15 June 2022
These days, the international conference was held in Rome on the theme The Responsible Society in Early Modern Christianity, Voices & Fruits.
During the conference ten scholars presented a paper from a variety of fields: arts, politics, literary studies, hagiography, etc. and located in various environments: colonies, cities, spiritual orders, refugees, clergy etc. It became clear that the topic of social responsibility (which is not the same as the responsible society) functioned in the various confessional settings in a similar way.
One of the common insights during the conference was that the concept of the responsible society is generally seen as positive one, although sometimes driven by philautia (self love), but also that responsibility can lead to severe situations and even criminal actions, whereby very often the question is: who exactly is responsible for this?
Several papers referred to the relevance of the topic, like the social responsibility towards refuguees, nature, minorities, and the cultural environment.
The conference was organized by the German Historical Institute in Rome, the Royal Netherlands Institute in Rome, and REFORC, and was sponsored by the Coram Deo Program.
