HISTORY OF POLITICAL AND RELIGIOUS CULTURE IN THE MODERN AGE
Oral exam with a discussion of a short dissertation study.
The course aims at acquainting students with the basic issues and themes in the history of religious toleration as a fundamental experience for the development of modern «open societies» founded on mutual understanding and the acceptance of the “other”. The seminar format, with class discussion of written papers, is intended to stimulate the participants to acquire the methodological skills of historical inquiry, while encouraging them to improve their reading and writing capacities.
Christian Humanism, Erasmus’ exaltation of free will and the criticism of tradition. The theology of the Reformation: justification by faith alone, predestination, and the social implications of the new Eucharistic doctrines. Political ideas of the Reformers: from passive obedience to open insurrection against vested authority. The theology of the Counter-Reformation: justification by merit, free will and the need of an ecclesiastical interposition between man and God. The birth of dissent: diversity and conflict in the 16th and 17th centuries. The new tools of opinion control: the Spanish Inquisition, the Roman Inquisition and the Index Librorum Prohibitorum. “Unconscious heresies” and the historiographical concept of «social disciplination». The problem of religious liberty (Peace of Augusta; Edict of Nantes; Edict of Potsdam; Act of Toleration). From toleration to freedom of conscience: the eclipse of the old confessional State and the rise of modern religious pluralism.
Given the seminar format of the course, no list of textbooks is provided. Reading materials will be supplied and made available to attending students from time to time. Bibliography for on-attending students includes: A) Manuale di Storia Donzelli. Storia Moderna, Donzelli, Roma, 1998 (o altre edizioni successive), chaps. SUSANNA PEYRONEL RAMBALDI, La Riforma Protestante, pp. 49-76, e di GIGIOLA FRAGNITO, Religioni contro: l’Europa nel secolo di ferro, pp. 125-154. B) CARLA RUSSO, Mentalità e comportamenti religiosi nell’Europa cattolica, in La Storia. I grandi problemi dal Medioevo all’Età contemporanea, directed by Niccolò Tranfaglia e Massimo Firpo, Utet, Torino, 1986, 5 voll., III, pp. 85-109. C) L’uomo barocco, edited by Rosario Villari, Laterza, Roma-Bari, 1991, chaps. MANUEL MORAN, JOSÉ ANDRÉS GALLEGO, Il predicatore, pp. 139-177; ADRIANO PROSPERI, Il missionario, pp. 179-218; MARO ROSA, La religiosa, pp.219-267; BRIAN P. LEVACK, La strega, pp. 269-297. D) MARIA LAURA LANZILLO, Tolleranza, Mulino, Bologna, 2001. E) John Locke. Lettera sulla tolleranza, edited by Carlo A. Viano, Laterza, Roma-Bari, 1998.
Lectures, seminars.
Office hours: every day following appointment by email.