Director, Pappas Patristic Institute (pappaspatristic@comcast.net).  All papers will be considered for publication in our series Holy Cross Studies in Patristic Theology and History (published jointly by BakerAcademic and Holy Cross Greek Orthodox School of Theology).

Please register at your convenience by email to Dr. Bruce Beck at pappaspatristic@comcast.net, with your name, institutional affiliation, address, and phone number.  There is a $125 registration fee, which also includes all the meals and breaks during the conference. This fee is payable upon check-in.  The registration fee for students is $40.00. The registration fee is waived for those presenting a paper.  The conference hotel is the Sheraton of Needham.  Shuttle service will be provided between the conference hotel and the campus.

Founded in 2003 by a generous grant from the late Stephen Pappas and his wife Catherine, the goal of the Pappas Patristic Institute is the advancement and promotion of primarily eastern patristic studies and education in the service of the academy and the Church.