New Testament Research Seminars
The New Testament Research Seminar has a long and distinguished history, dating back to its establishment under FC Burkitt in c. 1912. Membership then, which was by invitation, was for Cambridge academics, not just from Theology but also from related disciplines, and visitors from other Universities also attended; of those days an early member wrote:
"After all it was terrifying, if you were unlearned and a newcomer, to take your place at that table, or to sit on a chair at the other end of the room and gaze on the learned from afar."
Our purpose is still shared serious academic engagement, but we hope it is somewhat less terrifying.
Members are drawn from the Faculty and others with a specialist interest in the field in Cambridge, as well as from visiting scholars spending time in Cambridge; graduate students in the field are valued members, and participation in the Seminar is a core element of the research programme for doctoral students.
Papers cover a wide range of themes and approaches within the general field of New Testament study, including the wider context of the history and thought of the period and of early Christianity, and are followed by extensive discussion. Speakers come from Cambridge, from other universities in the UK, and from overseas.
Image used on this page: Title: F. J. A. Hort. Creator: Unknown. Source: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Fenton_JA_Hort.jpg. Licence: Public domain.
Cambridge New Testament Research Seminar 2025–26
Tuesdays in even weeks, 4:00–5:30pm, Lightfoot Room
Convenor: Prof. George van Kooten, gv258@cam.ac.uk (also for Zoom requests)
MT
21 October 2025–Susanne Luther (Göttingen)—‘Topographies of Conduct? Ethical Implications of Ekphrastic Narrative’
4 November 2025–Anna Lefteratou, ‘Orestes and Luke-Acts’
18 November 2025—Dominique Cabaret (CNRS), ‘Topography of Herodian & Early Roman Jerusalem’ (2022)
2 December 2025—James Carleton Paget, ‘The Contested Figure of Albert Schweitzer’ (2025)
LT
3 February 2026–Hugh Houghton, ‘The new “Textual Commentary on the Greek New Testament”’ (2025)
17 February 2026–Olivier Boulnois (Paris, EPHE), ‘St Paul and Philosophy (2026)
3 March 2026–Sophie Lunn Rockliffe, ‘Early Christian Usages of John 8.44, “You are of your father the devil”: the afterlife of John 8.44 in early Christian sayings'.
17 March 2026–Annual Erasmus Lecture (Runcie Room): Fotini Hadjittofi (Lisbon), ‘The parallels between Nonnus’ “Paraphrase of the Gospel of John” and his “Dionysiaca”’
ET
12 May 2026–Simon Gathercole, ‘The Apocryphal Gospel Material of Celsus’ Jew: Recovering the Jewish Source behind Contra Celsum Book I’
26 May 2026–Matthias Becker (Heidelberg), ‘The Gospels in the Hagiographic Discourse of the Imperial Period’