On Thursday and Friday, 17-18 MAY 2012, the Research Unit-History of Church and Theology of the KU Leuven Faculty of Theology will organise, in collaboration with the Augustinian Historical Institute (Heverlee/Leuven) and KU Leuven Faculty of Theology, the first-ever international expert seminar dedicated exclusively to research on Donatist Christianity and related themes. This conference will bring together scholars from all over the world who have made important contributions to the study of ancient North African Christianity in recent years as well as provide a platform for newly-arriving scholars.

The contributions to the symposium can be dedicated to various topics. The following survey presents some possible themes, but does not intend to exclude alternative issues or approaches: the effect of Imperial intervention/political aspects of the Donatist leadership, the development of Augustine’s theology through the controversy, theological content in the African councils (sacramentology, ecclesiology, martyrology, christology), the role of authority and tradition in the controversy, the role of leading personalities in the controversy, the bible in Africa, rhetorical analysis of polemical literature, textual-critical studies of the sources, archaeological findings and African liturgy, and the later history of Donatism and its reception in early-modern controversies. Each contribution is supposed to include a general, methodological conclusion which would enable perspectives for further research.

Our featured speakers will include North African specialists: Maureen Tilley (USA), Geert van Reyn (Belgium), Marcin Wysocki (Poland), Geoffrey Dunn (Australia), Paul Van Geest (Netherlands), Carles Buenacasa-Pérez (Spain), Matthew Alan Gaumer (Belgium), Matteo Dalvit (Italy), Jane Merdinger (USA), Ilaria Ramelli (Italy), Anthony Dupont (Belgium), Erika Hermanowicz (USA), Paola Marone (Italy), Ed Smither (USA), Clemens Weidmann (Austria), Stanislaw Adamiak (Poland), Bart van Egmond (Netherlands), and Alden Bass (USA).  

This symposium is the closing-segment of a four-year research initiative sponsored by the Fund for Scientific Research - Flanders (Het Fonds Wetenschappelijk Onderzoek – Vlaanderen (FWO) under the project heading: The appeal to Cyprian in the Donatist and Pelagian controversies: a study of the legitimacy of the use of authority in two controversies in the life of Augustine.

Metaquestion: Central in this research proposal is the reception of Cyprian in Augustine and the Donatists in the Donatist Controversy and in Augustine and in a lesser degree by the Pelagians in the Pelagian Controversy. All parties in both controversies refer positively to Cyprian and consider him as a iudex, vested with auctoritas to be consulted in exemplary and doctrinal matters. The basic question of this research is: if/where/how is the Cyprian profile respectively in both camps different and/or similar and if/where/how Augustine's Cyprianic profile is identical or different in both controversies? Which elements play a role in these similarities in/or differences and can we observe an evolution in Augustine? What does a comparative analysis teach us about the concepts of auctoritas, novitas and traditio in Augustine and his opponents.

FWO Website: http://www.fwo.be/
KULeuven Project Tag: http://www.kuleuven.be/research/researchdatabase/project/3H09/3H090025.htm