More than 20 biblical researchers from 11 countries will gather in Limerick this weekend to discuss the early epistles of the New Testament, which were written decades before the gospels.
The international conference is the first to be organised by the city's new Biblical Research Centre and involves looking at fresh evaluations of Christianity's oldest writings.
The conference on "The Triple Intertextuality of the Epistles" began last night with a reception at Pery's Hotel.
It continues through today and ends tomorrow morning. Those presenting papers include Steve Moyise, University College, Chichester; Stanley E. Porter, principal of MacMaster School of Divinity, MacMaster University, Hamilton, Ontario; and Dennis R. MacDonald, John Wesley Professor of New Testament and Christian Origins at Claremont School of Theology and co-director of the Institute for Antiquity and Christianity at Claremont Graduate University in California.
The conference is to introduce one aspect of the work of the newly founded Dominican Biblical Research Centre, which is due to open in Limerick city centre this autumn.
Its director, Fr Tom Brody OP, said it intends to take a new look at religious heritage, particularly biblical heritage, and to bring that heritage into dialogue with the world of today, especially the world of science.
The ultimate purpose of dialogue between religion and science would be to help restore meaning to life, to address the vacuum at the heart of much of our society, he said.
The centre has already built up a library of 8,000 books, having begun with just two, the Codex Vaticanus and Great Women of the Bible.