----Monday, 25 January 2010

13.30 h Conference Registration

14.15 h Welcome
Volker Rabens, Conference Organiser, Bochum, Germany

14.20 h Address
Volkhard Krech, Comparative Religion, Bochum, Germany

14.30 h Introduction
Peter Wick, New Testament, Bochum, Germany

15.00 h SECTION I: TOPOLOGY OF RELIGIOUS SPACE
(Chair: Jörg Plassen, East Asian Religions, Bochum, Germany)
Transformation of a Ritual Site: Udayagiri and the Gupta Kings
Michael Willis, South Asian Art History, London, U.K.

15.35 h Mapping the ‘Buddhakshetra’ of Gotama at Sacred Bodhgaya
Abhishek Singh Amar, South Asian Religions, London, U.K.

16.10 h Coffee Break

16.45 h The Greek Buddhists of Asia: A Case Study in Reciprocal Assimilation
Georgios Halkias, Oriental Studies, Oxford, U.K.

17.10 h Localizing the Buddha’s Presence at Wayside Shrines: Stūpa Images, Donative Inscriptions, and Buddhist Narratives in Northern Pakistan
Jason Neelis, South Asian Buddhism, Gainesville, Florida, USA

17.55 h Buddhist Influence on Spatial Concepts in Thirteenth-Century Korea: Focusing on Samguk yusa (Memorabilia of the Three Kingdoms)
Myoungin Yu, Korean Studies, Bochum, Germany

18.30 h Discussion

19.15 h Dinner

20.15 h KEYNOTE LECTURE
Together with the Grain Came the Gods from the Orient to Rome
Christoph Auffarth, Comparative Religion, Bremen, Germany

----Tuesday, 26 January 2010

9.00 h SECTION II: RELIGIOUS SYMBOL SYSTEMS
(Chair: Christian Frevel, Old Testament, Bochum, Germany)
Ancient Religions as Symbol Systems
Izak Cornelius, Ancient Studies, Stellenbosch, South Africa

9.45 h Nanaja and her Symbols in East and West
Joan Goodnick Westenholz, Assyriology, Chicago, USA

10.30 h Coffee Break

11.00 h Snakes as Ancient Near Eastern Symbols in Cross-Cultural Contact
Rosel Pientka-Hinz, Assyriology, Marburg, Germany

11.45 h Transfer and Transformation of Religious Beliefs between Iran and Central Asia during the Bronze Age
Sylvia Winkelmann, Near and Central Asian Archaeology, Halle, Germany

12.30 h Discussion

13.15 h Lunch (Mensa)

14.30 h SECTION III: RELIGIOUS KNOWLEDGE
(Chair: Stefan Reichmuth, Islamic Studies, Bochum, Germany)
Revising the Vulgate: Jerome and his Jewish Interlocutors
Görge Hasselhoff, Church History, Bochum, Germany

15.15 h Zoroastrianism in the Talmud: The Case of Hannukah
Geoffrey Herman, Ancient Jewish Studies, Jerusalem, Israel

16.00 h Coffee Break

16.30 h The Concept of God according to Umayyah b. Abi Salt
Al Makin, Islamic Studies, Yogyakarta, Indonesia

17.15 h The Place and Role of Astronomy in Sunni Kalam Works from the Tenth to the Fourteenth Centuries
Damien Janos, Islamic Studies, Bochum, Germany

18.00 h Discussion

19.00 h Dinner (in Bochum)

----Wednesday, 27 January 2010

9.00 h SECTION IV: RELIGIOUS-ETHICAL WAYS OF LIFE
(Chair: Peter Wick, New Testament, Bochum, Germany)
The Buddhist Transformation of Daoism
Livia Kohn, Religion and East Asian Studies, Boston, USA

9.45 h Hellenism as the Right Way of Life
Erich Kistler, Archaeology, Bochum, Germany

10.30 h Coffee Break

11.00 h Moral Reasoning between Hebrew Bible and Greek Thought: Philo of Alexandria as an Agent of Religious Transformation
Volker Rabens, New Testament, Bochum, Germany

11.45 h New Testament Ethics and Jewish Tradition in Cross-Cultural Perspective
Loren Stuckenbruck, New Testament, Princeton, USA

12.30 h Discussion

13.15 h Lunch (Mensa)

14.30 h PLENARY DISCUSSION: RELIGIOUS FORMATION, TRANSFORMATION AND CROSS-CULTURAL EXCHANGE
(Chair: Christian Frevel, Old Testament, Bochum, Germany)

16.30 h End of Conference