Luke-Acts, which is regarded as the first historiographical work to cover the early days of Christianity, takes readers on a veritable tour de force in the company of the first Christ believers and, in particular, Paul the Apostle. The story is marked by rapid scene changes. “Nevertheless, the narrator gives his readers ample opportunity to ‘find their feet’ in the various cities and urban centers of the Mediterranean and knows how to evoke, for example, the specific character of a Roman colony such as Philippi or a multi-ethnic metropolis such as Ephesus,” says Junior Professor Jan Rüggemeier from the Department of New Testament Studies at the Faculty of Protestant Theology at the University of Bonn.
He adds that this is done by featuring prominent settings that would be embedded in the cultural mind of ancient readers as well as by employing various highly impressive literary visualization strategies to make them feel as if they really are part of the story world. Whilst researchers have so far referred to local details scattered throughout Luke’s story primarily to assess the text’s historical value, Rüggemeier and his colleagues are now studying them with a greater focus on their immersive effect. Similar to the immersion experienced by players of a computer game, the research project entitled “Narrative Space and Possible Worlds: Encountering Ancient Narrative from a Cognitive Science Perspective” is about how texts, pictures or settings help people to “dive into” the early Christian world.
How do we find our way around when we look at a picture?
How do we find our way around when we look at a picture or enter the world of a story while it is being told us? How can categories like fictional or factual be made plausible from the perspective of cognitive science? What physical experiences and reactions accompany cognitive processes that help us understand the narrative depiction of space? It is these kinds of questions that the researchers led by Junior Professor Jan Rüggemeier from the University of Bonn and Dr. Lenia Kouneni from the University of St Andrews are investigating in the project, which is being funded by a University of Bonn Collaborative Research Grant worth around €23,000.
“The collaborative project is geared toward fostering an inter- and transdisciplinary dialogue that straddles the boundaries between Ancient Studies and Cognitive Science,” Rüggemeier explains. Together with Professor Elizabeth Shively (formerly of St Andrews, now at Baylor University), the theologian from the University of Bonn founded the academic blog “Diegesis in Mind” and is main editor of a book series of the same name with Bonn University Press. “Today’s cognitive science can add significant theoretical and methodological value to the study of ancient texts and images,” Rüggemeier declares. The researcher is also a member of the Individuals & Societies and Present Pasts Transdisciplinary Research Areas at the University of Bonn.
Focusing on space
Although the individual disciplines have already given some thought to how theoretical elements from cognitive science can be harnessed, Rüggemeier says, neither side has yet picked up on the discourse being conducted among experts on the other. “Neither is there sufficient awareness yet of how stories are transferred across different media,” he adds. How do textual narratives and those that are brought to life visually influence one another in the cultural context of antiquity? What prior cultural knowledge is required in order to take in each piece of narrative content? And how can a corresponding degree of continuity be rendered plausible in the cultural memory? In order to shine the spotlight more on such interdependencies across media boundaries, the research project involves art historians and experts in Christian and Classical archaeology alongside textual scholars. Besides the concept of “characters” and plot analysis, the researchers are also now focusing to a greater extent on the “space” in which the stories play out.
Together with his assistant Lara Mührenberg and his research associate Simeon Redinger, Rüggemeier has been tackling the phenomenon of immersion in early Christian literature and iconography. “Two things in particular have driven our research forward,” the assistant professor reports: “the ‘4E cognition’ and embodiment approach and Marco Caracciolo’s concept of the virtual body.” “4E” stands for embodied, embedded, enacted and extended and implies that, rather than being based solely on what our brains process, our perception of the world is drawn from our whole body, which is connected to that world. Tools can also form part of the cognitive system and are termed the “extended mind.”
How contemporaries perceived key moments in antiquity
For instance, Stefanie Archut (Christian Archaeology) and Lara Mührenberg (New Testament Studies) have studied ancient sacred and sepulchral spaces as part of the project. “The concepts of 4E cognition and cognitive architecture help us to take a closer look at how ancient monuments—architecture and figurative/ornamental decoration—were perceived by contemporary observers and show that their perception of these spaces differs from that of modern recipients and in what way,” says Rüggemeier. How does the interaction between an architecturally formed space (architecture and figurative/ornamental decoration) and its observers create a place charged with meaning? “The ancients believed that you could create a ‘contact zone’ with a celestial sphere,” Rüggemeier explains.
He recently organized two workshops and an international conference entitled “Narrative Space and Possible Worlds: Encountering Ancient Narratives from a Cognitive Science Perspective” together with his team and Dr. Lenia Kouneni from St Andrews in order to discuss the joint research project and lay the groundwork for a publication. “We’re also planning to expand our collaboration and submit a joint application for third-party funding for this purpose later in the year,” he says. There are also plans to recruit more early-career researchers and develop teaching formats for master’s students, such as study visits and hybrid seminars. “These discussions are already at an advanced stage too,” Rüggemeier reports.
More about the project: www.diegesis-in-mind.com
