The lecture explores how tales about the young Jesus from the Greek Paidika (i.e. the so-called Infancy Gospel of Thomas) were reinterpreted in the context of the Arabic translation movement and the flourishing of scientific practice in the medieval Arabic-speaking world. In particular, my paper will focus on the reception of early Christian stories about Jesus' childhood in the Arabic Gospel of the Infancy and the Sufi treatise Explaining the Meaning of the Letters.

Stephen J. Davis is Professor of Religious Studies and Master of Pierson College at Yale University. A historian of ancient and medieval Christianity, he is author of several books, including most recently, Christ Child: Cultural Memories of a Young Jesus, published by Yale University Press in 2014. As the executive director of the Yale Monastic Archaeology Project (YMAP), Davis oversees surveys, excavations, and conservation work at two early Egyptian monasteries: the White Monastery and the Monastery of St. John the Little. He is also director and editor-in-chief of a new project to catalogue the Coptic and Arabic manuscripts at the Monastery of the Syrians in Wadi al-Natrun, Egypt.

Kontakt: Dr. Emiliano Fiori, embfiori[at]gmail.com