UVA Welcomes Robin Darling Young

Next year the Judaism and Christianity in Antiquity program is excited to welcome Prof. Robin Darling Young, who will be serving as a visiting professor while Prof. Judy Kovacs is on sabbatical. I've already received some information regarding one of her graduate courses, and it looks fascinating:

RELC 5559 Reading Practices in Early and Medieval Christianity

Robin Darling Young

This course traces the origins and development of Christian ways of reading sacred texts, from the second century through the twelfth. It considers the early tradition of rewritten scripture and prophetic inspiration, and moves next to the paidetic philosophy common in the schools of the Graeco-Roman empire and adopted by Christian writers of the third and fourth centuries. It traces, also, Christian interpreters’ cultivation of the "spiritual senses" and their preparation for reading by observing various ascetic and liturgical practices. In addition it will consider the preservation of midrashic interpretation among two fourth-century Syriac authors, to demonstrate an ongoing connection, in the late ancient near east, with rabbinic interpretation. Thus the course will examine the works of interpreters from Hermas in second-century Rome, through the Alexandrians and their monastic heirs, and then, in the Latin West, authors from Augustine through Bernard of Clairvaux and Hugh of St. Victor.

For those who have the languages, there will be an opportunity for biweekly meetings to read selected texts in their original languages.

Sign me up. ;-)