Although I had heard about the annual CISSR meeting in Bertinoro several times, it took Harry O. Meier’s push to submit a paper. The panel, somewhat obscurely titled “Contexts of Early Christianity,” turned out to be a natural habitat for my network approach to Cyprian’s letters.
For the presentation, I decided to discuss three letters not penned by Cyprian himself, but by two friends separated by the Mediterranean Sea. These “ordinary” people’s “ordinary” issues have not received much scholarly attention, as the letters do not offer significant insights for content-focused research. Yet, those three letters contain references not less than to nearly 50 named and another 50 unnamed individuals. I used Social Network Analysis to shed light on these “insignificant” protagonists, thereby illuminating two main resilience factors of early Christianity: connectedness and mobility.
The talk was followed by a lively discussion that continued over lunch. Those and many other conversations with participants proved to be as valuable as the academic presentations.
The conference atmosphere was pleasant and welcoming, the participants friendly and engaging, and the program offered plenty of opportunities for exchange. Some excellent ideas were born on the “largest terrace in Italy” — as Bertinoro, a small but picturesque hilltop village — is called. I am looking forward to returning again next year.