SHORT PAPER PANELS 1
Tuesday May 19, 2026, 16:30-18:00
Room 1
Early Modern Literature and Religion: Biblical Interpretation and Translation
Chair: Brian Cummings (University of York)
- Thomas Fulton (Rutgers University): Tyndale’s New Testament at 500: Rethinking Its Lutheran and Erasmian Origins
- Jakub Koryl (Jagiellonian University): Measuring the Meaning, Sensing the Sense: «De multiplici siclo et talento Hebraico» (1568) by Stanislaw Grzepski in Search of the Material Interpretation of the Bible
- Francis Taylor (University of York): Weeds and Wheat: Materiality, Vegetal Metaphor, and Constructions of Orthodoxy in Seventeenth-Century Sermons
Room 2
Text, Textile, and Theology 1: Inner Virtue and Outer Splendour
The material turn in religious studies emphasizes that material objects—alongside bodily acts and rituals—do not merely express religious truths but actively shape, generate and transfer meaning. Faith is not only intellectual assent to codified doctrines; it takes form through objects, actions, and practices that constitute belief itself. This panel explores how textiles, in their making, tactile experience, and visual representation, functioned as vehicles of devotion, theological expression, and power in late medieval and early modern Christianity, across Catholic and Protestant contexts. Clothing saints, adorning books and altars, furnishing sacred spaces, dressing priests and religious men and women, and constraining the dress habits of laypeople were not neutral acts: they mediated access to the sacred, performed rites of passage, and articulated religious identity. Beyond their material presence, textiles often intersected with text: The ritual introduction and donning of liturgical vestments—traditionally accompanied by blessing prayers and specific invocations for each garment—together with embroidered biblical verses, and textile metaphors in theological writings, reveal a dynamic interplay between word and fabric. Books were clothed in luxurious bindings, while textile patterns inspired visual and literary motifs. This relationship invites reflection on how text and textile together shaped devotional practices, communicated theological meaning, and constructed sacred aesthetics.
Chair: Ragnhild M. Bø (University of Oslo)
- Catherine Powell-Warren (KU Leuven): “Filz de cloistre”: The Making of Lace as Béguine Devotion.
- Mary Whittingdale (University of Cambridge): Fabricating Religious Work in 17th Century England
- Karina R. Fischer (Justus-Liebig-Universität Gießen): Splendour and Restraint: Stage Objects, Costumes, and Christian Materiality in Sixteenth-Century Esther Dramas
Room 3
Materiality of the Saints 1. the Relics and Saints’ Representation across Confessions and Literary Genres
This panel contributes the perspective of literary studies to the historical research on material tokens of the saints’ veneration, e.g. relics, images or statues. The papers are based on the analysis of literary sources composed in various genres which constituted an essential part of the contemporary discussion and practice of the cult of saints. The issue of longing for the saints’ tangible and visual presence is approached from various – confessional, ‘glocal’, generic or linguistic – angles to showcase the complexity of the saints’ veneration in various settings.
Chair: TBA
- Patryk M. Ryczkowski (Vilnius University): Iosaphat redux: Josaphat Kuntsevych’s Relics through the Lens of the Translation Reports (1667)
- Marie Škarpová (Charles University, Prague): “Schutz und Schatz”: Texts on Relics of Prague Cathedral between Hagiography, Historiography, Itinerarium, Pilgrim’s Guide, Calendarium, and Inventory
- Daniel Soukup (Institute of Czech Literature of the Czech Academy of Sciences): Eyes Wide Shut: Jewish Converts and Materiality of Early Modern Cult of Saints
Room 4
Materializations of Luther in the 16th Century / Translations of Luther in 16th Century Denmark: Education, Theories and Methods
In our panel we aim to introduce our research project about translations of Luther in 16th century Europe. The question is how Luther’s thoughts materialized across Europe from north to south between 1520 and 1600: as concrete books, vernacular renewals, private edifying and clerical agents, selling items, instruments of power and objects of conversation and change. We will show which texts were most commonly translated into which languages, and who the actors (translators, printers, sellers, buyers and readers) and their networks were.
Chair: TBA
- Anna Vind (University of Copenhagen): Translations of Luther in 16th Century Denmark: Education, Theories and Methods
- Jörg Wesche (Georg-August-Universität, Göttingen): Investigating Luthertexts with Digital Tools
- David Brandon Smith (Goethe Universität, Frankfurt am Main): Martin Luther as Freedom Fighter? The Reformer’s Legacy in the Struggle for an Independent Namibia
Room 5
Church of England 1: Contested Materiality in Practices
Chair: TBA
- Jessica Becker (University of Kent): The Spanish Catch: Traces of Phillip II’s El Escorial in Charles I’s Banqueting House
- Vanessa Chaise-Brun (University of Reims Champagne-Ardenne): The Materiality of the Cult of King Charles the Martyr: Blurring Boundaries between Catholicism and Protestantism
- Jakub Basista (Jagiellonian University): A Remarkable Revelation of the Wandrings of the Church of England in Idolatry, Superstition, and Ceremonies…
Room 6
Confessional Identity and Diversity
Chair: TBA
- Gábor Ittzés (Debrecen Reformed Theological University): Three Last Wills – One Funeral: Frederick the Wise Prepares for Death
- Marie-Louise Lillywhite (University of Oxford): Sacred Images and Confessional Identity in Early Modern Venice
- Damian Domke (Heidelberger Akademie der Wissenschaften): Rethinking Olevianus on Justification: Heidelberg, Piscator, and Reformed Diversity
SHORT PAPER PANELS 2
Tuesday May 19, 2026, 18:15-19:45
Room 1
Early Modern Literature and Religion: Literary Psalm Culture, Print, and Performance
Chair: Joshua Scodel (University of Chicago)
- Jennifer Lewin (University of Haifa): Dreaming of the Bible in Shakespeare’s 2 Henry 4
- Freya Sierhuis (University of York): Vondel’s King David in Exile and King David Restored: Psalm Culture and Embodied Performance
- Jamie Ferguson (University of Houston): Language Shapes: Verse Divisions and the Printed Psalters of Campensis, Coverdale, Dolet, and Rej
Room 2
Text, Textile, and Theology 2: Materiality, Symbolism, and Identity
The material turn in religious studies emphasizes that material objects—alongside bodily acts and rituals—do not merely express religious truths but actively shape, generate and transfer meaning. Faith is not only intellectual assent to codified doctrines; it takes form through objects, actions, and practices that constitute belief itself. This panel explores how textiles, in their making, tactile experience, and visual representation, functioned as vehicles of devotion, theological expression, and power in late medieval and early modern Christianity, across Catholic and Protestant contexts. Clothing saints, adorning books and altars, furnishing sacred spaces, dressing priests and religious men and women, and constraining the dress habits of laypeople were not neutral acts: they mediated access to the sacred, performed rites of passage, and articulated religious identity. Beyond their material presence, textiles often intersected with text: The ritual introduction and donning of liturgical vestments—traditionally accompanied by blessing prayers and specific invocations for each garment—together with embroidered biblical verses, and textile metaphors in theological writings, reveal a dynamic interplay between word and fabric. Books were clothed in luxurious bindings, while textile patterns inspired visual and literary motifs. This relationship invites reflection on how text and textile together shaped devotional practices, communicated theological meaning, and constructed sacred aesthetics.
Chair: Wim François (KU Leuven)
- Kunhang Li (Donghua University): Hunting World and Earthly Paradise——The Chained Animal Textile Patterns in 15th-16th Century International Gothic Paintings
- Ragnhild M. Bø (University of Oslo): ‘All that Arachne’s Art Produces Fully’: Netherlandish Poet-Painters on Textile Metaphors
- Carlos Gonzalez Balderas (KU Leuven): Clerical Consumers: Asian Textiles and Religious Life in Eighteenth-Century Lima
Room 3
Materiality of the Saints 2
Chair: TBA
- Tímea Nemesné Kis (University of Tokaj): Places of Saints in Churches. Interior Design Solutions for the Placement of Relics in the Early Modern Period
- Tomasz Mantyk (Nicolaus Copernicus University of Toruń | KU Leuven): Relics, Images, and Votive Gifts: Materiality of Renaissance Miracle Stories from Poland
- Michael Mleczek (Pontifical University of John Paul II in Kraków; Archdiocese of Kraków): Materiality as Confessional Argument: Robert Bellarmine on Saints, Relics, and Images after Trent
Room 4
Body and Soul — Theology of Man — Theological Understanding of Humans
Chair: Thorben Alles (Ökumenisches Institut, Evangelisch-Theologische Fakultät Bonn)
- Matthew McDaniel (Westminster Seminary California): The Beauty and Dignity of Our Bodies: Amandus Polanus’ Aesthetic Anthropology
- Artis Celmins (Theological University of Apeldoorn): Edward Reynolds’ (1599 – 1676). Understanding of the Passions and Faculties of the Soul
- Martin Pjecha (Czech Institute of Philosophy): The Politics of Motion in Johannes Comenius and Nicholas Cusanus
Room 5
Church of England 2: Discussing Theological Convictions
Chair: TBA
- Ian Clary (Theological University of Apeldoorn): “Congenial Man of Conviction”: James Ussher (1581–1656) and Early Modern Irenicism
- William Engel (Sewanee: The University of the South): John Day’s Protestant Renovation of the English Catechism
- Brigitta Schvéd (Ludovika UPS |University of Pécs): Embodied Equilibrium: The Habsburg Monarchy, the Hungarian Cause, and the Performative Theology of Balance in English Political Sermons (1701–1714)
Room 6
Condemned People – Condemned Objects
Chair: TBA
- Steffie Schmidt (Osnabrück University): Witches in the Theatre
- Martin Romatowski (University of Oslo): Condemned Objects: Immoral Materiality at the Bonfires of Fifteenth-Century Italy
- Dmitry Zharov (Central European University): Performative Destruction and Confessional Conflict: Book Burning at the Jesuit School of Vienna in 1567
SHORT PAPER PANELS 3
Wednesday May 20, 2026, 11:45-13:15
Room 1
Early Modern Literature and Religion: Character, Speech, and Embodiment
Chair: Freya Sierhuis (University of York)
- Thomas Betteridge (Brunel University of London): Reformation Drama and Allegory
- Glenn Clark (University of Manitoba): The Trace of the Pauline Minister in The Comedy of Errors
- Jillian Snyder (University of Notre Dame): Apocalyptic Laughter: The Materiality of Scorn and the Unveiling of the Stage Puritan
Room 2
Material Objects as Agents of Piety
Chair: Aleksandra Lipińska (Institute of Art History, University of Cologne)
- Susanne Wittekind (Institute of Art History, University of Cologne): Wood Carving Technique as a Statement of Religious Policy? Document Boxes in the Context of the Italian Observance Movement of the 15th Century
- Kathrin Borgers (Seminar für Kunst und Kunstwissenschaft, TU Dortmund): Purified Matter: Transformation and Redemption in Papier-Mâché
- Matthias Ebejer (Archdiocese of Malta): Hospitallers and the Paradox of Materiality
Room 3
Materiality of Music
Chair: Stefan Michels (Goethe-Universität Frankfurt)
- Konrad Küster (Albert-Ludwigs-Universität Freiburg, Musikwissenschaftliches Seminar): Rural Communities and Their Commitment to Ecclesiastical Art, 1400-1700: a Comparative Study
- Markus Rathey (Yale): The Materiality of Music in the Early Reformation
- Markéta Holubová (Czech Academy of Sciences, Institute of Ethnology): The Materiality of Czech Broadside Ballads with Christological Motifs
Room 4
Theology of Materiality: Eucharist 1
Chair: TBA
- Timothy Nyhof (independent scholar): “Calleth those things which be not as though they were” (Romans 4:17 KJV). An Early Reformed Discussion on ‘Sacramental Naming’ and the Materiality of the Lord’s Supper
- Gábor Bradács (independent scholar): Spiritual Presence and Historical Polemic: Eucharistic Theology in Early Modern Reformed Church Historiography
- Michael Lapp (Univ. Frankfurt Main): Die hessischen Verbesserungspunkte von 1605ff. – Eine Theologie der Materialität
Room 5
Dealing with Church Conflicts
Chair: TBA
- Antonino Amato (University of Palermo | DREST): The Northen Nave: Simony and Ecclesiastical Patronage in the Elizabethan Consistory Court of York
- Alessandro Tripepi (University of Milan): Tears of Blood and Ink: Creating a Hierarchy of “Anti-Saints” in 17th-Century Anti-Jesuit Polemics
- Roberta Falcetta (University of the Republic of San Marino): “The Zimarra and the Cassock”. Church Asylum and Jurisdictional Conflicts in the Austrian Habsburg Kingdom of Naples (1722)
Room 6
Religious Traditions in Materiality in Eastern Europe
Chair: TBA
- Oksana Prokopyuk (National Preserve “Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra” | Goethe University, Frankfurt am Main): Donation and Commemoration: Making the Kyivan Orthodox Tradition in the Early Modern Period
- Stefan Rohdewald (University of Leipzig): Religious Materialities in Transottoman Early Modern Contexts
- Nataliia Sinkevych (University of Leipzig): Peter Mohyla and the Cultures of Remembrance in Eastern Europe
SHORT PAPER PANELS 4
Wednesday May 20, 2026, 14:30-16:00
Room: 1
Early Modern Literature and Religion: Memory, Materiality and the Imagination
Chair: Jakub Koryl (Jagiellonian University)
- Gerard Kilroy (Ignatianum University in Krakow): “I see it feelingly”: Material Erasure and Physical Nostalgia for Vanished Rituals in Shakespeare’s Plays
- Maria Roginska (University of the National Education Commission, Krakow): Material Erasure and Vernacular Imaginaries of the Reformation in English Parishes
- Yaakov Mascetti (Bar-Ilan University): The Rhetorical Sensorium: Materiality and Embodied Cognition in Early Modern English Preaching
Room 2
Monastic Circles and Material Objects in the Service of Piety
Chair: TBA
- Luka Jakopčić (Zagreb University): Baroque Devotion as Experience Economy: Lepoglava Monastery and Aristocratic Patronage on the Habsburg Periphery
- Monica Teoldi (University of Milan): Constructing Sanctity: Material Devotional Practices in a Female Monastic Community in Seventeenth-Century Milan
- Rudolf Šimek (Department of Art History, Charles University, Prague): From Trent to the Long Nineteenth Century: Seals, Efficacy, and Traces of Use in Pilgrimage Copies of Our Lady of Svatá Hora
Room 3
Continuity and Change in Ecclesiastical Spaces 1
Chair: Daniel Rossa (Marburg University)
- Peter Benka (Comenius University in Bratislava): Visual Culture in Hungarian Urban Reformation
- Maria Craciun (Babes-Bolyai University): The Sounds of Silence, the Material Fabric of Worship and the “View from the Pew” in Early Modern Transylvanian Lutheran Churches
- Verena Kessel (indepent scholar): The Church as a Platform for Discourse. The Protestant Use of Catholic Murals in the Church of Lieberhausen (United Duchies of Kleves)
Room 4
Theology of Materiality: Eucharist 2
Chair: TBA
- Clarisse Roche (United Arab Emirates University): (Re)thinking Communion under Both Kinds in Sixteenth-Century Vienna: Objects, Practices, and Debates
- Marta Quatrale (Freie Universität Berlin): Against Uncreatureliness: Schwenckfeld, Eucharistic Materiality, and Luther’s 1540 Disputation
- Jacob Rhodes (Boston University School of Theology): Christ is All in All: A Post-Reformation Lutheran Understanding of Christ’s Omnipresence
Room 5
Philosophy and Theology 1: Concepts of Matter
Chair: TBA
- Nicolò Di Dio (University of Modena and Reggio Emilia): Jean Bodin, Philosopher of Harmony: the Golden Chain in Bodin’s Works
- Jan Čížek (University of Ostrava): Massa Mosaica: Creation and Matter in Early Modern Mosaic Physics
- Jozsef Simon (University of Szeged): Active Shadows. Bálint Sárközi’s Dilemmas Concerning Ficino’s and Bruno’s Concepts of Matter from 1588
Room 6
Material Objects as Bearers of Identity in Eastern Europe
Chair: TBA
- Maria Kazimiera Staniszewska (independent scholar, Kraków, Poland): ‘Crucifixes and the Muscovite Image on the Wall’. Religious Artworks in the Households of the 17th Century Kraków
- Yuri Zazuliak (University of Leipzig): Charters as Material Bearers of the Ecclesiastical Orthodox Tradition in Galicia (Red Ruthenia) during the 15th-18th Centuries
- Ulrich A. Wien (Rheinland-Pfälzische Technische Universität Karlsruhe Landau): Man hu? – The Gap in the Late Medieval Communion Altar in Tobsdorf
SHORT PAPER PANELS 5
Wednesday May 20, 2026, 16:15-17:45
Room 1
Early Modern Literature and Religion. Self and History in Jesuit Writing
Chair: Gerard Kilroy (Ignatianum Univesity in Krakow)
- Giulia Casella (Universität Hamburg): How Many Ways to Tell a Single Story? The Case of King Kāleb in the Jesuit Histories of Ethiopia
- Vittoria Forliti (University of York): “Then will I dare the most, and vow the best”: Edmund Campion, Robert Southwell, and the Rhetoric of Free Speech in Early Modern Catholic Literature
- Emily Ransom (Belmont Abbey College): The Incarnational Imagination of Robert Southwell’s Exercitia et Devotiones
Room 2
Material Objects in the Service of Memory and Identity
Chair: TBA
- Carsten Bach-Nielsen (Aarhus University): Visual Ecclesiology? Tablets of Pastors – a Significant Visual and Material Message in Post-Reformation Lutheran Churches
- Mattias Sommer Bostrup (Aarhus University): Johannes Wiedewelt’s Historical Park at Jægerspris: Religion and Patriotism in Enlightenment Denmark
- Sabine Hiebsch (Theologische Universiteit Utrecht): Lutheran Material Culture in the Dutch Republic: Expression of a Religious Minority
Room 3
Continuity and Change in Ecclesiastical Spaces 2
Chair: Katharina Opalka (University of Bonn)
- Helmut Zander (Université de Fribourg): The Dual Use of Ritual Church Inventory in the Early Modern Holy Roman Empire
- Daniel Rossa (Marburg University): Facing Faith by Staging Communion. Interfaces to Economy by Sacramental Art and Liturgical Performance in Early Modern Christianity and Reformation
Room 4
Melanchthon 1: Recent Thoughts on Melanchthon and his Reception
Chair: Ann-Kathrin Armbruster (Rheinische Friedrich-Wilhelms-Universität Bonn)
- Christian Neddens (Europäische Melanchthon-Akademie Bretten): God’s Spirit and Human´s Will – Melanchthon between Humanism and Reformation Theology
- Eduardo Gross (Universidade Federal de Juiz de Fora – Brazil): Melanchthon’s Reception in Brazil Regarding his Humanistic Contribution
Room 5
Philosophy and Theology 2: Rethinking their Entanglement
Chair: Thorben Alles (Ökumenisches Institut, Evangelisch-Theologische Fakultät Bonn)
- Peter Opitz (University of Zürich): Ulrich Zwingli’s De providentia: Theology or Philosophy?
- Simon Burton (School of Divinity, University of Edinburgh): Ramism and the Re-Enchantment of the World: Re-Assessing Continuities with Medieval Devotion
- Guilherme Nabais Freitas (Trinity College, University of Cambridge): John Donne’s Devotional Plato: Reading Philosophy in the Jacobean Pulpit
Room 6
Crime, Power and Religious Order in 17th–18th-Century Eastern Europe
This panel investigates how crime, power, and religious order were negotiated, contested, and imagined in 17th‑ and 18th‑century Eastern Europe, with particular attention to Muscovy, the Polish‑Lithuanian Commonwealth and the Hetmanate. The papers collectively illuminate how political authority, confessional identities, and everyday practices intersected in moments of conflict, transgression, and cultural transformation.
Chair: TBA
- Andrii Bovgyria (University of Cambridge): Heretics and Blasphemers: Crimes against the Orthodox Church in Muscovy and the Ukrainian Hetmanate (17th – Early 18th c.)
- Hanna Filipova (independent scholar): “He is fornicating and does not even consider it a sin”: The Lexicon of Lèse‑Majesté Cases Concerning Peter the Great’s Alleged Same‑Sex Relations
- Svitlana Potapenko (National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine | Goethe University Frankfurt am Main): What Did They Steal? Materiality of the Koliivshchyna Rebellion in the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth (1768)
SHORT PAPER PANELS 6
Wednesday May 20, 2026, 18:15-19:45
Room 1
The Book as Collector’s Item and Symbol / Das Buch als Sammlungsgegenstand und Symbol
The panel discusses the book as a symbol and object. The first two papers deal with reformers and scholars in Switzerland: Jan-Andrea Bernhard’s presentation focuses on book collections in Graubünden, while Urs Leu’s presentation examines the book culture in Zurich.
Chair: Folkart Wittekind (Universität Bonn)
- Jan-Andrea Bernhard (Institut für Schweizerische Reformationsgeschichte, Universität Zürich): The Book as a ‘Precious Commodity
- Urs Leu (Institut für Schweizerische Reformationsgeschichte, Universität Zürich): The Book as Symbol, Collector’s Item and Companion in 16th-Century Zurich
- Joanna Pietrzak-Thebault (Uniwersytet Kardynała Stefana Wyszyńskiego w Warszawie): Braniewo and Elbląg – Catholic and Protestant Libraries Face to Face
Room 2
Material Objects as Communication Media – Iconography
Chair: Bridget Heal (University of St. Andrews)
- Bonnie Noble (University of North Carolina at Charlotte): Material Objects Serving Theology: Johann Conrad Dannhauer and the Origins of Illustrative Didactic Narrative in Lutheran Theology
- Dilshat Harman (Georg-August-Universität Göttingen): Materializing the Moral Choice: The Headwear in Dürer’s Small and Engraved Passions
- Marcin Wisłocki (University of Wrocław): Visual Images as Meditational Tools in Lutheran Emblematic Devotional Books of the 17th- and 18th-Centuries
Room 3
Staging the Lutheran Pastor: Case Studies Saxony and Norway (Pulpit)
With the Lutheran reformation, a reorientation of the church room took place. New, richly decorated pulpits were put up in many Lutheran churches, some of which are still preserved. In some cases, they were consecrated through special liturgies and sermons. This panel will present three case studies of five early modern Lutheran pulpits: two from Saxony and three from Norway, covering a time span from 1550 to 1720.
Chair: Julius Trugenberger (Universität zu Köln)
- Tarald Rasmussen (University of Oslo): Staging the Lutheran Pastor: Two 16th Century Saxon Pulpits
- Hallgeir Elstad (The Faculty of Theology, University of Oslo): Staging the Lutheran Pastor 2: Two Late 16th Century Norwegian Pulpits
- Arne Bugge Amundsen (University of Oslo, Norway): A Lutheran Pulpit in an Age of Crisis
Room 4yy
Melanchthon 2: Blurred Boundaries between the Spiritual and the Material in Melanchthon and the Wittenberg Reformation
This panel aims to examine various examples from the Reformation period, particularly in the work of Philipp Melanchthon, which represent a transcending or blurring of the boundaries between the material and spiritual worlds. Traces of this can be found in both visual works and texts. These works also appear to be linked to anthropological and epistemological assumptions of the early modern period. The panel contributions focus on different aspects of this phenomenon and examine the form and function of these transcendings and blurrings from both a historical and a contemporary perspective.
Chair: Christian Neddens (Europäische Melanchthon-Akademie Bretten)
- Ann-Kathrin Armbruster (Rheinische Friedrich-Wilhelms-Universität Bonn): Immersion – How Material and Linguistic Images from the Reformation Period Transcend the Boundaries of Time and Space
Room 5
Material Aspects of Performance
Chair: TBA
- Lucy Wooding (Lincoln College Oxford): The Performance of Prayer in the English Reformation
- Alina-Maria Crăciun (Babeș-Bolyai University): Christian Materiality in the Diplomatic Negotiations of Moldavia and Wallachia with the Holy League (1594–1595)
- Martin Deutsch: Temporary or Permanent? Materiality and Imagery in the Jesuit Ephemeral Displays
Room 6
Dimension of Power in Eastern Europe
Chair: TBA
- Walentyna Łoś (Uniwersytet Jagiellonski): Materiality and Church Authority in the Development of Uniate Identity in the Late 18th Century: The Church Interior in the Right-Bank Ukraine.
- Jakub Wolak (Institute of Philosophy and Sociology of the Polish Academy of Sciences): The Chosen People of Poland, or Some Remarks on Theological Implications of the Resistance Theory in the Political Dialogues of Stanisław Orzechowski
- Dávid Molnár (University of Tokaj): ‘Paturxica kardos!’: Material Loss and Spiritual Survival under Ottoman Rule in the Epistle of Pál Thúri
SHORT PAPER PANELS 7
Thursday May 21, 2026, 09:00-10:30
Room 1
Early Modern Literature and Religion: Classical Presences in Religious Discourse
Chair: Thomas Fulton (Rutgers University)
- Brian Cummings (University of York): Erasmus & Materialism
- Joshua Scodel (University of Chicago): Edward Herbert’s Faith
- Stefan Weise (Bergische Universität Wuppertal): Using Homer in Confessional strife: the Case of Philip Melanchthon and Laurentius Rhodoman
Room 2
Beyond a Re-Edition of Calvin’s Correspondence: The Epistolae John Calvin Project
This panel introduces Epistolae John Calvin, an international initiative led by the Stichting Calvin’s Reforming Correspondence (calvin-digital.nl) in partnership with the Theologische Universiteit Utrecht, FSCIRE, the Huygens Instituut (KNAW), and Éditions Droz (Geneva). The project aims to produce a fully annotated critical edition of all roughly 3,200 surviving letters written by and to John Calvin during his life time (1509-1564). Rather than presenting Calvin as an isolated figure, the project situates his correspondence within the dense networks of Reformation Europe, highlighting his connections across intellectual, ecclesiastical, and political milieus in Geneva, France, the Swiss Confederation, and beyond. The letters will be published both in print, in the Ioannis Calvini Opera Omnia denuo recognita (Droz), and in a digital platform designed to facilitate research, continuing and expanding the editorial groundwork laid by Cornelis Augustijn and Frans van Stam. The critical edition revisits the epistolary corpus using modern standards, integrating archival discoveries and scholarship developed since the nineteenth-century editions, including the Corpus Reformatorum. This approach treats the correspondence as a tool for mapping Calvin’s interactions, theological development, and involvement in broader networks of exchange, rather than as a mere collection of isolated biographical or doctrinal statements. By foregrounding the letters themselves, the project illuminates Calvin’s position within multiple intersecting spheres of influence, showing how his thought, pastoral practice, and political engagement were shaped by ongoing dialogue with contemporaries. The epistolary record offers a view of Calvin not only as a theologian but as a participant in a dynamic network of reform, providing insight into the circulation of ideas, the shaping of ecclesiastical policy, and the broader intellectual climate of sixteenth-century Europe.
Chair: TBA
Marco Baretti (DREST | FSCIRE): Towards a New Church: Calvin and the Last Phase of His Correspondence with Louis Du Tillet
Gianmarco Braghi (University of Palermo | FSCIRE): Anonymity, Concealment, and Pseudonymity in the Early French Reformed Network of Congregations
Room 4
Embodied Representations of the Metaphysical and Supernatural in Early Modern Non-Conformist Lutheranism
The panel focuses on the use of embodied representations of the metaphysical and supernatural issues in early modern Lutheran philosophical and theological discourses. The aim is to show that not just behind but rather in the forefront of the way early modern non-conformist Lutheran authors referred to materiality and sensuality lies some specific apprehension of the spiritual and metaphysical world. Therefore, any reflection on their rhetoric relating to materiality and sensuality must include an analysis of these authors’ philosophical and theological systems.
Chair: TBA
- Anna Szyrwińska-Hörig (Universität Vechta): Material Objects Serving Theology: Johann Conrad Dannhauer and the Origins of Illustrative Didactic Narrative in Lutheran Theology
- Petr Pavlas (IP CAS, Prague |University of West Bohemia, Pilsen): God and Man, Soul and Body, Substance and Accidents: Leibniz on the Incarnation, Psychophysical Problem, and the Eucharist
