Knowledge to die for: Transmission of Prohibited and Esoteric Knowledge through Space and Time

Knowledge to Die For: Transmission of Prohibited and Esoteric Knowledge through Space and Time Convenor: Florentina Badalanova Geller (fgeller@zedat.fu-berlin.de) Provisional Programme, 2-4 May, 2011 Monday 2nd May 10.00 Welcome address: Jürgen Renn (MPIWG, Berlin) 10.30 Michael Stone (Hebrew University, Jerusalem) Claims of esotericism in ancient Jewish Literature 11.30 Coffee 12.00 Boris Uspensky (Istituto Orientale di Napoli) The Glagolitic alphabet as a Manifestation of the Sacred Knowledge 13.00 Lunch 14.30 Gebhard Selz (University of Vienna) Esotericism in Mesopotamia 15.15 Tal Ilan (FU Berlin) The Torah of the Rabbi to live for, the Knowledge of Women to die for: Timtinis and the Rabbis 16.00 Tea 16.15 Alexander Kulik (Hebrew University, Jerusalem) Proto-Gnostic Traditions in Apocalyptic Literature 17.00 James Russell (Harvard University, Cambridge, MA) Two books of secret lore: one nonexistent but thought to be real, the other real but thought a fiction Free evening Tuesday 3rd May 10.00 H. Kippenberg (Jacobs University, Bremen) The practice of dissimulating one's religious identity in ancient Christianity, Gnosticism and Early Islam 10.45 Dimitri Gutas (Yale University, New Haven, Conn) Knowledge to Lie For: Medieval Affectations of Esoteric Philosophy and Modern Scholarship 11.30 Coffee 11.45 Angelika Neuwirth (FU Berlin) The "hidden world", al-ghayb, in the Qur’an, a present absentee. 12.30 Lunch 14.00 Antonio Panaino (University of Ravenna) A ritual esoteric simulation of the ascent to Paradise in the 3rd c. inscriptions of the Sasanian High Priest Kirder 14.45 Maria Macuch (FU Berlin) Heresy and Esoterism in Pre-Islamic Iran 15.30 Tea 16.00 Velizar Sadovski (Austrian Academy of Sciences) Knowledge of magic - magic of knowledge: Atharva-Veda and systematization of universe in sacred tradition of Indo-Iranian 16.45 Jens Braarvig (University of Oslo) Secrecy and open access in historical India – some cases 17.30 Matteo Martelli (HU Berlin) 1 Enoch and the first book of alchemy (short paper) Dinner for Speakers and Chairpersons 7.00 pm Wednesday 4th May 10.00 Desmond Durkin-Meisterernst (Brandenburg Academy of Sciences) What did Manichaeans think of dying for your beliefs? 10.45 Yuri Stoyanov (SOAS, London) Dualism as a Proscribed and Secreted Knowledge in pre-modern heterodox forms of Christianity - provenance and evolution 11.30 Coffee 11.45 David Shankland (Royal Anthropological Institute of Great Britain & Ireland, London) Ritual, secrecy, and the creation of Alevi-tradition in Anatolia 12.30 Closing discussion

For further information check the conference homepage at http://www.mpiwg-berlin.mpg.de/en/index.html

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