Call for papers: Narratives of Peace in Religious Discourses: global perspectives in the Early Modern Age
In the Early Modern Age, the encounter and conflict between competing religious identities produced a renewed emphasis on the concept of peace, which was invested with religious, political and ideological connotations, that still need to be investigated with an interdisciplinary approach combining history, philosophy, history of religions and anthropology. The volume intends to explore the role of religious discourse in the construction of the concept of peace from the Renaissance to the Enlightenment, analyzing the narratives which in Europe gave extrahuman value to peace, with a focus on the processes of idealization, mythicization and mystification of peace. Special attention will be given to the problem of tolerance/toleration as an attempt to shape the relationship between confessions as a peaceful coexistence beyond doctrinal differences, at least in daily life. Since the theme of peace is linked to the need to overcome the situation of confessional conflict at the origins of European modernity, it allows to approach the problems related to the processes of Western secularization at the intersection between philosophy and theology, and in the missionaries and colonial discourses. Papers will be welcomed on the subject of European theorizations of the “other” (Christian etherodoxes and dissidents, Jewish, Islamic, indigenous people and minorities), analyzing how and when the forced cohabitation generated reflections or actual practices of “religious peace”. Similarly, will have relevant interest papers exploring the extent to which religious conflicts within Christianity have triggered a rhetoric of peace and tolerance/toleration then projected on the colonial contexts and within the frame of Imperial building on a global scale.
Abstracts may cover the following themes among others:
- What specific attributes and goals were attributed to allegorized figures of Peace in early modern times, especially in the Renaissance representations of the peace by /authors such as Nicholas of Cusa, Giovanni Pico della Mirandola, Desiderius Erasmus, Thomas More, Tommaso Campanella?
- Which particular denominations and theological traditions employ more often tolerance and peace discourses? Which role played Europe’s religious crisis of the XVI century in the theorization of concepts of peace? How was the discourse of tolerance shaped in order to overcome theological disputes within Christianity (see e.g. the so called Radical Reformation, the Mennonites, Methodism)?
- How much modern time philosophy’s discourses on peace were informed by Judeo-Christian theological perspectives (for instance see the thought of Hobbes, Spinoza, Lessing, Kant)?
- Which events, movements and political or religious figures, artists, travellers marked the modern history of ecumenism and interreligious dialogue?
- To what extent the theological disputes within Christianity influenced the colonial rhetoric and politics about the construction of peace and tolerance in other Continents?
CfP coordination: Ludovico Battista, Maria Fallica, Beatrice Tramontano
Please email your submission to:
ludovico.battista@uniroma1.it
alessandro.saggioro@uniroma1.it
Abstract deadline: 30th November 2020.
Notification of acceptance: 20th December 2020.
Paper deadline: 1st April 2021.
The volume resulting from this call for paper will be published by Sapienza University Press – New Series (work in progress). All articles will be peer reviewed
ABOUT THE RESEARCH PROJECT:
Negotiating Stories in Cohabitation: Dynamics and Narratives of Peace in the Great Empires of the Past (from Antiquity to Present Times) is a Sapienza Project (RG11916B85F0352C). The research group proposes an interdisciplinary analysis of the processes through which some of the ancient great empires negotiated and reevaluated their own past histories in the context of regional peacebuilding: Roman Empire, early modern Christendom from Europe to the Americas and Asia, Iberian Empires, Mughal empire, and the Tibetan Kingdoms of the Tibetosphere. The project will focus mainly on the concept of border and conflicts of identity across the boundaries and on the role of historical narratives in conflicts and their resolution. The approach is interdisciplinary, rooted in the discursive approach to conflict and reconciliation through the language of myth, theology, philosophy, law, and arts. During the project, we will become acquainted with concepts and theories of peacebuilding and conciliation, as well as social, political, and cultural issues related to the position of minorities in the empires of Late Antiquity, Middle Ages, and the long Renaissance, from the Mediterranean to the Indian Ocean. We will also explore the repercussions that certain narratives of the past continue to cast on the contemporary images of minority group in the socio-cultural and political scenarios of the present.
PI:
Alessandro Saggioro alessandro.saggioro@uniroma1.it
RESEARCH TEAM:
Scientific Board: Sergio Botta, Alberto Camplani, Tessa Canella, Candida Assunta Carella, Serena Di Nepi, Marianna Ferrara, Gaetano Lettieri, Umberto Longo, Mara Matta, Emanuela Prinzivalli
Research Staff: Ludovico Battista, Marinella Ceravolo, Maria Fallica, Arturo Monaco, Carmelo Russo, Fernanda Fischione, Walter Montanari