Contents:
About the Seminar
This ongoing seminar within the Canadian Society of Biblical Studies (CSBS, from 2005) explores the ways in which travel and mobility influenced, constrained, and facilitated religious activity and cultural interaction in antiquity (especially in the Hellenistic and Roman periods, but also in Persian and earlier periods as well). This encompasses issues pertaining to ancient travel literature, ethnography, (pre-Christian) pilgrimage, topography of sacred space, occupational travelers, and migration. Discourses of travel and the function of journey motifs within narrative and other sources will occupy our attention. The seminar also deals with the dissemination and interaction of religious practices and worldviews. Although certainly not limited to studies of early Judaism and Christianity, the seminar sheds light on how such topics relating to travel affected adherents, leaders, authors, and movements within these traditions.
There is an ongoing call for papers from members of the CSBS relating to these topics. Please contact Steve Muir to get involved as a presenter or respondent.
Statue of Hermes "before the gates" from Pergamon (now in the Istanbul Archeological Museum). This messenger god was often considered patron deity of roads and could be found at important intersections.
Seminar Papers Online
2008
Session 1: Religious Practitioners on the Road: Concepts and Practice (Chair: Phil Harland, York University)
(Monday June 2, 1:30-4:30)
Leif Vaage (Emmanuel College, University of Toronto)
"Moving Targets: Itinerancy, Q, and Early Christian History"Respondent: Bill Arnal (University of Regina)
Jason T. Lamoreaux (Brite Divinity School)
"Travel and Transformation: Saul on the Road to Damascus"Respondent: Richard Ascough (Queen’s Theological College)
Dina Teitelbaum (University of Ottawa)
"On the Road Again: Travels of the Rabbis"Respondent: Steven Muir (Concordia University College of Alberta)
Catherine Sider-Hamilton (University of Toronto)
"Egeria the Pilgrim: Pilgrimage as Sacred Time and Place"Respondent: Alicia Batten (Pacific Lutheran College)
Session 2: Concepts of Death and the Underworld in Relation to Ancient Travel (Chair: Steven Muir, Concordia University College of Alberta)
(Tuesday, June 3, 9-11:30)
Karljurgen Feuerherm (Wilfrid Laurier University)
"Mesopotamian Reflections on Immortality"Kyle Griffith (California State University San Marcos)
"Narratives of the Afterlife in Tombs of Roman Libya" (text)Photographs to accompany Griffith paper
Ellen Bradshaw Aitken (McGill University)
"To Encounter a Hero: Localization and Travel in Hellenistic Hero Cults"Response to all papers: John Marshall (University of Toronto)
2007
Session: Hellenistic, Judean, and Early Christian Travelers (Chair: TBA)
(Monday May 28, 1:30-4:30, THORV 110)
Wayne O. McCready (University of Calgary)
“Pilgrimage, Place and Meaning-Making by Jews in Greco-Roman Egypt.”Response: John W. Marshall (University of Toronto)
Ryan Schellenberg (Toronto School of Theology)
“‘Danger in the Wilderness, Danger at Sea’ (2 Cor 11:26): Paul and the Perils of Travel.”Response: Rene Baergen (Toronto School of Theology)
Lincoln H. Blumell (University of Toronto)
“Christians on the Move: Travel and Social-Networking in Late Antique Oxyrhynchus.”Response: Michele Murray (Bishop’s University)
2006
Session 1: Ethnographic Discourses and Migration (Chair: Richard Ascough, Queen’s University)
James Rives (York University),
“Roman Interpretation.”Response: Bill Arnal (University of Regina)
Roger Beck (University of Toronto at Mississauga, Emeritus),
“Migrating with Your Gods: The Roman Myth of Origins as Shaped by Virgil.”Response: John S. Kloppenborg (University of Toronto)
Jack N. Lightstone (Brock University),
“Migration, Communication, and the Transformation of Judaism in the Greco-Roman Period: Prolegomena.”Response: Adele Reinhartz (University of Ottawa)
Session 2: Cultic Journeys and Early Christian Travelers (Chair: Steve Wilson, Carleton University)
Karljürgen G. Feuerherm (Wilfrid Laurier University),
“Have Horn, Will Travel: Mesopotamian Deities and Akitu-processions.”Response: Carl Ehrlich (York University)
Susan Haber (McMaster University),
“Going Up to Jerusalem: Purity, Pilgrimage and the Historical Jesus.”Response: Terry Donaldson (Wycliffe, Toronto School of Theology)
Erin Vearncombe (Wycliffe, Toronto School of Theology),
“The Merchant of Hierapolis: Implications for the Study of Travel and Early Christianity.”Response: Dan Smith (University of Western Ontario)
2005
Session 1: Overtures on the Interplay of Travel and Religion
Philip A. Harland (Concordia University, Montreal),
“Pausing at the Intersection of Religion and Travel in Antiquity.”Response: Willi Braun (University of Alberta)
Steven Muir (Concordia University College of Alberta),
“‘He talked to us on the road’ - Encountering the Divine While Traveling”Response: Colleen Shantz (University of Toronto)
Ian W. Scott (King’s College),
“The Divine Wanderer: Itinerancy and Divinization in the Greco-Roman World.”Response: Kimberly Stratton (Carleton University)
Session 2: Realities of Travel
Robert Jewett (University of Heidelberg, Guest Professor),
“The Troas Project: Investigating Maritime and Land Routes to Clarify the Role of Alexandreia Troas in Commerce and Religion.”Response: Richard Ascough (Queen's University)
Agnes Choi (University of Toronto),
“The Traveling Peasant and Urban-Rural Relations in Roman Galilee.”Response: Anders Runesson (McMaster University)
Lincoln Blumell (University of Toronto),
“Beware of the Bandits! The Perils of Land Travel in the Early Roman Empire.”Response: Alicia Batten (Pacific Lutheran University)
Michele Murray (Bishop’s University),
“Religion on the Move: Nomadic Culture among the Nabateans and Others.”Response: Wayne McCready (University of Calgary)
Bibliographies Online
“Travel and Religion in Antiquity: A Preliminary Classified Bibliography.”
(Prepared by Angela Brkich, Sacha Mathew, Daniel Bernard, and Philip Harland -- June 10, 2005 edition)So far includes sections on:
1. Realities of Travel in the Ancient Mediterranean (including general works and works on dangers of travel [banditry])
2. Religions of the Ancient Mediterranean and Travel (including pilgrimage, itinerant religious practitioners, diffusion of religions)
3. Ancient Ethnography, Geography, and Travelogues
4. Immigrants and Occupational Travelers (including Nomads)
5. Judaism, the Near East, and Travel
6. Early Christianity and Travel (including Jesus and the Gospels, Paul and Acts, other early Christian literature, geography of heresies)
7. Interdisciplinary and Cross-Cultural Methods and Theory (including geography of religion and the cultural history of travel)
Links (to External Resources)
Realities of Travel
Distance and Communication in the Roman empire (John Paul Adams)
Chart showing distances and travel-times between ancient cities, by land and by sea (based on ancient accounts)Roman Roads (Lacus Curtius, Bill Thayer)
Several useful resources concerning Roman roads, including photographs of the Via Flaminia and Via Appia in ItalyRoman Roads in Britain by Thomas Codrington (1903)
Full text of the book, now in the public domain. Hosted at Bill Thayer's website.Roman Roads: Peutinger's Tabula
This site allows you to view the various parts of Peutinger's Table, a 12th century copy of a Roman road mapTabula Peutingeriana (Bibliotheca Augustana)
Photographs of Peutinger's Table, a 12th century copy of an ancient Roman mapVirtual Museum of Nautical Archaeology (Texas A&M)
Photographs and discussion of several underwater archeological projects, including several Greek, Roman, and Byzantine shipwrecksAncient travel narratives (real or imagined), travel literature, and ethnography
Hanno (Livius.org, Jona Lendering)
Introduction and translation of Hanno of Carthage's voyage along the western coast of Africa in the early sixth century BCEHerodotus, Histories (Perseus)
Greek text and translation (by A. D. Godley)Herodotus on the Web
Links to translations and discussions of Herodotus' HistoriesLost Trails: Herodotus Project
Pausanias, Description of Greece (Perseus)
Greek text and translation (by W.H.S. Jones and H.A. Ormerod) from the Loeb Classical LibraryProject on Ancient Cultural Engagement (PACE at York University, Steve Mason)
Materials pertaining to ancient ethnography and encounters among cultures in antiquity, including the works of Josephus and Polybius with Greek texts, English translations, and commentariesPtolemy: The Geography (Lacus Curtius, Bill Thayer)
The only available (also non-scholarly) English translation of Claudius Ptolemy's second century CE work (translated by Edward Luther Stevenson [1932] based on a Latin translation by Karl Müller, not the original Greek text)Strabo: The Geography, books 3-5 (Lacus Curtius, Bill Thayer)
English translation (by H. L. Jones) for books 3-5 from the Loeb Classical Library editionStrabo: The Geography, books 6-14 (Perseus)
Greek texts and English translation (by H. L. Jones) for books 6-14 from the Loeb Classical Library editionTravel Narratives: Travel and Travel Accounts in World History (Jerry H. Bentley, Center for History and New Media, George Mason University)
General discussion of travel narratives as historical evidence, including links to other online resources, particularly for the modern periodTravel, Judaism, and early Christianity
Anonymous Pilgrim of Bordeaux (333 A.D., Franciscan order site)
Introduction and English translation of the earliest known travelogue by a pilgrim (from Bordeaux to the Holy Land)By Land and By Sea: The We-Passages and Ancient Sea Voyages (Vernon Robbins)
Article dealing with travel in the narrative of the Acts of the ApostlesInscription of Abercius (Early Christian Writings, Peter Kirby)
Links and translation (by Quasten) of the second-century grave inscription of Abercius of Hieropolis (perhaps Avercius Marcellus, a bishop), which relates this Christian's journeys across the empire
Copyright notice:
Unless otherwise stated, the copyright of each paper appearing on this site is owned by the individual author of each paper. No part of the papers may be reproduced in any manner without prior written permission from the author or copyright owner.