Is this a grift?

An inquiry thread. 1/

By now if you work in NT you may have seen an online conference coming up that features a huge number of prolific scholars on the topic of Christology: “Christ among the Disciplines.” 2/

It looks like a regular online conference except for a few irregularities. The first is that no where on the website does it say who is running the conference. A royal “we” is specified in the About section without suggesting what or who is in charge. 3/

There is a steering committee but the website says they have been assembled for future conferences to make this conference an annual one. So who is running this one? The webpage specifies “Ensarkos, est. January 2020” but I have no idea what that is referencing. 4/

The second irregularity is the matter of how much the conference costs. A lot of online conferences (bar SBL) have been offering their content for free. I understand of course that speakers should be recompensed for their work and time. 5/

But the “Christ among the Disciplines” conference unusually does not indicate that the money is going to speakers, only that the money is going toward future conferences? 6/

That’s all well and good but without knowing what organisation is running the conference or who, I want to know who is pocketing the money and how it is getting distributed before I sign up. 7/

It’s also strange that the website has a form that asks you “how much would you pay” for a conference like this? Determining a fee based on user “gut feeling” rather than what the organiser seems as appropriate cost is suspicious to me. 8/

There are a number of early conference “co-Chairs” who will introduce speakers, but the sessions seem to run and moderated by a certain “Mitchell Mallary” who interestingly does not have a photo up on the website and is only mentioned by name. 9/

I would like to Mr. Mallary who is exactly in charge of this conference and where the money is going. Any one know?

@JesusAndAcademy what organisation is running this event and where is the money going? Are proceeds going to speakers?