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Mateusz Kusio @mateuszkusio.bsky.social · 29d

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Mateusz Kusio @mateuszkusio.bsky.social · Aug 29

REMINDER
IMC '26 CfP for a new strand

Future Insight and Its Discontents in Late Antiquity and Early Middle Ages (200–900 CE)

Proposals of ca. 200 words, along with a short academic bio, should be sent to Mateusz Kusio ([email protected]) by 15 September, 2025.

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Mateusz Kusio @mateuszkusio.bsky.social · Aug 29

REMINDER
IMC '26 CfP for a new strand

Future Insight and Its Discontents in Late Antiquity and Early Middle Ages (200–900 CE)

Proposals of ca. 200 words, along with a short academic bio, should be sent to Mateusz Kusio ([email protected]) by 15 September, 2025.

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Mateusz Kusio @mateuszkusio.bsky.social · Aug 21

It's beginning to look a lot like the publishing process is slowly coming to an end! My edition of Commodianus hopefully out next year with OUP

Draft cover for "Commodianus: Introduction, Text, Translation, Commentary", edited and translated with scholarly commentary by Mateusz Kusio, fortcoming in the Oxford Early Christian Texts series with Oxford University Press

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Mateusz Kusio @mateuszkusio.bsky.social · Jul 17

Proposals of ca. 200 words, along with a short academic bio, should be sent to Mateusz Kusio ([email protected]) by 15 September, 2025.

Mateusz Kusio @mateuszkusio.bsky.social · Jul 17

– strategies of verifiability;
– strategies of coping with non-fulfilment;
– divination;
– magic and its use for ascertaining the future;
– cross-cultural and cross-regional approaches and comparisons;
– insights from gender studies and cognitive psychology. +

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Mateusz Kusio @mateuszkusio.bsky.social · Jul 17

The (non-exhaustive) list of topics to be considered includes:
– traditional pagan oracles in late antiquity;
– perceptions of future uncertainty;
– prophecy;
– apocalypticism and eschatology;
– astrology;
– philosophical (neo-Platonic, patristic, early scholastic) discussions of mantic knowledge; +

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Mateusz Kusio @mateuszkusio.bsky.social · Jul 17

This new session at IMC 2026 will create a space for a joint investigation of late antique and early medieval mantic techniques, prophecy, apocalypticism, astrology, magic, and the like. +

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Mateusz Kusio @mateuszkusio.bsky.social · Jul 17

However, the need to circumscribe future uncertainty remained, creating a space for new and renewed technologies and discourses intended to offer humans future insight. +

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Mateusz Kusio @mateuszkusio.bsky.social · Jul 17

The period in question, marked by the rise of Christianity and later Islam, saw a considerable shift in how future was conceptualised and interacted with. +

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Mateusz Kusio @mateuszkusio.bsky.social · Jul 17

IMC '26 CfP for a new strand

Future Insight and Its Discontents in Late Antiquity and Early Middle Ages (200–900 CE)

We invite proposals for papers interrogating the methods and outcomes of acquiring future insight in the cultures of Late Antiquity and early Middle Ages. +

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Mateusz Kusio @mateuszkusio.bsky.social · Jul 10

Thanks for your paper!

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Mateusz Kusio @mateuszkusio.bsky.social · May 23

Thank you!

Mateusz Kusio @mateuszkusio.bsky.social · May 22

The project is jointly supervised by Professors Johan Leemans from the Faculty of Theology and Religious Studies and Geert Roskam from the Faculty of Arts to whom I am immensely grateful for their support and guidance.

Mateusz Kusio @mateuszkusio.bsky.social · May 22

On the other hand, ancient Jewish literature talks about prophets, whose predictions failed, and reinterprets earlier oracles to ensure their relevance. Early Christians relied on and enriched this wider discourse in their thinking about the delay of the Parousia." +

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Mateusz Kusio @mateuszkusio.bsky.social · May 22

My research will show that some of these ways were derived from the broader cultural context. Greeks and Romans had to come to terms with the fact that their oracular consultations and divinatory practices often yielded manifestly false results. +

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Mateusz Kusio @mateuszkusio.bsky.social · May 22

Ancient Christian literature does not display an overwhelming anxiety about the fact that Jesus’ Second Coming (Parousia) had not occurred as predicted (although some traces of such a concern do survive). This suggests that Christians found ways of dealing with this issue. +

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Mateusz Kusio @mateuszkusio.bsky.social · May 22

From the abstract: "My project, will answer the following question: how was it possible that early Christianity, founded on the belief that its key figure, Jesus of Nazareth, would soon return to earth, survived the failure of this prediction and became a major religion? +

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Mateusz Kusio @mateuszkusio.bsky.social · May 22

Very happy to announce that I have received a senior postdoctoral fellowship funded by @fwovlaanderen.bsky.social which will allow me to continue at KU Leuven on my project on the delay of the Parousia for the next three years!

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Reposted by Mateusz Kusio

Prof. Elaine Chalus @profelainechalus.bsky.social · Apr 10

Lecturer in Biblical and Early Christian Studies- The University of Manchester - Humanities - Religions and Theology - School of Arts, Languages and Cultures #skystorians 🗃️www.jobs.ac.uk/job/DMQ554/l...

Lecturer in Biblical and Early Christian Studies at The University of Manchester

Explore an exciting academic career as a Lecturer in Biblical and Early Christian Studies. Don't miss out on other academic jobs. Click to apply and explore more opportunities.

www.jobs.ac.uk

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Reposted by Mateusz Kusio

Robert Wiśniewski @relicsclerics.bsky.social · Mar 10

Warsaw Late Antique Seminar on 13 March: Nicola Holm (UW): Constantius II and Ecclesiastical Politics: Creeds, Councils and Troublesome Bishops. As always on 4.45 p.m. Warsaw time, in person and on Zoom.

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Mateusz Kusio @mateuszkusio.bsky.social · Feb 28

The table of contents to pique your interest

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Mateusz Kusio @mateuszkusio.bsky.social · Feb 28

www.brepols.net/products/IS-...

Brepols - Boundaries of Holiness, Frontiers of Sainthood

Brepols is an international academic publisher of works in the humanities, with a particular focus in history, archaeology, history of the arts, language and literature, and critical editions of histo...

www.brepols.net

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Mateusz Kusio @mateuszkusio.bsky.social · Feb 28

Very glad to see this volume, which I had the honour and the pleasure of co-editing with Julia Doroszewska, the prime mover of the project, from the Faculty of History of the University of Warsaw, being released today by @brepols.bsky.social

The cover of the volume "Boundaries of Holiness, Frontiers of Sainthood:
Negotiating the Image of Christian Holy Figures and Saints in Late Antiquity" (ed. Julia Doroszewska, Mateusz Kusio, Brepols, 2025), including a detail from the painting "Project of an Icon" by Jerzy Nowosielski

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Mateusz Kusio @mateuszkusio.bsky.social · Feb 24

Three years ago today, the criminal full-scale invasion of #Ukraine by Russia has begun. This photo of the historian Natalia Yakovenko translating Livy in Kyiv during the Russian offensive in March 2022 will remain a testament to the human spirit resisting cruelty and darkness. #СлаваУкраїні! 🇺🇦

The Ukrainian historian Natalia Yakovenko translating Livy while at home in Kyiv during the Russian invasion in March 2022.

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Reposted by Mateusz Kusio

Robert Wiśniewski @relicsclerics.bsky.social · Feb 18

...and let me repost the full Warsaw Late Antique seminar programme. Also, take a look at our website: lateantiqueseminar.historia.uw.edu.pl

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