Contested Spaces: Houses and Temples in Roman Antiquity and the New Testament (with CD)

How are archaeology and art related to understanding New Testament texts, for example, narratives of the Lord's Supper and other meals? An international group of archaeologists, art historians, and New Testament scholars investigate the function of spaces in Roman houses and temples in Pompeii, Herculaneum, Corinth, Rome, Ostia, Ephesus, and Judaea. Another concern is more fully to understand the relationship between different architectural forms, Roman domus, villae, and insulae, in relation to Paul's letters and the gospels, in order to enable informed interpretation of leadership, meal customs, social relationships, and ethics in those contested spaces.

David L. Balch, Born 1942; Professor of New Testament, Pacific Lutheran Theological Seminary, Graduate Theological Union, Ph.D. Yale University (1975), two Fulbright grants to Tubingen, Germany (1968, 1987); main areas of research: Roman domestic art and architecture, Hellenistic philosophy and the New Testament, social/historical context of Pauline and Lukan house churches.Annette Weissenrieder, Born 1967; Associate professor of New Testament at San Francisco Theological Seminary and the Graduate Theological Union; Dr. theol. (University of Heidelberg); main areas of research: Theology of Paul and the Synoptic Gospels, Greco-Roman medicine and philosophy, New Testament anthropology, pneumatology, theories of the history of religion, Roman domestic art, numismatic, and architecture.