Forthcoming workshops:

1) The network organizes a joint meeting with the Context Group in Helsinki-Järvenpää, June 18-21, 2012. The meeting provides an excellent opportunity for the network members to engage in dialogue with this pioneering group of Biblical social-scientific criticism.

There is still room for papers that deal with networks or any other social-scientific or cognitive topic within the study early Judaism and early Christianity. If you are interested in presenting in this meeting, please see the attached instructions and send an abstract of your paper to petri.luomanen@helsinki.fi by April 13.

2) The workshop on ritual will be organized in Aarhus, November 2-3, 2012. More information on this in the next information letter of the network. For preliminary information contact Anders Klostergaard Petersen (AKP@teo.au.dk).

3) The workshop on cognitive poetics and socio-rhetorical analysis will take place at the University of Oslo, Norway on 15-17 January 2013. The meeting will offer a wide perspective on the use of various cutting-edge approaches to the New Testament and other Early Christian literature. The program of the workshop will be based mostly on invited papers (sponsored by the network) but there is also room for participants who wish to attend on their own expense. For more information about the program, please contact Lauri Thurén (lauri.thuren@uef.fi). For all other questions, such as practical arrangements, please contact Kirsten Marie Hartvigsen (k.m.hartvigsen@teologi.uio.no).

Original workshop plan for 2010-2013

• Opening seminar (1. research seminar): Cognitive science and the Bible: A symposium about the use of methods from the cognitive sciences in Biblical studies. Chair: Thomas Kazen. Location: Stockholm. Time: October 21-22 2010. See the program here.


• MoralityThe role of religion and religious communities (2. research seminar). Research seminar at the Helsinki Collegium for Advanced Studies. Chair: Petri Luomanen; co-organizers: Anne-Birgitta Pessi, Ilkka Pyysiäinen. Location: Helsinki. Time: March 2011


• Network theory and social networks. Chair: István Czachesz; co-organizers: Risto Uro, Mikko Heimola. Location: Helsinki. Time: open


• Memory, orality, and identity. Chair: Samuel Byrskog; co-organizers: Raimo Hakola, Jutta Jokiranta, Petri Luomanen. Location: Lund. Time: open


• Ritual. Chair: Anders Klostergaard Petersen; co-organizers: Liv Ingeborg Lied, Risto Uro. Location: Aarhus. Time: open


• Morality and mind. Chair: Thomas Kazen; co-organizers: Jeppe Sinding Jensen, Kari Syreeni, Cecilia Wassen. Location: open (Stockholm or Åbo). Time: open


• Cognitive poetics and socio-rhetorical analysis. Chair: Lauri Thuren; co-organizers: Kirsten Hartvigsen, Hugo Lundhaug. Location: open (Joensuu or Oslo). Time: open


• Closing workshop: Social and cognitive science in the analysis of texts and history. Chairs: Troels Engberg-Pedersen and Jesper Tang Nielsen; co-organizers: Jon Ma. Asgeirsson, Risto Uro. Location: Copenhagen. Time: fall 2013