CFP: Themes of Polemical Theology Across Early Modern Literary Genres
3–4 December 2014, Bratislava, Slovakia
The confessional division within the Church in the early modern period was accompanied by a fervent activity in the field of polemical theology. This gave rise to a specific literary genre that, in spite of its abundant representation among early modern texts, has not received due attention from philologists as a distinct form of thought and expression. When reading early modern texts, one comes across references and allusions to confessional polemics again and again. Evidently, writings of religious controversy were capable of reaching out beyond their own sphere, thus making their presence felt in society and exerting their influence on individual people’s lives. Polemical theology developed its own system of arguments, images, biblical quotations, etc., gradually standardized through several prominent manuals of controversy. The patterns of polemical-theological discourse were widely known among the educated and their influences can be found in a wide spectrum of early modern literary genres, such as historiography, drama, poetry, oratory, epistolography, scientific dissertations, etc. The conference aims to take an interdisciplinary look at early modern texts, both Latin and vernacular, through the prism of the fundamental topics of polemical theology and/or against the background of the marks of the true Church.
Submission deadline: 15 April 2014
Abstracts of 150–200 words in English or German should be emailed to Svorad Zavarský no later than 15 April.
For more information, please see the conference website.
