Inside the Core, We Hold Our First Scholars' Forum in the CIT

Inside the Core this week, we look forward to our first Scholars’ Forum in the Catholic Intellectual Tradition at 4 p.m., Wednesday, October 9, on Microsoft Teams. This particular event is very near to my heart, as the presentation will be by Francis Hunter, my former Core III/English student and recent English M.A. graduate, and myself regarding our recently published book, The Passion Narratives of Saints. Perpetua, Felicity, and their Fellow Martyrs (Lexington Press of Rowman and Littlefield, 2024). Frank did the translation of Perpetua’s prison writings, as well as the two accompanying Acta, written some fifty years or so after the martyrs’ deaths. Perpetua was a catechumen (meaning she was studying the faith prior to baptism), a young married mother with a nursing child, when she was arrested in the year 203. She and her companions, all of whom were catechumens except for their teacher who voluntarily joined them in arrest, were baptized in prison prior to their execution. She wrote (or, as some scholars think, perhaps dictated) her story.

Frank first translated the work as a simple act of devotion; however, he eventually enlisted my help as an editor, and we developed the volume into a book, supplementing the text with essays by six other scholars, including three from Seton Hall, including Father Joseph Laracy of Immaculate Conception Seminary School of Theology; Todd Stockdale, Ph.D., Core Fellow and Coordinator of Core II; and Sister Mary John Bosco Amakwe, Core faculty member. Their essays, along with Frank’s and my accompanying essays, and those of three other scholars from other settings than Seton Hall, explore various aspects of Perpetua’s interesting and inspiring Passio, as her text is called in Latin. It also explores the Acta, looking at both texts in terms of language, theology, history, contemporary events and identity.

Next Wednesday, Frank and I will be joined on Microsoft Teams by the Seton Hall scholars who contributed to the volume, as we each discuss our part of the now-published text. This project has grown out of the Core, as Perpetua’s Passio is a required text in Core II. That is where Frank Hunter first read the Passio, when he took Core II with Father Laracy. When Frank was a student in my Core III/English class in 2019, he was already excited about the study of Latin and the classics as well as the links between literature and faith. However, he translated the work some time later as he began to think about it years after he had read it in Core II. In light of these connections with Seton Hall and specifically the Core, it has been truly meaningful to me to see the translation develop and to read the fascinating accompanying essays of our colleagues, all six of which are wonderful, but for this Scholars’ Forum we are focusing on those emanating from Seton Hall faculty scholars.

Father Laracy’s chapter deals with the theological foundations of martyrdom in Scripture and other key Catholic sources, such as the writings of Hans Ur Van Balthasar, Thomas Aquinas, Augustine of Hippo and many others. Todd Stockdale’s chapter links the acts of these third century martyrs with the self-sacrifice and sometimes the laying down of one’s life as it occurred in the civil rights movement in the 1960s. Sister Bosco’s chapter examines the Africanity of these North African martyrs, historically and in connection with the church in Africa today. As editors, Frank Hunter and I both also wrote essays to accompany the major texts. His chapter, written from the perspective of a classicist and English major, as well as translator, focuses on language in connection, of course, with its spiritual implications. My own chapter deals with the transformative nature of the Christian faith on Perpetua’s and the other martyrs’ identity, particularly as it relates to gender and how the faith helped women and other marginalized groups find a new and powerful sense of who they are as children of God.

Please join us for this first of three Scholars’ Forum events this fall. All events will be on Microsoft Teams. Click here for the event on October 9.  

Here is the link for the book on the publisher’s website: https://rowman.com/ISBN/9781666957945/The-Passion-Narratives-of-Saints-Perpetua-Felicity-and-Their-Fellow-Martyrs.

The Scholars’ Forum in the Catholic Intellectual Tradition is co-sponsored by the University Core, Immaculate Conception Seminary School of Theology, the Catholic Studies Program, and the Catholic Studies Center.

Categories: Faith and Service