Wolfgang Reinhard, University of Freiburg – online
um in jedem Fall Einige zu retten [1 Kor 9,22]. Verantwortliche Mission in der Frühen Neuzeit
In der frühen Neuzeit gab es noch keine reflektierte „Verantwortungsethik“, sondern in Sachen Mission nur den naiven Glaubensgehorsam gegenüber dem Missionsbefehl Christi und seiner Anwendung durch den „Heidenapostel“ Paulus. In der Praxis versuchten die Missionare allerdings ihrer Verantwortung gegenüber den Heiden je nach Umständen durchaus angemessen gerecht zu werden. Das wird für verschiedene katholische Missionen in Amerika und Asien ebenso demonstriert wie für reformierte, lutherische und pietistische. Dabei erweist sich jede Mission allerdings unausweichlich als eine Art von Machtbeziehung, die Menschen entmündigen möchte. Dadurch wird sie aus der Sicht der Gegenwart zu einer fragwürdigen Veranstaltung, die als Teil des Kolonialismus möglicherweise sogar historische Schuld auf sich geladen hat.
Arnold Witte, University of Amsterdam
Cardines and Lucrum: Cardinal-protectors and Confraternities in Early Modern Responsible Society
The Tridentine Council meant to remediate the critique of the Christian community towards the Catholic Church, and it aimed to do so by forcing its cardinals to adapt to a new role in an institutional setting; that of cardinal-protector. Authority should be used in the service of greater goals, supervising confraternities secular functioning and religious orthodoxy. This new role of cardinals was at first hesitatingly adopted by the porporati, but from the late sixteenth century to the late eighteenth century, this constituted the norm. Cardinals seem to have recognized that this position offered chances to manifest their social position and thus their formal and informal influence. It led to a situation in which the responsible society came to buttress a cardinals’ formal and informal position. But how did this function? This talk will deal with the relations between cardinals and confraternities, and how this had an impact on a cardinal’s career path.
Matthijs Jonker, KNIR
Charity and the Nobility of Painting in the Accademia di San Luca
In 1585 the painter and author Romano Alberti published his Trattato della nobiltà della pittura (Treatise on the nobility of painting) at the request of the Accademia di San Luca, the recently founded Roman art academy. In this treatise Alberti argues for the nobility of painting by connecting it in an interesting an innovative way with the concept of charity. In this talk I discuss, first, how Alberti conceived of the relationship between charity and the nobility of painting and, second, how these ideas were put into practice in the Accademia di San Luca. In the first part I confront Alberti’s ideas to those of Cardinal Gabriele Paleotti (1522-1587) as expressed in his Discorso intorno alle imagini sacre e profane (Discourse on sacred and profane images) of 1582. Although Alberti was heavily influenced by Paleotti’s Discorso, in his Trattato he deviates on subtle but important points from Paleotti. After discussing Alberti’s and Paleotti’s “voices” concerning charity and the nobility of painting, in the next part I briefly discuss the “fruits” of their dialogue by going into the practice of charity in the early years of the Accademia di San Luca.
Nele De Raedt, UCLouvain, Belgium
Magnificence and the Common Good: Architectural Patronage and Social Responsibility in the Early Modern Period
This paper proposes to study reflections on social responsibility in Early Modern Christianity by focusing on the concept of the common good (bonum commune, utilitas publica, Gemeiner Nutz) in political theory. As the shared duty of citizens to strive for the continuous harmonious existence of the civitas, and its material welfare, the “common good” responds best to contemporary ideas on social responsibility. Unlike liberality (liberalitas) or magnificence (magnificentia), the common good is not defined as a virtue, allowing the individual to be a good Christian, but as a shared duty (“a social responsibility”) towards an abstract entity as the civitas (or “society”). This distinction allows us to question models of architectural patronage, available to early modern Christians, and the architectural language they require. While the magnificent asks for a certain amount of sumptuousness, striving for the common good might not require such a display of wealth. The question also rises whether buildings should be read as portraits of a patron’s virtuousness or as embodiments of civic duties (or both). The paper deals with these questions, and takes Johann von Soest’s poem Wie men woll ein statt regiern soll of 1495 (instructing the urban magistracy of Worms how to strive for the common good), as well as the new legislative textbooks of Worms of 1498, as specific textual entries into early modern ideas on social responsibility in relation to architectural patronage and design.
Riccarda Suitner, Deutsches Historisches Institut, Rome
Debates on Social Responsibility in Early Eighteenth-Century German Natural Law
The lecture will examine some theories on natural law of the early German Enlightenment that have hitherto been neglected in the historiographical debate. The discussion on people’s responsibility towards themselves and the society around them will be addressed by examining sources dating back to the early eighteenth century on the issue, very controversial at the time, of the principle of natural law. The analysis of concepts such as “socialitas”, “amicitia”, “philautia” and “recta ratio” will clarify how the authors to be presented are engaged in an interesting dialogue with the seventeenth- and eighteenth-century tradition, above all with Samuel Pufendorf, Christian Thomasius and Thomas Hobbes, though they developed their theories in original directions. The lecture will also shed light on how these ideas were taught at German universities in the early eighteenth century.
Carlo Taviani, University of Zurich
Limited Liability, Limited Responsibility. Early Modern Global Corporations, Capital Investments, and Moral Issues
How did the so-called and famous ‘limited liability’—a characteristic of the business corporations—enter in conflict with the concept of social responsibility? When business corporations, such as the Dutch or the British East India Company (VOC or EIC), massacred a population in Asia or Africa, did investors in the Netherlands or England react? Did they consider themselves morally involved or concerned?
This paper focuses on business corporations, starting with very early examples, such as the fifteenth century Casa di San Giorgio of Genoa (1407-1805), which has traditionally been considered similar to later business corporations, and will show how citizens who invested money in shares of business institutions reacted over time to their own scruples of conscience.
Martine Veldhuizen, Utrecht University
Feisty Virgins: Truth-telling as a Concept of Social Responsibility in the First Printed Editions of the Dutch Golden Legends (1450-1500)
Questions around free speech have been pertinent for centuries, but the stories of ‘truth-tellers’ form a vital element in these conversations. The truth-tellers discussed in this paper are from one of the most influential religious works of the Middle ages, the Gulden Legende (The Golden Legends/Legenda Aurea of Jacobus de Voragine). Sainty women like Cecilia, Katherina, Lucia, Agatha and Christina were considered were women who put aside their social identity as quiet and high-born women and take on the mantle of truth-teller, fully knowing and accepting the physical dangers this brings with it. Truth-telling is essential to their identity and their social responsibility, more important than the superficial social markers of background, ancestry and wealth. If that made them worthy of adoration in the Middle Ages, we should not forget them now.
These stories are a fertile field for future research. Dr Martine Veldhuizen’s ‘Truth-tellers: The mentality behind subversive speech behaviour in narratives in the first printed texts in Dutch (1450-1500)’, funded by the Netherlands Organization for Scientific Research, is keen to continue discovering more of these truth-tellers and to explore their direct, and frequently aggressive, use of language.
Lotte van Hasselt, University of Amsterdam
The ‘deserving’ Refugee in the Dutch Republic
From the sixteenth century onwards the Dutch Republic has been involved in several ‘refugee-crises’, either as a place of asylum or as an important stakeholder in charity campaigns for Reformed exiles elsewhere. However, the ‘refugee’ as a distinct category did not yet exist. This also meant that at the time, no conceptual framework of international law or institutions existed in which refugees could claim a distinct set of rights or other forms of protection. Protection for refugees was therefore a constant negotiation between authorities and displaced communities, and not all displaced communities could count on protection. Notions of Christian responsibility, but also political events and international relations were important factors in deciding who was worthy of support. The ability of refugees to be vocal about their predicament and their level of organization also influenced ideas about who deserved support and who did not. This paper will examine how responsibility to aid refugees was negotiated in the Dutch Republic. Specifically, this paper will delve deeper into the agency of refugees in lobbying for protection. By examining pamphlets, petitions, placards and correspondence, this paper hopes to offer more insight into when and why it was considered to be a Christian, or even humanitarian, responsibility to extent protection to refugees.
Marianne Ritsema van Eck, The Norwegian Institute in Rome
Time and Responsibility. Franciscan Roles in History
This paper explores the relationship between conceptions of sacred history/time and social responsibility. The Franciscan order is relatively well-known for its various activities, including pastoral care and preaching, which addressed societal needs in urban contexts from the order’s foundation in the 13th century onward. It is the object of this paper to further investigate the particular role – conceptualized as societal responsibility – which Franciscan friars allotted to their own order in the larger, eschatological scheme of salvation history. I will pay particularly attention to Franciscan publications on sacred geography and order historiography from the 15th century onward, with the aim of singling out crucial moments in time and places in space which came to define Franciscan attitudes to social responsibility.
Kyle Dieleman, Trinity Christian College, Palos Heights
Creating and Navigating Social Inequalities in Early Modern Dutch Colonies
As the early modern Low Countries expanded into international spaces in Africa, Asia, and the Americas, Dutch authorities were forced to consider how social responsibility functioned in these news environments. These new realities were particularly pertinent for the Dutch trading companies–the VOC and the WIC. My paper will focus on the WIC and the approaches church authorities sought to enact regarding social responsibility in modern-day Brazil and, specifically, Recife. Church authorities who had responsibility for decisions related to social responsibility include church consistories and their regional classes in the Low Countries as well as those in the Low Countries and abroad serving as pastors, visitors of the sick, elders and deacons, and WIC officials. My paper will explore how preaching and worship in Dutch Reformed churches were used to create social systems among natives and Dutch members of the WIC living and working in Brazil. In addition, pending the development of the role of preaching and worship, my research may also address how diaconal funds were collected and used in the Dutch Reformed churches in Brazil.
