Reconsidering the Concept of “Revolutionary Monotheism”
Conference, February 10th-11th, 2007 at Princeton University

Saturday

9:00 Welcome

Morning Session, Chair: Michael Cook (Princeton University)

9:15-10:15      
John Baines (Oxford University): “Between Many and One: Discourse Related to God and Gods in Late New Kingdom and Third Intermediate Period Egypt”

10:30-10:45 Coffee Break

10:45-11:45
Pjotr Steinkeller (Harvard University): “Many and One:  Conceptions of Divinity in Ancient Mesopotamia (or in Defense of Polytheism)”
 
11:45-12:45
Beate Pongratz-Leisten (Princeton University):  “Translating Universalism into Cultic Omnipresence in Assyria and Babylonia in the 7th and 6th Century BCE”

12:45-1:45PM Lunch Break

Afternoon Session, Chair:  Patricia Crone (Institute of Advanced Studies)

1:45-2:45PM
Francesca Rochberg (University of California, Riverside, currently Institute of Advanced Studies, Princeton): “Polytheistic Cosmology and the Question of Universal Theology”

2:45-3:45PM
Peter Machinist (Harvard University):  “How Gods Die, Biblically and Otherwise:  A Problem of Cosmic Restructuring”

3:45-4:00PM Coffee Break

4:00-5:00PM
Oktor Skjaervo:  “Iranian Monotheism and/or Dualism, Ahura Mazda the Only God?”

5:00-6:00PM
Mark Smith (New York University): “Lost in Translation:  World Theologies and “Monotheism” in the Eastern Mediterranean World Between the Late Bronze Age and Late Antiquity”

6-7.00: Reception

7.00 Dinner

Sunday

Morning Session, Chair:  Martha Himmelfarb (Princeton University)

9:00-10:00
Leong Seow (Princeton Theological Seminary):  “Monotheism and the Problem of Divine Justice in the Book of Job”

10:00-10:15 Coffee Break

10:15-11:15
Christoph Uehlinger (University of Zürich): “Cult, Ritual and Monotheism:  Considering the Rise of Judahite/Samarian Monotheism in Practical Terms”

11:15-12:15:
Konrad Schmid (University of Zürich, currently Center for Theological Inquiry):  “The Quest for ‘GOD’:  Monotheistic Arguments in the Priestly Texts of the Hebrew Bible”

12:15-1:30 Lunch Break

Afternoon Session, Chair:  Peter Schaefer (Princeton University)

1:30-2:30
John Collins (Yale University):  “King and Messaiah as Son of God”

2:30-2:45: Coffee Break

2:45-4:00

Concluding Panel:  Beate Pongratz-Leisten (presiding), Peter Machinist, Mark Smith and John Collins