Editors' NoteElizabeth A. ClarkEverett Ferguson

Journal of Early Christian Studies, Volume 1, Number 1, Spring 1993,pp. v-vi (Article)

Published by The Johns Hopkins University PressDOI: 10.1353/earl.0.0105

For additional information about this article

Access Provided by Oxford University Library Services at 11/27/12 9:41AM GMT

http://muse.jhu.edu/journals/earl/summary/v001/1.1.clark.html

Editors3 Note

We are pleased to launch a new journal, the Journal of Early ChristianStudies, and enlist your participation in this ambitious enterprise. Forseveral years, the growing membership of the North American PatristicsSociety has championed the notion that scholars of the early Christian erashould have access to an American journal that covered the entire periodfrom c.E. 100-700 and that included new subject matters and new meth-odologies. Hence members of the North American Patristics Society votedto pursue the establishment of a journal of our own. At the outset of ourdeliberations, we did not yet have in mind to incorporate any existingjournal into our project, but in subsequent discussions, members of theSociety learned that the board of The Second Century: A Journal of EarlyChristian Studies wished to pursue the merger of their journal, now inpublication since 1981, with ours. Thus the Journal of Early ChristianStudies represents a consolidation of the interests of NAPS members withthose of the board and readership of The Second Century. We thank thestaff of the Journals Division of the Johns Hopkins University Press for itswillingness to take on the publication of the Journal, and for their helpful-ness throughout; special thanks are due to Marie Hansen, editor of theJournals Division of the Johns Hopkins University Press, who encouragedthe project from its outset and has seen it through to a successful conclu-sion. The Journal will be published four times a year.

As plans proceeded, the Journal Committee of the North AmericanPatristics Society in consultation with Everett Ferguson, editor of TheSecond Century, agreed on an editorial arrangement to ensure that theJournal would cover a wide spectrum, both chronologically and substan-tively, of patristic studies. Serving as editors with us are Sidney H. Griffith,Charles Kannengiesser, Patricia Cox Miller and Robert L. Wilken. Anadvisory board will assist us in locating and reviewing manuscripts. Itsmembers include David Dawson, James Goehring, Thomas Halton, SusanAshbrook Harvey, David Hunter, Adam Kamesar, Frederick Norris, Car-olyn Osiek, William Schoedel, Willy Rordorf and Robert Sider. Book re-view editors will be Michael Slusser and L. Michael White. The enthusiasmwith which all editors and advisors have agreed to assume their tasks is aheartening sign that our launching of a new journal is a timely project.

vi EDITORS'NOTE

The editors hope that the Journal of Early Christian Studies will publishtraditional articles of the highest caliber, but will also become a showcasefor work in newer fields, such as women's studies and literary theory, thatwere not incorporated into the older "patristics." We also hope to includearticles using some of the newer methodologies, as well as those that em-ploy traditional historical and philological scholarship. We intend to rec-ognize the growing importance of early Christian traditions outside theorbit of Greek and Latin patristics, and hope that we will receive manymanuscript submissions on themes pertaining to the "Oriental" wing ofearly Christianity. We would like to include articles that explore how thevarious religions of late antiquity intersected with and influenced eachother, and how disciplines such as archaeology and art history illuminateour textual studies. We also intend to publish a substantial number of bookreviews in the Journal, building on the tradition established by the newslet-ter of the North American Patristics Society, Patristics, which in recentyears was so successfully edited by Frederick Norris. Thus we aim for abroad publication program that incorporates the new with the old.

We are eager to solicit your manuscript submissions, which should besent to Professor Elizabeth A. Clark, Department of Religion, Duke Univer-sity, Box 90964, Durham, NC 27708-0964. At present, we are not settingprecise page limits on manuscripts, but expect that most submissions willbe in the 2555 page range, counting double-spaced footnote pages. Wehave developed a style guide that is available from Elizabeth Clark. Finalversions of manuscripts must conform to the style guide, but manuscriptssubmitted for review need not. We will maintain the standard policy ofmost scholarly journals that each manuscript we consider seriously willreceive two reviews by experts in the field, whose comments will be trans-mitted to the author.

Subscriptions to the Journal of Early Christian Studies will be availableeither as part of the membership dues for the North American PatristicsSociety, or separately, without membership in NAPS. Institutional sub-scriptions are also available, and we urge you to ask your institution'slibrary to subscribe. A subscription form can be found at the back of thisissue of the Journal.

Thank you for your interest in our new publishing venture. We lookforward to receiving your suggestions and manuscript submissions.

Elizabeth A. ClarkEverett Ferguson