Conveners
Professor Hindy Najman, Professor Joachim Schaper, Dr Hywel Clifford
Programme of Events
8.45 – 9.00
Prof. Hindy Najman and Dr. Hywel Clifford (University of Oxford) and Prof. Joachim Schaper (University of Aberdeen) –
Welcome & Introduction
Session I
Chair: Dr. Hywel Clifford (University of Oxford)
9.00 – 9.45
Prof. Joachim Schaper (University of Aberdeen) – “Media Archaeology” and Research into the Origins of Jewish
Monotheism: Some Thoughts on Method, in Dialogue with Jan Assmann and Others
9.45 – 10.30
Prof. Eckart Otto (Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München) – Historical Dialectics in the Judean History of Religion on
Its Course to Monotheism
10.30 – 10.45
Break
Session II
Chair: Prof. Hindy Najman (University of Oxford)
10.45 – 11.30
Prof. Nathan MacDonald (University of Cambridge) – Priestly Monotheism
11.30 – 12.15
Dr. Hywel Clifford (University of Oxford) – The Apologetic and the Axial: “Monotheism” between Israelite Yahwism and
Early Greek Philosophy
12.15 – 1.00
Dr. Antonella Bellantuono (University of Lille) – Religious Coexistence in Antiquity: The Relationship between Jewish
Monotheism and the Egyptian cults
1.00 – 2.00
Break
Session III
Chair: Prof. Joachim Schaper (University of Aberdeen)
2.00 – 2.45
Prof. Peter Machinist (Harvard University) – Choosing the Proper Terminology: A Biblical Quest Toward Monotheism
2.45 – 3.30
Prof. Daniel Fleming (New York University) – Yahweh before Israel: A Pastoralist People of the Levantine Interior
3.30 – 3.45
Break
Session IV
Chair: Dr. Phillip Lasater (University of Oxford)
3.45 – 4.30
Prof. Friedhelm Hartenstein (Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München) – Monotheism, Aniconism, and Mental Images
in the Light of Deuteronomy 4
4.30 – 5.15
Prof. Guy G. Stroumsa (Hebrew University of Jerusalem, University of Oxford) – Semitic Monotheism: A Scholarly Myth
and its Origins
5.15 – 6.00
Prof. Konrad Schmid (University of Zurich) – The Readability of the World: The Priestly Monotheism and Its Quest for
God’s Transcendence and the World’s Rationality
6.00 – 6.30
Remarks: Lord Mendoza (Provost, Oriel College)
Plenary Reflections: Dr. Phillip Lasater (University of Oxford) and Prof. Hindy Najman (University of Oxford)
Closing Remarks: Prof. Joachim Schaper (University of Aberdeen) and Dr. Hywel Clifford (University of Oxford)