Dr. Sergio La Porta, holder of the Haig & Isabel Berberian Chair of Armenian Studies at Fresno State, will speak on “Knowledege, Heresy, and Inquisition: The Armenian Reaction to Latin Missionaries in the 14th century” at 7:30 p.m. Thursday, March 22.
The free, public lecture in the Alice Peters Auditorium of the University Business Center is part of the Armenian Studies Program Spring Lecture Series, co-sponsored by the Armenian Students Organization at Fresno State.
The talk addresses the intense intellectual dialogue that ensued after Latin missionaries began to penetrate areas of Greater Armenia in the first quarter of the 14th century.
La Porta will discuss how some Armenians accepted Roman Catholicism while others fought to prevent Armenians from leaving the Apostolic Church. The resulting century-long, sometimes deadly struggle helped shape a period of intellectual dynamism and innovation in Armenia.
La Porta joined the Fresno State faculty in 2009. He earned his Doctorate of Philosophy degree from Harvard University.
His most recent publication is a three-volume study of the earliest Armenian commentaries on the “Heavenly Hierarchy” attributed to Dionysius the Areopagite (Peeters, 2008).
His current areas of interest include apocalyptic literature in the Armenian tradition, the history of Greater Armenia between the Seljuk and Mongol invasions and the influence of the works attributed to Dionysius on Armenian spirituality and theology.
Free parking for this event will be available in the University Business Center lot after 7 p.m. For more information, call 559.278.2669.
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