Panels sponsored by the Centre for Reformation and Renaissance Studies
Contact: Marco Piana, University of Toronto
Deadline: 30 June, 2019
This series of panels will explore the centrality of bodies as objects of devotion in early modern Europe and beyond. With the advent of the Renaissance, many forms of devotion rooted in the traditions of the Middle Ages – relic worship, corporeal miracles, blood cults – engendered new trends of Christian pietas, often linked with the progressive rediscovery of ancient models of aesthetics and thought. In such a context, how did bodies change as objects of devotion? What forms of worship endured the transition from the Middle Ages to Early Modernity? How did new devotional trends dialogue with past traditions?
relic worship
blood cults
statue worship
the body and the religious other
the body and religious conversion
the engendered body as an object of devotion
bodily miracles and living sainthood
carnal/sensual forms of devotion
The panels will investigate these topics and draw on a burgeoning body of research on early modern religion, art, and literature in order to address the important question of how the devotion of the body evolved and persisted in Early Modernity. Selected papers might be invited to contribute to a volume sponsored and published by the Centre for Reformation and Renaissance Studies.
Please send a 300-word (max) curriculum vitae, a title and a 150-word abstract to Marco Piana (marco.piana@utoronto.ca). Your paper proposal must also include your full name, current affiliation, email address, and Ph.D. completion date (past or expected).
Deadline for abstracts: June 30, 2019. Submissions will be reviewed by the organizing committee and CRRS Executive, and responses will be sent by the end of July.
Please note that presenters must be members in good standing of the Renaissance Society of America at the time of the conference; be committed to attending the conference in Philadelphia; and make their own travel arrangements.
