Conference: Priestcraft: Early Modern Variations on the Theme of Sacerdotal Imposture
1-2 September 2016, CRASSH, Cambridge
Between older forms of anticlericalism which impugned priests for laxity and later forms which questioned their loyalty to the nation, the early modern period witnessed the emergence of its own distinct claim, namely: that priests concocted and peddled fraudulent knowledge. By the seventeenth century this insinuation had found a name: ‘priestcraft.’
This two-day conference will bring together an international group of experts in intellectual history, the history of religion and literary studies in order to consider how the motif of priestcraft offered a means to both understand the history and to undermine the standing of rival confessions and religions. It will represent the first attempt undertaken by scholars to view ‘priestcraft’ from a pan-European perspective. In doing so, participants will examine how the charge of priestcraft drew upon a re-awakening of sceptical philosophy, how the idea resonated with broader interests in simulation and dissimulation and how it was applied as a proto-ethnographic model in attempts to comprehend non-European cultures.
Speakers include: Justin Champion (Royal Holloway), Winfried Schröder (University of Marburg), Michael Hunter (Birkbeck, University of London), Sascha Salatowsky (Gotha Research Library), Diego Lucci (American University in Bulgaria), Tim Stuart-Buttle (University of Cambridge), Ariel Hessayon (Goldsmiths), Ashley Walsh (University of Cambridge), Mark Goldie (University of Cambridge), John Marshall (Johns Hopkins University), Sundar Henny (University of Cambridge), Ulrich Groetsch (University of Alabama), and Alix Chartrand (University of Cambridge).
Organised by: James A.T. Lancaster (Royal Holloway) & Andrew McKenzie-McHarg.
Download the conference poster here.
For more details & the programme, see the conference webpage.