Oxford Interfaith Forum I Ephrem the Syrian & New Beginning in Syriac Poetry I Prof Alberto Rigolio

#OxfordInterfaithForum #poetry #syriac International Interfaith Reading Group on Eastern Christianity in Interfaith Contexts SUBSCRIBE for more sessions: ► @OxfordInterfaithForum/videos Twitter: @faithsoxford Website: “Ephrem the Syrian and a New Beginning in Syriac Poetry“ 15 January, 2024 Abstract: In the decades following Emperor Constantine’s conversion to Christianity, imperial backing for this religion coincided with intensified religious competition and search for orthodoxy across the Roman Empire. I suggest that, in this context of renewed religious, but also literary, competition, a new self-awareness emerged in Syriac poetry, which ultimately reshaped Syriac poetics and led to the birth of Syriac literary criticism. This crucial and far-reaching transformation is instantiated in the work of Ephrem the Syrian (d. 373 CE), who made a case for the fundamental coherence of his poetry with Scripture. Speaker: Professor Alberto Rigolio, Associate Professor in Classics, Durham University, UK. Speaker’s Biography: Alberto Rigolio is an Associate Professor at Durham University and currently a British Academy Mid-Career Fellow. He works on the cultural and intellectual history of the eastern Mediterranean world in Late Antiquity. His current project focuses on the origins of Syriac, and asks why and how a local variety of Aramaic from northern Mesopotamia became the vehicle of one of the most prestigious literatures of Late Antiquity and beyond. Chair: Professor Sebastian Brock, FBA, University of Oxford, UK Date: 15 January, 2024. Time: 17:00-18:00 GMT | 9:00-10:00 PST | 12:00-13:00 EST More information: