On May 26–28, 2025, I am co-organizing, together with Prof. Dr. Ruben Zimmermann, the conference “The Ethics of Aging in Graeco-Roman Antiquity and Beyond.” All who are interested are warmly invited to attend! The conference will take place at the Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz, Alte Mensa, Atrium Maximum, Johann-Joachim-Becher-Weg 5, 55128 Mainz, Germany.

The Conference

The conference is organized as part of the DFG-research project “The Ancient Fable Tradition and Early Christian Literature.” It brings together a host of international scholars of ancient Judaism, early Christianity, Graeco-Roman antiquity, and modern gerontological research. The presentations explore, on the one hand, the ethics of aging in ancient Jewish, early Christian, and Greek and Roman sources and traditions, with special attention to the ancient fable tradition. On the other hand, the conference creates a hermeneutical bridge with present-day gerontological research by including presentations that critically reflect on the modern Western discourse of aging and its ensuing norms and values. The conference flyer can be downloaded here.

Public Lecture by Prof. Dr. Christian Grethlein

As part of the program, and in collaboration with the Akademie “Erbacher Hof” des Bistums Mainz, a public lecture (in German) by Prof. Christian Grethlein (Münster) will take place on Tuesday, May 27, 18:00 (CET); it is entitled “Altern heute: Ethische Herausforderungen und Chancen.” In this lecture, Prof. Grethlein will discuss the phenomenon of aging in historical and present-day contexts from a practical-theological and ethical perspective. The flyer of the public lecture can be downloaded here.

Full Program (all times CET)

Monday, May 26, 2025

• 12:30    Entrance with Coffee/Tea
• 13:00  Welcome by Albertina Oegema
• 13:15    Jan Baars, “Structural Contexts of Aging: Their Moral Poverty and Classical Inspirations”
• 14:00  Christine Walde, “The Old Man and the Garden: A Topos of Greco-Roman Literature?”
• 14:45    Coffee/Tea Break
• 15:15    Reuven Kiperwasser, “‘That Is No Country for Old Men?’ Typology of Elders in Rabbinic Storytelling” 
• 16:00  Mira Balberg, “No Country for Old Men: Grappling with Old Age in 20th Century Hebrew Culture” (online)
• 18:00  Excursion Mainz
• 19:30    Dinner

Tuesday, May 27, 2025

• 09:15    Entrance
• 09:30 Peter Wick, “Age as a Testimony in the New Testament”
• 10:15   Chris L. de Wet, “Intersectionality, Kyriarchal Systems of Marginalization, and the Paradox of Elderly Care in the New Testament: The Case of Paul and Onesimus” (online)
• 11:00     Coffee/Tea Break
• 11:30   Michael Sommer, “Widows and Early Christianity: A Socio-Historical Perspective on Ideas, Stereotypes, and Clichés”
• 12:15    Lisa Brunet, “Avi Pientissimi: The Ethics of Grandparenthood in Rome and Early Christianity”
• 13:00   Lunch
• 14:30  Joseph Scales, “Jewish Representations and Realities of Being Elderly during Wartime in Antiquity”
• 15:15    Hartwin Brandt, “The Idea of a Good Death in Graeco-Roman Antiquity”
• 16:00  Els van Wijngaarden, “Aging and Dying Well in Contemporary Contexts”
• 16:45   Coffee/Tea Break
• 18:00 Public lecture by Christian Grethlein, “Altern heute: Ethische Herausforderungen und Chancen”
• 18:45   Questions from the audience
• 19:30    (Catered) Dinner

Wednesday, May 28, 2025

• 09:15    Entrance
• 09:30 Caterina Mordeglia, “The Ethics of Aging in the Classical and Medieval Latin Fable”
• 10:15   Hedwig Schmalzgruber, “‘Not My Spirit But My Strength Failed’: Old Animals in Ancient Fables”
• 11:00   Charlotte Haußmann, “Old Age and Narrative Ethics in Babrios’ Mythiamboi”
• 11:45     Coffee/Tea Break
• 12:15    Benjamin Heim, “Old Fabulists in the Aesopic Tradition”
• 13:00  Nina Van der Sype, “Improba naturae dicere iura nefas: Values and Norms of Older Age in Maximianus’ Elegiae (sixth century AD)”
• 13:45   Final Discussion
• 14:30    Lunch

Registration

The conference and its public lecture can be attended separately and are free of charge. Refreshments will be provided during the conference. In order to register, please send an email with the subject “Registration” to Ms Anne Hamann (hamanna@students.uni-mainz.de) by May 20, 2025.