On Thursday 25 and Friday 26 August 2011 “Network for the Historical Study of Religion” – a research network for Danish historians and church historians with a common interest in the history of Christianity – arranges an international conference on “Religion as an Agent of Change” at Aarhus University.

The intention of the conference is to focus on how new religious movements or currents have had profound impact on culture and society in Europe, exemplified by three ‘cases’: the Crusades, the Reformation, and Pietism. These three fields have been chosen since here especially great progress has been made within the historical study of religion. In all three fields earlier research, partly dominated by an oldfashioned, confessional form of ecclesiastical history, has been substituted by new results and viewpoints, thanks not least to the inspiration from such currents within academic history as social and cultural history, the history of mentalities, and gender history.

At the conference some of the world’s leading scholars within the three research fields will contribute to the common enterprise of throwing light on the role of religion as a force of great strength in history, able to change societies, create new cultures, and shape strong identities.

Wednesday 24 August

16.00-18.00

Registration

Thursday 25 August

08.30-10.00

Welcome, Dean Mette Thunø (Faculty of Arts, Aarhus University)

Introduction, Professor Per Ingesman (Aarhus University)

Opening lecture, Professor Hugh McLeod (University of Birmingham): “The Long March of Religious History: Where have we travelled since the Sixties, and why?”

10.00-13.00

First theme: The Crusades

Chair: Dr. Kurt Villads Jensen (University of Southern Denmark)

PD Dr. Christoph T. Maier (University of Zurich): “Pope Innocent III and the crusades revisited”

Professor Jonathan Phillips (Royal Holloway, University of London): “The motivation of Italian crusades”

Professor Felicitas Schmieder (University of Hagen): “Opening up the world and the minds. The Crusades as motor of change in missionary conceptions”

13.00-14.00

Lunch

14.00-17.00

Second theme: The Reformation

Chair: Dr. Carsten Selch Jensen (University of Copenhagen)

Dr. Ole Peter Grell (The Open University): “The creation of a Calvinist identity in the Reformation period”

Professor Peter Marshall (University of Warwick): “Changing Identities in the English Reformation”

Mutual information on national and international preparations for the Reformation jubilee in 2017

19.30

Conference dinner

Friday 26 August

10.00-13.00

Third theme: Pietism

Chair: Dr. Carsten Bach-Nielsen (Aarhus University)

Professor Martin H. Jung (University of Osnabrück): “The impact of Pietism on culture and society in Germany”

Professor Fred van Lieburg (VU University Amsterdam): “Pietism in minor European countries as indicator of major changes in (early) modern religious history”

Professor John Wolffe (The Open University): “Crusading, Reformation and Pietism in Nineteenth-Century North Atlantic Evangelicalism”

13.00-14.00

Lunch

14.00-16.30

Professor Arne Bugge Amundsen (University of Oslo): “Religion as an Agent of Change – concluding remarks”

General discussion

Closing of the conference

Saturday 27 August

09.00-16.00

Excursion to parish churches in Djursland

Tour guide: Dr. Carsten Bach-Nielsen (Aarhus University)

The conference takes place in Auditorium 1, building 1441, Aarhus University. To find the building on a map of the university follow this link: http://www.au.dk/en/about/organisation/map/

Conference fee is DKK 880. This includes lunches on Thursday and Friday and a conference dinner on Thursday evening. Fee for the optional excursion on Saturday is DKK 375 which includes lunch and bus transportation.

Deadline for registration to the conference is 15 August. You can register and pay fees online by using the link at the bottom of this page.

If you need information about hotels in Aarhus, please consult the homepage – with online booking facilities – of the city’s tourist information office: http://www.visitaarhus.com

For other practical inquiries, please contact either the organizer, Professor Per Ingesman: PI@teo.au.dk, or conference secretary Anne Markussen: AMA@teo.au.dk

Deadline for registration to the conference is 15 August. You can register and pay fees online by using this link: https://webshop.dpu.dk/Agent_Change_082011