Panels

1525–2025: Celebrating the Beginnings of Higher Education in Reformation Zurich

• Luca Baschera (Universität Zürich, Institut für Schweizerische Reformationsgeschichte): Prophets and Grammarians: On the Purpose and Method of Higher Education in Reformation Zurich
• Anja Goeing (Universität Zürich, Institut für Schweizerische Reformationsgeschichte): Agents of Practice: Students and Networks at the Schola Tigurina in the 16th Century
• Urs Leu (Institut für Schweizerische Reformationsgeschichte der Universität Zürich): Zwingli’s “Hohe Schule” and the Reformed Book Culture in Zurich

 

Divine and Human Knowledge in Early Modern Theology in Transconfessional Perspectives

• Christian Westerink (ETF Leuven / Protestante Theologische Universiteit, Utrecht): “What, Then, Should Be Stated About the Ideas?” The Theory of Divine Ideas in the Loci Theologici of Johann Gerhard (1582-1637)
• Peter Wijnberger (PThU, Utrecht & ETF Leuven): Conflict or Agreement? Lutheran and Reformed Ideas on Christ ’s Omniscience

 

Endangered or Dangerous Christianity? Rebellion and Theologies of Resistance in the Long Reformation

The panel will look at the conflict potential of Protestantism from different perspectives. It will consider both the threat posed by a particular affiliation and the question of the rebellious potential of Christianity. The English exiles who lived on the continent during the reign of Mary I lived in precarious conditions on the one hand, but on the other hand they took up a variety of ideas for the organisation of the Elizabethan Church. Amandus Polanus von Polansdorff, one of the most important Reformed theologians of the right to resist, is also considered. Finally, the panel turns its attention to Melchior Hoffman, a radical lay preacher who was accused, at least by his contemporaries, of advocating dangerous theses that experienced problematic excesses in the Anabaptist Dominion of Münster.

• Benedikt Brunner (Friedrich-Schiller-University Jena): A Dangerous Man with a Dangerous Book? Melchior Hoffman and the Anabaptist Dominion of Münster
• Damian Domke (University of Heidelberg, History Department): Against Adversaries, Tyrants and the Antichrist. Amandus Polanus (1561-1610), his Political Calvinism and the Uprising in Opava at the Beginning of the 17th Century
• Yasmin Vetter: The Marian Exile: A Peaceful Resistance? 

 

From Ignorance to Insight: The Epistemic Consequences of Original Sin from a Cross-Confessional Perspective

• Aza Goudriaan (ETF Leuven / Protestant Theological University, Utrecht): Gisbertus Voetius and Scholastic Views of Ignorance and Sin
• Linde Van den Eede (KU Leuven): Preaching after the Fall: Jacobus Janssonius (1547-1625) and the Possibility of Knowledge in Seventeenth Century Women’s Convents
• Jarrik Van der Biest (KU Leuven): The Theologian behind the Philosopher: Libertus Fromondus (1587-1653) on the Cognitive Effects of Original Sin

 

Peasants’ Wars and Protestantism in Austria

• Leonhard Jungwirth (Evangelisch-Theologische Fakultät der Universität Wien): The Reception of the Peasantsʼ Wars in Austrian Protestantism
• Philipp Pilhofer (Universität Wien): Protestantism in Austria in the (Long) 16th Century
• Robert Rebitsch (University Innsbruck): The Influence of Protestantism on the Peasants’ Uprisings of 1525/26 and 1626 in Austria

 

Project Name: Pauline Exegesis in the 16th Century/16th Century Exegesis of Paul

The panel discussion presents research conducted as part of the interdisciplinary project on 16th-century Pauline exegesis, a Swiss collaboration between the Universities of Zurich and Geneva in the fields of New Testament studies and (Reformation-)history, even though not all project participants will be presenting on Pauline exegesis at this conference.

• Jeb Ralston (University of Geneva; Trinity International University): Original Sin and the Catholic Reformation Renouncing and Reclaiming Erasmus’s Reading of Romans 5:12
• Noemi Schürmann (University of Zurich): Saved by Marriage? Katharina Schütz Zell and Female Marital Agency in the Early Reformation
• Ueli Zahnd (Institut d’histoire de la Réformation, University of Geneva): Huldrych Zwingli’s Doctrine of Predestination

 

Rebellion or Revival? Interconfessional Exchange Across the Early Modern Confessional Divide

Early modern theological ideas held by religious groups—whether they rebelled or were rebelled against—often crossed confessional boundaries. Protestant regions, for instance, established pawnbrokers modeled after the ‘Catholic’ Monte di Pietà to support poor relief. Catholic Jansenists revived Calvinist doctrine on lending at interest, adapting it to their own theological framework. Danish theologians adopted a more or less limited right to resist to government, depending on what division of power between the monarch and the nobility required justification. Often, theological differences remained in place only after a thorough investigation of rival views. Protestant theologians, e.g., persisted in denying that hidden sins can be subject of inquiry and judgment, despite contrary views on the Catholic side. The overarching goal of this panel is to gain further insights into how ideas circulated, were explored, and eventually rejected or repurposed in different confessional clothing.

• Paolo Astorri  (University of Copenhagen): Controlling Rebellious Thoughts: Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction on Thoughts in Protestant and Catholic Territories
• Niels de Bruijn (KU Leuven): ‘Rebellious’ Thoughts on Usury in Early Modern Arminianism and Jansenism 
• Erik Sporon Fiedler (University of Copenhagen): Rebelling against the Care for the Sick and the Poor? The Case of the Monte di Pietà in Light of the Reformation
• Lars Cyril Nørgaard (Faculty of Theology, University of Copenhagen, Denmark): Resisting Resistance

 

Rebels or Innovators? Thinkers in Early Modern Christianity

The early modern period witnessed a dynamic interplay between religious, philosophical, and esoteric traditions, which led to a redefinition of Christian thought. This panel examines the work of key figures who sought to reconcile, challenge or transcend orthodox doctrines, combining traditional elements with innovative approaches. Marsilio Ficino integrated Neoplatonic and Christian ideas, reformulating Proclus in order to affirm the soul’s immortality and to counter Averroistic materialism. Lodovico Lazzarelli, Francesco Zorzi, and Hannibal Rosseli employed Hermetic texts, such as the Corpus Hermeticum, to buttress Catholic theology, thereby risking heresy. Heinrich Cornelius Agrippa von Nettesheim critiqued corporeality and advanced a reformist vision of the Church through magic as divine wisdom, navigating tensions between rebellion and continuity. These thinkers reshaped Christianity and the Renaissance intellectual landscape, blurring the lines between orthodoxy and innovation.

• Monika Frazer-Imregh (Károli Gáspár University of the Reformed Church in Hungary): Rebellion Against Late Scholastic Philosophy – Ficino’s Return to Augustine and Neoplatonic Arguments for the Immortality of the Soul
• Dario Gurashi: Dissimulandi nescius: Agrippa and Nicodemism
• Endre Ádám Hamvas (HUN-REN RCH, Moravcsik Gyula Institute; Department for Medical Communication and Translation Studies Albert Szent-Györgyi Medical School University of Szeged): Hannibal Rosseli’s Pymander: the Corpus Hermeticum and the Catholic Revival
• Noel Putnik (Institute of Ethnography, Serbian Academy of Sciences and Arts): Homo Integer in a World of Lies: Cornelius Agrippa on Corporeality and Knowledge

 

Reformation and Protest in 16th Century Norway

• Sivert Angel (University of Oslo): Theological Elites and Farmers’ Revolts in 16th Century Norway
• Joar Haga (VID Specialized University): Ecclesial Communication during the Great Nordic War (1700-1721) 

 

Resistance, Rebellion and Sociability: Shaping Communities in Early Modern Hungary

As in Protestant Europe, Reformation provided a new impetus to the social and political thought in Hungary, too. The questions of social roles and duties were rephrased in the light of the new teachings, therefore the problem of obedience and rebellion were revisited. The new understanding, never developed independently of the local social and political context, could be interpreted as part of attempts to create alternative communities comprehended as religious, political or ethnic entities. In the early modern period, attempts of formulating ideas on social roles and the religious and national community, show a tendency of becoming more abstract and analytical as the theological foundations were gradually fused, complemented, or occasionally replaced by political and philosophical considerations. As a result, philosophical analysis was developed about the psychological and mental foundations of social behavior on the basis of which ideas of obedience and resistance were articulated.

• Gábor Petneházi (University of Innsbruck): Ethnicism and Rebellion. „Great Replacement” in Protestant Propaganda in 17th Century Hungary from Bocskai to Bethlen
• József Simon (University of Szeged, Hungary): From Natural Obligation to Resistance in Miklós Bethlen’s (1642-1714) Political Philosophy
• Márton Zászkaliczky (University of Szeged): Obedience and Disobedience, Self-defence and Rebellion in 16th Century Protestant Political Theology in Hungary

 

Revolution/Revolt/Rebellion: Theory and Practice(s) in the Early Modern Eastern European Context

• Stefaniia Demchuk (Taras Shevchenko National University of Kyiv): Baroque as Rebellion: The Politics and Iconography of Status and Power in Early Seventeenth-century Ukraine
• Hanna Filipova (University of Gothenburg): “Bacchus’ Ecclesiastical State”: Offensive Political Humor and the Formation of Peter the Great’s Counter-Court
• Svitlana Potapenko (Goethe University Frankfurt / National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine): The ‘Revolution’ of 1762, Kyrylo Rozumovsky, and the Fate of the Hetmanate