Call for Papers, deadline – 1 September 2022
A two-day conference, to be held on 3 & 4 November 2022, online via Zoom, at 13:00 to 18:30 Central European Time (both days).
Keynote speakers:
Jessalynn Bird, Saint Mary’s College, Notre Dame
Jay Rubenstein, University of Southern California
It has long been recognised that the crusades were religious movements that developed out of and reflected Latin Christian devotional culture, synergising with vital dimensions of medieval Western spirituality such as pilgrimage, penance and eschatology. Yet, it is only in recent years that the intersections between the crusades and these facets of Latin Christian religious practice have been subjected to sustained and meaningful scholarly attention. The last decade or so has witnessed the appearance of a number of groundbreaking studies, such as those by Cecilia Gaposchkin on crusading liturgy, by Jessalynn Bird on recruitment, sermons and preaching, and by Philippe Buc and Jay Rubenstein on both exegesis and apocalypticism. Nevertheless, much more work remains to be done, especially with respect to the wider context of contemporary ecclesiastical history. Indeed, these vital contributions have pointed the way forward, charting new vistas for crusade studies, and bringing attention to new or neglected source material including biblical commentaries, liturgical manuals, and sermon collections. This work has also highlighted important methodological challenges, emphasising the need for scholars of the crusades to develop a range of skills and competences.
The aim of this conference is to bring together scholars at all stages working in the above-mentioned fields and encourage further development in and between these innovative areas of research. The organisers welcome proposals for 20-minute papers (in English) that deal with the connection between crusading, crusade preaching, crusade ideology, or crusade commemoration on the one hand and theology, exegesis, sermons, liturgy, or apocalypticism on the other. Ultimately, the conference seeks to enhance understanding of the place of crusading in Latin Christian ecclesiastical and religious culture, and inspire debates on how the biblical metatext, disseminated via different media and in a variety of settings and circumstances, caused, shaped, and commemorated the crusades.
For more information, please visit: https://www.hsozkult.de/event/id/event-128199?language=en
Contact: crusades2022@zegk.uni-heidelberg.de