Dr Ken Parry
BA, PhD Manchester
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Contact Details: Telephone: +61 2 9850 7937 |
Profile
Dr Ken Parry is
a Senior Lecturer and Research Fellow in the Department of Ancient History,
Division of Humanities. He studied philosophy, theology and comparative
religion at the University of Manchester where he specialised in ancient
and medieval philosophy, church history and patristics, and gained his
doctorate in Byzantine theology. He was awarded various scholarships
by the British Academy , the Greek Ministry of Culture, and the former
Yugoslav Ministry of Culture to undertake research in the UK and in the
Balkans. He teaches in the areas of Late Antiquity, Byzantine Studies
and Silk Road Studies, and is a convenor of the MA in Ancient Art and
Architecture. He has travelled extensively in Eastern Europe , Turkey
, Central Asia, India and China .
Research interests
The broad swept of Byzantine history from 330 to 1453, but more especially
Byzantine cultural and intellectual history, particularly the period
from the seventh through to the tenth century. Other areas of research
include the interaction between philosophy and theology, Byzantine attitudes
towards the classical past, the seven ecumenical councils, Byzantine
art and architecture, and the city of Constantinople . My interest in
Eastern Christianity focuses on the history and theology of the Eastern
Orthodox and Oriental Orthodox traditions, in their Byzantine, post-Byzantine
and contemporary settings. Of particular interest is the early expansion
of Eastern Christianity into Asia, particularly so-called 'Nestorian'
Christianity in Central Asia, India and China . There are various texts
associated with this expansion, as well as inscriptions and iconography
from China . This interest in early Christianity in Asia extends to cover
the history of trade and religion along the Silk Road, and the interaction
of western and eastern religions in Central Asia and China through to
the Mongol period.
Current research projects
Manichaean and Nestorian Christian Remains from Quanzhou, South China - ARC Discovery Project under the direction of Prof Sam Lieu due to be completed by the end of 2009, with the publication of a book in the Corpus Fontium Manichaeorum series published by Brepols.
City of Constantine : Documents and Monuments - book to emerge from a research project funded by a Macquarie University Flagship Grant.
From Idolatry to Iconoclasm: Attitudes to Images in Late Antiquity - monograph focusing on the comparative study of Graeco-Roman, Jewish, Early Christian, Byzantine and early Muslim attitudes towards images and idolatry.
Early Christianity in Asia - ongoing research into this topic to result in published monograph.
External
appointments and fellowships
Visiting Fellow, The Ricci Institute, University of San Francisco
Visiting Fellow, Centre for Early Christian Studies, Australian Catholic University
Visiting Lecturer, St Andrew's Greek Orthodoxy Theological College ,
Sydney
Grants Awarded
2008 Staff Grant, Macquarie University .
2006-07 Flagship Grant, Centre for Flexible Learning, Macquarie University .
2006 UNESCO Travelling Research Grant.
2005 Division of Humanities Equipment Fund.
2004-05 Chiang Ching-Kuo Foundation Research Scholarship.
Publications
Monographs
Depicting the Word: Byzantine Iconophile Thought of the Eighth and Ninth Centuries. Brill, 1996.
Edited Books
Art, Architecture and Religion along the Silk Roads . Brepols, 2008.
The Blackwell Companion to Eastern Christianity. Blackwell, 2007.
From Palmyra to Zayton: Epigraphy and Iconography . Brepols, 2005.
The Blackwell Dictionary of Eastern Christianity . Blackwell, 1999.
The Church of the East: Life and Thought , special issue of the Bulletin of the John Rylands University Library of Manchester , vol. 78/3, 1996.
Articles and chapters (since 2001)
'Aristotle and the Icon: The Use of the Categories by Byzantine Iconophile Writers', (forthcoming).
'An Early Christian Painting from the Turfan Region', (forthcoming).
'The Acts of Thomas and Early Christianity in India ', (forthcoming).
'Deep into Asia: Introduction', ' India ', and ' Central Asia ', in Early Christianity in Contexts , ed. W. Tabbernee (forthcoming).
'What to jettison before you go sailing (to Byzantium )', Phronema 23 (forthcoming 2008).
'The Buddha as Colossus in Central Asia and China ', in Art, Architecture and Religion along the Silk Road , ed. Ken Parry. Silk Road Studies Series (Brepols: Turnhout 2008) 140-65.
'Reading Proclus Diadochos in Byzantium ,' in Plato's Ancient Readers , eds. H. Tarrant and D. Baltzly. London : Duckworth, 2006, 223-35.
'Vegetarianism in Late Antiquity and Byzantium : The Transmission of a Regimen', in Feast, Fast or Famine: Food and Drink in Byzantium , eds. W. Mayer and S. Trzcionka. Byzantina Australiensia 15. AABS: Brisbane , 2005, 171-187.
'Origen and Image-Making', in The Westminster Handbook to Origen , ed. J. McGuckin. Louisville & London : Westminster John Knox Press, 2004, 128-31.
'Byzantine and Melkite iconophiles under iconoclasm,' in Porphyrogenita: Essays in Honour of Julian Chrysostomides , eds. J. Herrin et al. Aldershot : Ashgate, 2003, 137-151.
'The Ascetical Theology of Maximus the Confessor,' Phronema 17 (2002), 51-57.
'The Art of the Church of the East in China ', in Jingjiao: The Church of the East in China and Central Asia , eds. R. Malek and P. Hofrichter. Collectanea Serica. Institut Monumenta Serica: Sankt Augustin, 2006, 321-39, with 12 illustations.
'An Unusual Christian Artefact from South China', TAAS Review (The Journal of the Asian Arts Society of Australia ) 15/2 (June 2006), 12-13, with 4 illustrations.
'The Iconography of the Christian Tombstones from Quanzhou', in From Palmyra to Zayton: Epigraphy and Iconography , eds. S. Lieu, I. Gardner, and K. Parry. Silk Road Studies X. Turnhout: Brepols, 2005, 229-246, with 24 illustrations.
'The Stone Crosses of Kerala in South India ', TAASA Review ( The Journal of the Asian Arts Society of Australia ) 14/2 (June 2005), 10-12, with 7 illustrations.
'Angels and Apsaras: Christian Tombstones from Quanzhou,' TAASA Review ( The Journal of the Asian Arts Society of Australia ) 12/2 (June 2003), 5-7, with 2 illustrations.
' Japan and the Silk Road Legacy,' in Worlds of the Silk Roads Ancient and Modern: Walls and Frontiers in Inner Asian History , eds. S. Lieu and C. Benjamin. Silk Road Studies Series 6. Turnhout: Brepols, 2002, 215-223 with 8 illustrations.
'Crisis in the Balkans: The Byzantine Monuments of Kosovo,' The Eastern Churches Journal 8/3 (2001), 83-90, with 4 illustrations.
Exhibitions:
Curator of photographic exhibition: Byzantine Constantinople , St Andrew's Greek Orthodox Theological College , Sydney , September 2008.
Curator of photographic exhibition: The Lotus and the Cross , The Ricci Institute, University of San Francisco, September-October 2007.
Curator of photographic exhibition: Constantinople-Istanbul through the Ages , Macquarie University Library, September-October 2006.
Curator of photographic exhibition: Stone Crosses of Kerala in South India , Macquarie University Library, November-December 2004.
Curator of photographic exhibition: Christian Angels on the South China Coast , Macquarie University Library, March-April 2003.
Curator of Icon Exhibition , Macquarie University Library,
May-June 2001.
Links
Department of Ancient History
http://www.anchist.mq.edu.au/
Zayton (Quanzhou) Project
http://www.anchist.mq.edu.au/doccentre/Zayton.htm
Division of Humanities:
http://www.humanities.mq.edu.au/
Macquarie University :
http://www.mq.edu.au/