Ephesus as a Religious Center under the Principate
An International Symposium in Honor of Richard Oster
May 18 - 19, 2012 at the Harding School of Theology in Memphis, TN
Welcome to The Ephesus Conference honoring Richard Oster's 65th birthday. The conference brings together an international team of scholars to focus on the ancient city of Ephesus as a religious center during the first period of the Roman Empire.
Richard Oster has a well-deserved reputation for scholarship in the Greco-Roman world and the New Testament, especially with respect to the city of Ephesus. The conference derives its title and focus from the title of his essay "Ephesus as a Religious Center under the Principate" in the multi-volume series Aufstieg und Niedergang der römishen Welt (Rise and Fall of the Roman World).
We have invited 13 scholars from Austria, New Zealand, and across the United States to make presentations on various aspects of ancient Ephesus and its religious culture. These scholars include archaeologists who have worked in Ephesus and scholars of the New Testament/Early Christianity, many of whom have distinguished themselves by their use of archeological artifacts in the study of religion in the Greco-Roman world.
Please join us in Memphis on May 18-19 as we explore the matrix of Greco-Roman religion, emperor worship, Judaism, and early Christianity in the ancient city of Ephesus.
Allen Black, Trevor Thompson, and James Walters