How, under which conditions and with which consequences are religions historicized? The conference aims at furthering the study of religion as of historiography by analysing how religious groups employ historical narratives in the construction of their identities or how such groups are invented by later historiography .

The conference will focus on the question: How, under which conditions and with which consequences are religions historicized? The conference aims at furthering the study of religion as of historiography by analysing how religious groups (or their adversaries) employ historical narratives in the construction of their identities or how such groups are invented by later historiography (comparative historiography). Thus the biases and elisions of current analytical and descriptive frames have to be analysed, too (history of research). Combing disciplinary competences of Religious Studies and History of Religion, Confessional Theologies, History, History of Science, and Literary Studies, the participants will help to initiate a comparative historiography of religion by applying literary comparison and historical contextualization to those texts that have been used as central documents for histories of individual religions and analyze their historiographic character, tools and strategies. Furthermore they will stimulate the history of historical research on religion; that is, identifying key steps in the early modern and modern history of research. The comparative approach will address Circum-Mediterranean and European as well as Asian religious traditions from the first millennium BCE to present.

Grants are available for students and early stage researchers to cover the conference fee and possibly part of the travel costs. Grants are distributed based on financial need and scientific merit.

Program

Monday, 10 September

17.00-19.30 Registration at the ESF desk

19.30 Welcome Drink

20.00 Dinner

Tuesday, 11 September

• 09.00-09.30 Opening: Jörg Rüpke, University of Erfurt, DE
  Historiographic texts and contexts

1. Which contexts do provoke processes of historicization  and the development of historiography in particular?

• 9.30-10.15 Johannes Bronkhorst, University of Lausanne, CH
  The rise of confessional Historiography in central Europe

• 10.15-11.00 Chase Robinson, City University of New York, US
  Early Historiography of Islam: literary and professional aspects

11.00-11.30 Coffee break

• 11.30-12.15 Per K. Sørensen, University of Leipzig, DE
  The formation of religious historiography in Tibet

12.30 Lunch

2. Writing histories of religion

• 14.00-14.45 Franziska Metzger, University of Fribourg, CH
  Conflicting historiographical claims in religiously plural societies

• 14.45-15.30 Yvonne-Maria Werner, Lund University, SE
  Religion and Gender in Scandinavian historiography

15.30-16.00 Coffee break

• 16.00-16.45 Chris Lorenz, University of Amsterdam, NL
  Differences that make a difference. A comparative perspective on historiography

17.00-19.00 3. Poster session

19.30 Dinner

Wednesday, 12 September

4.  Which practices to historicize the past, i.e. to acknowledge and sequence the pastness of the past, have been used in historicizing religions?

• 9.00-9.45 Tessa Rajak, Oxford University, UK
  Religious pasts in Jewish historiography

• 9.45-10.30 Susanne Rau, University of Erfurt, DE
  Practitioners of religious historiography

10.30-11.00 Coffee break

• 11.00-11.30 Johannes Bronkhorst, University of Lausanne, CH
  History of knowledge, Historicization of religion by minorities

11.45-12.30 Round tables

12.30 Lunch

14.00 Excursion

19.00 Dinner

Thursday, 13 September

5. How does historicization modify certain characteristics of religions? How do they integrate a historical dimension? How do religions make themselves immune against historicist claims?

• 9.00-9.45 Ingvild Gilhus, Bergen, NO
  The invention of identity and the creation of history as cosmic myth: Interpreting Codex II from Nag Hammadi

• 09.45-10.30 Giulia Sfameni Gasparro, University of Messina, IT
  Historicizing salvation

10.30-11.00 Coffee break

11.00-11.45       

11.45-12.30 Round tables

12.30 Lunch

6. How did different disciplines dealing with religion take up the impulse of historicism?

• 14.00-14.45 Reinhard Gregor Kratz, University of Göttingen, DE
  Historia sacra and Historical Criticism in Biblical Scholarship

• 14.45-15.30 Corinne Bonnet, University of Toulouse, FR
  Historiography, Historicism in Religious Studies

15.30-16.00 Coffee break

• 16.00-16.45 Giovanni Filoramo, Torino, IT
  History of Christianity, Church history and storia delle religioni

• 16.45-17.30 Cristiana Facchini, University of Bologna, IT
  Jewish Studies, Identity shaping by scientific Historiography

• 17.30-18.15 Natale Spineto, University of Torino, IT
  Methods in Religious Studies, Comparative history and Historicism

18.15-19.00 Round tables

19.00 Dinner

21.00-22.00 Forward Look Plenary Discussion

Friday, 14 September

Breakfast and departure

Tarifs

• Speaker 1160,00 €

• Grantee (no accomodation/ dinner included)  550,00 €

• Early-Bird (no accomodation/ dinner included) 395,00 €

• Normal (no accomodation/ dinner included) 495,00 €

• Late (no accomodation/ dinner included) 645,00 €