The Tenth Annual RefoRC Conference on Early Modern Christianity will take place in Budapest on 6-8 May 2021. It will be hosted by the Research Centre for the Humanities.
For more information, please visit the RefoRC website: https://www.reforc.com/tenth-annual-reforc-conference-2021/
Westminster College, Cambridge, 31 March – 2 April 2020
Themes of migration and exile are written deep into the Judaeo-Christian tradition. The Pentateuch tells the story of the migration of the Patriarchs to the Promised Land of Canaan, of the exodus and wilderness wanderings. The Babylonian Exile of the sixth-century BC and the promise of return shapes the later literature of the Old Testament, while the New Testament describes Christians as ‘strangers and pilgrims’ here on earth.
2020 marks 400 years since the Pilgrim Fathers set sail on The Mayflower, heading to the New World in search of religious liberty. The Puritan settlers who travelled westwards in the Great Migration of the early and middle decades of the seventeenth century did so in search of religious liberty which would free them to establish ideal Christian community. Inspired by this anniversary, this conference will explore themes of migration and exile across the Reformation. Papers might consider the people or communities that moved in response to religious change, persecution or conflict, exploring the experience of displacement and exile, and the ways in which that experience shaped belief, practice and identity.
Equally, they might explore the theme more conceptually. Alex Walsham has discussed religious change across the sixteenth- and seventeenth-centuries in terms of ‘migrations of the holy’. Papers might, therefore, discuss how beliefs and practices migrated from one theological framework to another, or the ways in which texts and ideas moved across geographical, chronological or confessional boundaries. Consideration might be given to how biblical narratives and themes of migration and exile were treated in the scholarship, commentary, preaching and devotion of the various churches of the Reformation.
Leading us in our consideration of these themes will be:
As always, papers which reflect the current work of participants, regardless of their relevance to the theme, are welcome. The conference is always particularly keen to hear communications from postgraduate and early career scholars.
Proposed paper titles together with an abstract (100-150 words) should be submitted by 10 January 2020 to Professor Charlotte Methuen (charlotte.methuen@glasgow.ac.uk).
Registrations must be received by 10 February 2020, either by the booking form (available from Charlotte Methuen or here: SRS 2020 Booking Form) or via Eventbrite (https://srs2020.eventbrite.com).
A limited number of bursaries will be available for postgraduate students or early career scholars. For further information, contact Professor Charlotte Methuen (charlotte.methuen@glasgow.ac.uk). The bursary form can be downloaded here: SRS bursary form 2020
The tenth annual RefoRC conference on Early Modern Christianity will take place in Aarhus on 27-27 May, 2020. It will be hosted by the University of Aarhus.
Short paper submissions are welcome before March 1, 2020 via the online registration form.
For more information on the conference theme, keynote speakers and requirements for short papers, please visit the conference webpage here: https://www.reforc.com/tenth-annual-reforc-conference-on-early-modern-christianity/
27th Annual Conference
Reformation, Migration and Exile
Westminster College, Cambridge, 31 March – 2 April 2020
For further information, contact
Professor Charlotte Methuen (charlotte.methuen@glasgow.ac.uk) or
Dr Allan Smith (srs.secretary@cantab.net).
Title of proposed papers together with an abstract (100-150 words) should be submitted by 15 January 2020 to Professor Charlotte Methuen (charlotte.methuen@glasgow.ac.uk).
Registrations must be received by 31 January 2020. The conference booking form will be available from October 2019 at http://www.reformationstudies.org/.
Society for Reformation Studies
26th Annual Conference
Tuesday 9 Apr 2019, 14:00 –Thursday 11 Apr 2019, 15.00.
Westminster College, Madingley Road, Cambridge CB3 0AA United Kingdom
Since the early church, heresy has been understood to be theological opinion that diverged from agreed, or orthodox, Christian teaching, especially as laid out in the Catholic creeds agreed by the ecumenical councils of the fourth- and fifth centuries. Historians of the early church, however, observe that heresy and orthodoxy were often defined through the same processes and that the naming of orthodoxy was associated with the rejection of positions deemed heretical. The medieval church developed catalogues of heresies which often had little to do with the actual positions of those deemed heretical. How did this complex history of the definition of heresy shape the Reformation? The theological debates that divided the Western church in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries resulted in multiple confessions, and in a plural doctrinal landscape. What constituted ‘orthodoxy’ became subject to debate as Christians on each side of the emerging confessional divides accused one another of ‘heresy’ and ‘novelty’, and clarified their own doctrinal stances in opposition to those of their opponents.
This conference explores the theme of heresy — and consequently of orthodoxy – in and after the Reformation. Papers might explore how heresy was defined, and by whom; they might consider the relationships between orthodoxy and heterodoxy, and the ways in which the theological and religious ‘other’ was constructed. They might explore connections between heresy and persecution on the one hand, and toleration on the other. Questions of persecution, martyrdom, and identity arise. How did theologians draw on the theological inheritance of the patristic church? What did they accept, what did they interpret and what did they reject? Which creeds did people use, and why? What did it mean in an increasingly plural doctrinal landscape to lay claim to Christian (or possibly ‘catholic’) orthodoxy?
Leading us in our deliberations will be Dr David Bagchi (Hull), Professor Carlos Eire (Yale) and Professor Charlotte Methuen (Glasgow). As always, papers which reflect the current work of participants, regardless of their relevance to the theme, are welcome. The conference is always particularly keen to hear communications from postgraduate and early career scholars.
For further information, contact Dr Stephen Hampton (swph2@cam.ac.uk) or Dr Allan Smith (srs.secretary@cantab.net).
Proposed paper titles together with an abstract (100-150 words) should be submitted by 10 January 2019 to Dr Stephen Hampton (swph2@cam.ac.uk). Registrations must be received by 31 January 2019.
To regiaster, please go to the conference’s Eventbrite page: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/the-reformation-and-heresy-registration-50669520901
A booking form can also be downloaded here: SRS 2019 Booking Form-2f5zvkk
The Ninth Annual RefoRC Conference on Early Modern Christianity will take place in Bologna, and is hosted by the Fondazione per le Scienze Religiose Giovanni XXIII.
The conference commemorates the aftermath of the Defenstration of Prague. Short paper submissions are due on 1 March 2019 and conference registration closes on 14 May 2019.
More information can be found by following this link: https://www.reforc.com/ninth-annual-reforc-conference-2019-on-early-modern-christianity/
Westminster College, Cambridge, 10-12 April 2018
2018 marks the four-hundredth anniversary of the convening of the Synod of Dordt, one of the most important gatherings of Protestant divines before modern times, with representatives drawn from Reformed churches across Europe, including Britain. The anniversary provides an opportunity to reflect upon the Synod itself, and more widely on the Reformed tradition in its various manifestations, and on its relationship with the broader Reformation.
For this, the twenty-fifth conference of the Society for Reformation Studies, we invite papers (25 minutes’ maximum) exploring the Reformed tradition in all its aspects: theological, ecclesiological, social and political. Papers might consider divines and their theology (whether famous figures such as Zwingli, Calvin, and Bullinger, or less familiar but still influential divines from Whitaker and Ursinus to Turrettini, Voetius and Rivet). Or speakers might choose to focus on the distinctive ways that the Reformed tradition developed in Switzerland, Germany, the Netherlands, France, England, Scotland, Poland-Lithuania, Transylvania, Hungary. South Africa or New England. Papers might investigate a range of possible themes, including church government and discipline, the ministry, theology, religious controversy, ceremonies, or practical divinity. Speakers might also choose to discuss the translation, reception and circulation of Reformed texts and people across different countries and churches. Papers might explore Reformed links with other religious traditions, from the ambiguous relationship with other strains within English religion (both ‘Anglicans’ and dissenting groups) to the often (but not always) tense relationships with Lutheranism and the Lutheran churches. Another area for exploration would be the various attempts made to reconcile these traditions, from Melanchthon and Calvin to Calixtus and the Syncretists. Representations of the Reformed tradition – by supporters and opponents, and by different groups vying to speak in the name of Reformed ‘orthodoxy’ – might also provide fruitful topics for investigation.
Leading us in consideration of this theme will be Jane Dawson, Bruce Gordon, Stephen Hampton, and Scott Spurlock.
As ever, papers which reflect the current work of participants, regardless of their relevance to the theme, are welcome. The conference is always particularly keen to hear communications from post- graduate and early career scholars.
For further information, contact Allan Smith, chaplain@herts.ac.uk, or Charlotte Methuen, charlotte.methuen@glasgow.ac.uk.
Proposed paper titles and abstract (100-150 words) should be submitted by 15 January 2018 to Charlotte Methuen: charlotte.methuen@glasgow.ac.uk.
Registration may be via the downloadable booking form: SRS 2018 Booking Form-rn13h1 or https://www.eventbrite.com/e/reformation-and-the- reformed-registration-36610681534 (full conference only; credit card fees apply).
The winner of the Douglas Murray Prize (£1000) for what the award panel considers to have been the most outstanding article in volume 18 of RRR has been adjudged as D. Alan Orr, Professor of Humanistic Studies at the Maryland Institute College of Art (MICA), Baltimore, USA. Dr Orr’s higher education was at Queen’s University, Kingston, Ontario and the University of Cambridge.
The award-winning article in accordance with the prize’s criteria, is entitled:
‘“God’s hangman”: James VI, the Divine Right of Kings, and the Devil.’ Reformation & Renaissance Review, 18.2 (2016), 137-154.
Comments from the panellists include:
a clever and pleasingly original article… an exciting synthesis that brings insights into the mental world of James VI & I
an important contribution to our understanding of early-modern absolutism… persuasive and illuminating
stimulating and well written
a worthy contribution to scholarship on Reformation political thought
The adjudication panel for the 2016 award consisted of David Manning (Convenor), Amy Nelson Burnett, and Mickey Mattox.
Update 16 November 2017: See newer conference information here.
The Twenty-fifth Annual Conference of the Society for Reformation Studies on the theme of Reformation and the Reformed will be held at Westminster College, Cambridge, UK, Tuesday 10─Thursday 12 April 2018.
Proposals are invited for 25 minute papers on either the conference them or other current work in any other area of Reformation history.
For further information, please contact: