Argument
The theme of this international conference, hosted by
Franz Cumont’s alma mater Ghent University, is the way Cumont and his
contemporaries conceived the relationship of Early Christianity to the pagan
mystery cults. We will also include predecessors and more recent scholarship on
this topic. Cumont was a pioneer of the scientific study of the oriental
religions. Many of his publications (e.g. The Mysteries of Mithras, 1900)
fuelled the early 20th century debates about Christianity’s dependence on the
pagan cults through the similarities they suggested between these religious
traditions. Cumont expressed his opinion only indirectly and ambiguously, but
other scholars have been more explicit in demonstrating or denying such
influences.
This conference serves multiple purposes. The first
set of aims is to reconstruct, evaluate and contextualize Cumont’s views on
this much debated topic in early 20th century history of religions, through the
reconstruction of his ideas, as well as of those of his contemporaries. We are
e.g. thinking of Cumont’s long time friend and correspondent Alfred Loisy, but
also of comparative historians of religions, belonging to Cumont’s network,
like Eugène Goblet d’Alviella, Raffaele Pettazzoni, Nicolà Turchi, James George
Frazer, Arthur Darby Nock, Salomon Reinach, Prosper Alfaric, Hermann Usener,
Richard Reitzenstein, Carl Clemen, … We also want to include and discuss the
different scientific, social, religious and ideological backgrounds of these
scholars, so as to create a nuanced synthesis of the factors which could have
influenced the different positions in this discussion.
Submission guidelines
This conference aims at uniting specialists of
historiography of religion, whose contributions will together cover various
methodological and geographical traditions, so as to come to a broad overview
of this issue within the early 20th century history of science.
The languages of the conference will be English,
French, and German.
Scholars interested in submitting a proposal for a
lecture should do so by March 31st 2013 at the latest.
Proposals of no more than 300 words should be
submitted by sending an e-mail to Annelies Lannoy, at the following address:
annelies.lannoy@ugent.be.
All proposals should accompanied by a short CV.
Publication of Acts is intended.
More information will be available on the conference
website: http://www.csct.ugent.be/node/42
The Conference will be hold in Ghent, September 13-15,
2013.
KANTL, Koningstraat 18, 9000 Gent
Scientific
committee
Prof. Danny Praet (UGent)
Prof. Corinne
Bonnet (Université de Toulouse le Mirail)
Prof. C.J.T. Talar (University of Saint Thomas,
Houston)
Prof. Jos
Verheyden (KU Leuven)