In March 19-21, I attended the annual meeting of AK-Patristik, a forum for doctoral and early career researchers in patristic studies to present their work. As a spectator myself this time, I could still take part in the discussion, establish useful contacts and, of course, enjoy the new insights won through the scholarly exchange.

This year the conference was organized under the title “Crossroads of Traditions: The Reception of Biblical Figures in Judaism and Christianity” by the SNSF-funded research project at University of Bern, “The Jewish and Christian Samuel: Connections, Demarcations, Entanglements.” In addition to a keynote by David Hamidovich, we heard eleven contributions by young European scholars on different Biblical figures. The proceedings of the conference will be published in the book series Judaïsme ancien et origines du christianisme by Brepols publishers.

The conference was opened by Katharina Heyden in her role of the project leader. She introduced the idea behind her interest in Samuel reception. She explained how exploring the figure of Samuel could open up fresh perspective to the parallel development of early Christian and Jewish traditions. Heyden argued that Samuel, as theologically less charged a figure than many others, has the potential of exposing a richer variety of ways in which Christian and Jewish interpretations differ and converge not only with each other but amongst themselves too. Three of the presentations to follow were related to this project, exploring different aspects of Samuel reception (Josef Glanz, Sara Moscone, Severin Moosmann).

I also found it interesting – not least from heteronomous texts point of view – to hear about another Bern-based project Heyden is leading in cooperation with Princeton University (U.S.) called “Interactive Histories, Co-Produced Communities: Judaism, Christianity, and Islam”. The goal of this latter project is to explore the development of early Judaism, Christianity and Islam through the lens of mutual interaction, as well as thinking about and imagining the other. Objects of research comprise different aspects of the respective religions, including theology, artifacts, rituals, and texts.

David Hamidovich’s keynote, which he had titled “Methodological Footnotes,” gave a lot to chew on for a scholar of heteronomous texts with her background in Rewritten Bible discourse. Approaches Hamidovich took up included coloniality of knowledge, New Criticism in assessing a text’s authority, ‘apocryphicity’ within a theory of reception, text as memory, and finally dynamics between ‘traditum’, ‘traditio’ and ‘tradition’. With these perspectives, Hamidovich emphasized texts as survivors of a selection process reflecting power dynamics present in their particular contexts. Seen that way, he argued, the reception of Biblical figures could function as witness for cultural trajectories of the contexts they took shape in.

Apart from the three papers focused on Samuel, it was striking to see how many female figures featured in the contributions of the young scholars. Out of the eight remaining presentations, five showcased women: Rebecca (Barbara Beyer), Ruth (Ilija Baumann), Susanna (Davide D’Amico), Jezebel (Anamika Wehen), and women as metaphors for cities in the Book of Ezechiel (Sophie Kultzen). Presentations on exemplary male figures included Irene Gobbi on Phinehas (Num 25) as Cyril of Alexandria’s alter ego and Stefan Metz on Job as athleta dei. Finally, Marie-Christin Barleben offered an excursus to the reception of a non-human Biblical figure, the serpent in Gen 3.

Not only did the conference serve as my debut into the research community of patristic studies, but prompted useful perspectives for figuring out the more precise focus and approach of my own research also.