11th Annual Costan Lecture in Early Christianity

Cilliers Breytenbach on "Morality Beyond Kinship"

Wednesday, October 1, 2025
5:00 p.m. - 7:00 p.m. EDT
Location: Dahlgren Chapel of the Sacred Heart Map

In Greco-Roman cities, allegiance and behavior were shaped by citizenship, tribal and family ties, gender, social status, patronage, and custom. For apostle Paul, the founder of many Christian assemblies, these boundaries lost their value (Phil. 3:7–8). In the centuries that followed, the transformation of allegiances within Christian communities increasingly extended familial moral obligations beyond kinship lines and contributed to the spread of Christianity.

At the Costan Lecture in Early Christianity, Prof. Breytenbach explored "Morality Beyond Kinship." A reception followed.

This event was co-sponsored by Georgetown University's Department of Theology and Religious Studies, Office of Mission & Ministry, and Berkley Center for Religion, Peace, and World Affairs.

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11th Annual Costan Lecture in Early Christianity

Featured Participants

Cilliers Breytenbach Toggle

About Cilliers Breytenbach

Cilliers Breytenbach is professor emeritus of New Testament at the Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, where he held the chair of New Testament (1990–2019); founding director of the Berlin Graduate School of Ancient Studies (2011–2020); and Extraordinary Professor of New Testament and Ancient Studies at Stellenbosch University. His research focuses on regional Christianities in Late Antiquity. His publications include Grace, Reconciliation, Concord: The Death of Christ in Graeco-Roman Metaphors (2010), Early Christianity in Lycaonia (with C. Zimmermann, 2017), The Gospel of Mark as Episodic Narrative (2021), and Early Christianity in Athens, Attica and Adjacent Areas (with E. Tzavella, 2023). An internationally recognized figure in New Testament scholarship, Breytenbach is president of the Studiorum Novi Testamenti Societas, executive editor of Novum Testamentum, and a former president of the Colloquium Oecumenicum Paulinum and the Colloquium Biblicum Lovaniensis.

Cilliers Breytenbach's Profile

Other Participants

Julia Lamm Toggle

About Julia Lamm

Julia Lamm is a professor of theology and a faculty fellow at the Georgetown University Berkley Center for Religion, Peace, and World Affairs. She specializes in Friedrich Schleiermacher (1768–1834), Julian of Norwich (1342–ca. 1416), Christian mysticism, the history of Christian thought, women mystics and theologians, and the relation between theology and philosophy. She is the author of The Living God: Schleiermacher’s Theological Appropriation of Spinoza (1996), God’s ‘Kinde’ Love: Julian of Norwich’s Vernacular Theology of Grace (2019), Schleiermacher's Plato (2021), and numerous scholarly articles. She has also translated and edited Schleiermacher: Christmas Dialogue, the Second Speech, and Other Selections (2014), and edited The Wiley-Blackwell Companion to Christian Mysticism (2012). Lamm has received an Alexander von Humboldt Fellowship (Germany) and is founding director of the James M. and Margaret H. Costan Lecture in Early Christianity at Georgetown. She holds a Ph.D. in theology from the University of Chicago.

Julia Lamm's Profile

Alan Mitchell Toggle

About Alan Mitchell

Alan C. Mitchell is an associate professor in the Department of Theology and Religious Studies at Georgetown University. His areas of expertise are New Testament social description, Hellenistic moral philosophy, the letters of Paul, the Gospel of Luke, Acts of the Apostles, Hebrews, and early Christian literature. Professor Mitchell teaches courses on biblical literature, Jesus in the New Testament, Paul, and friendship in early Christian literature. He holds an A.B. from Fordham University and M.Div. from the Weston School of Theology, along with an M.A., M.Phil., and Ph.D. from Yale University.

Alan Mitchell's Profile