November 8th, 9th and 10th in conference hall O 100
HERESY, MAGIC AND NATURAL PHILOSOPHY
Ideas of past eras can be difficult to recognize. The medieval and renaissance understanding of the world evolved from faith, magic and science, and provided the framework for human knowledge. However, these ideas were not homogeneous. They changed from one period to the next, from region to region, even from city to city, but within common frames of interpretation. It is the purpose of this symposium to shed new light on medieval and renaissance (c. 1400-1650) perceptions of the universe by challenging traditional disciplinary and chronological boundaries.
Distinct disciplines, such as church history, history of science, and the study of folklore has created an unhelpful contrast between religion and science. The majority of the medieval or post-reformation theologians did not intend to dismiss science in the name of God. Moreover, the majority of scientists worked from the same fundamental belief in God as did theologians. The symposium will address the almost deterministic understanding of evolutionary progress, which is often encountered in the history of science and magic. In addition, it will question the traditional and somewhat problematic chronological division of the later middle ages and the reformation era.
Magic, heresy, and natural philosophy are subjects often studied as more or less separate fields. The study of post-reformation campaigns to discipline the population according to the new religious ideas and the roots of modern science often focus on the period of the great witch-hunts (1580-1620) without paying much attention to either what went before or what came after. There is a need to study the themes in a larger context where ideas about magic, God, the devil, science, and faith can be seen as part of a whole. This symposium aims to rectify this.
Key note speaker: Richard Kieckhefer, Northwestern University
Speakers also include
Willem de Blécourt, Dora Bobory, Nancy Caciola, Johannes Dillinger, Matteo Duni, David Gentilcore, Rune Blix Hagen, Britt Istoft, Morten Fink-Jensen, Torstein Jørgensen, Louise Nyholm Kallestrup, Henning Laugerud, Steven Mitchell, Kirsi Salonen, Leif Søndergaard, Raisa Maria Toivo & Rita Voltmer.
Financed by the Nordic Centre for Medieval Studies, Berger, helsinki, Gothenburg and Odense:http://www.uib.no/ncms/index.htm