Medieval History
War, Peace, and Religion in the Middle Ages
Graduate Conference in Medieval Studies at Princeton University
War, Peace, and Religion in the Middle Ages
April 13, 2013
Call for Papers
The Program in Medieval Studies at Princeton University invites submissions for its twentieth annual graduate conference in Princeton, New Jersey.
Keynote Speaker: Brett Whalen, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
War, Peace, and Religion Throughout Late Antiquity and the Middle Ages,
religion deeply influenced practices of, protests against, and debates about
war.
Religious difference frequently provoked medieval warfare, and was an important aspect of conflicts as diverse as the Islamic conquest of the Middle East and the Iberian peninsula, Charlemagne?s campaigns against the Saxons, and the Crusades.
Religion could also spark violence and conflict on a local level: the medieval church?s fight to define and ensure orthodoxy often led to the violent suppression of supposedly heretical
religious groups, while many medieval communities participated in horrific persecutions of
religious minorities in their midst. Some saints, popes, and clerics instigated and directed
war to further their
religious and political ambitions, while many others tried to control violent conflict and promote
peace.
Religion?s influence on warfare also extended to academic debate and medieval literature. Theologians, exegetes, and
religious writers strove to conceptualize
war and
peace in Christian and historical terms, and
religious concerns saturated many academic and social debates over the nature, place, and utility of armed conflict in medieval Christendom.
How did
religion influence the outbreak, practice, containment, and conceptualization of
war in the Middle Ages? Conversely, how did
war and
peace ? real and imagined ? shape medieval
religion? We invite the submission of proposals from a variety of disciplines, time periods, geographies, source materials, and methodological approaches. Potential topics might include, but are not limited to:
* Conversion by the sword: violent conversion, enlarging Christendom through
war, converting defeated armies.
* Interconfessional conflict between Christians, Jews, and Muslims: the Crusades and the Reconquista, increased interconfessional exchange as a result of the Crusades, violent persecutions of Jews.
*The holy warrior: military saints, crusading kings, military
religious orders, pious knights in medieval romance.
*
War in
religious literature: interpreting biblical warfare, apocalyptic perspectives, theological approaches to warfare, hagiographic depictions,
war and the liturgy.
*
War and
religion in medieval romance
* The experience of
war: local
religious responses to warfare, communities coping through faith, holy men and women as protectors.
* The internal
war against heresy: inquisition, crusading against Christians, competing
religious traditions.
*
War in
religious art: illuminated manuscripts, cathedrals, reliquaries, sculpture.
*
Religious responses against
war:
religious concepts of
peace, clerics and conflict resolution, saintly pacifism.
In order to support participation by speakers from outside the northeastern United States, we are offering a limited number of modest subsidies to help offset the cost of travel to Princeton. Financial assistance may not be available for every participant; funding priority goes to those who have the farthest to travel. Every speaker will have the option of staying with a resident graduate student as an alternative to paying for a hotel room.
Interested graduate students should submit abstracts of no more than 500 words to Molly Lester and Leah Klement (
[email protected]) by January 31st, 2013.
All applicants will be notified by February 10th, 2013. Presentations should be no longer than 20 minutes.
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Medieval History