Call for papers: Studies on Apocrypha and Systematic Theologies (1/2027)
Special Issue of Studia Universitatis Babeș-Bolyai. Theologia Catholica (1 / 2027)
Studies on Apocrypha and Systematic Theologies
Guest editor: Tobias Nicklas
The special issue explores the link between apocryphal literature and Christian (in particular Catholic) theology, as expressed in doctrine, magisterial statements, common beliefs, and their reflection in liturgy and iconography.
The common distinction between canonical and extra-canonical (apocryphal) sources is consistent with the view that Christian faith and practice were shaped only by writings that came to be part of the New Testament. This issue intends to show that the crystallisation of Christian doctrine was a much more complex process and incorporated beliefs found in popular piety, expressed in writings later considered apocryphal.
Authors are invited to reflect on one of the following questions:
1) In how far do Christian apocrypha (in a broad sense) offer / represent notable theological views or challenge different theological approaches?
2) In which respect, in how far writings later considered apocryphal were expressions of Christian doctrine (notably of teachings received in the “great Church”)?
3) In how far Christian dogmatic pronouncements were influenced by writings later called apocryphal (e.g., doctrines related to Mariology (perpetual virginity, divine motherhood, immaculate conception, dormition/assumption), Christ’s descent to the dead, the Purgatory, the intercession for the deceased)? What it means systematically and hermeneutically that some Christian teachings go back to extracanonical/apocryphal traditions?
3) Where can apocryphal writings offer impulses for new (or forgotten questions) which should be dealt with in Systematic Theology (or should be rediscovered for Systematic Theologies).
4) How the principle lex orandi-lex credendi expressed or contributed to the understanding of liturgy as source of doctrinal development in relation to apocryphal writings:
Possible topics
The Gospel of James and its contribution to the consolidation of the doctrine of perpetual virginity
The link between the (virginal?) conception of Anna and the doctrine of the Immaculate Conception in the light of variant reading PJ 4.2 P. Bodmer V (εἴληφεν)
The dormition/Transitus Mariae tradition and the doctrine of the Assumption of Mary
Christ’s descent to the dead and the Gospel of Nicodemus
Apocalypses and images of Heaven, Purgatory, and Hell
The intercession for the deceased, apocryphal Acts and Apocalypses
The cycle of feasts related to the birth and childhood of Mary (St Joachim and Anna, the Nativity of Mary, the Presentation of Mary at the Temple)
Deadline 25 May 2027
Submissions
Papers should preferably be uploaded to the website of the journal: https://studia.reviste.ubbcluj.ro/index.php/subbtheologialatina/about/submissions
Alternatively, they can be sent to the executive editor (emilia.zamfir@ubbcluj.ro, kori_zamfir@yahoo.com).
Guidelines: https://studia.reviste.ubbcluj.ro/index.php/subbtheologialatina/article/view/6682/6404
