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IMC 2012: Sessions

Session 811: Constructing Social Order and Its 'Other': Heresy and Formation of Persecuting Societies in Medieval Europe

Tuesday 10 July 2012, 16.30-18.00

Sponsor:Department for the Study of Religions, Masaryk University, Brno / TUCEMEMS - Turku Centre for Medieval & Early Modern Studies
Organisers:Sita Steckel, Exzellenzcluster 'Religion & Politik', Westfälische Wilhelms-Universität, Münster
David Zbíral, Department for the Study of Religions, Masarykova univerzita, Brno
Moderator/Chair:Sita Steckel, Exzellenzcluster 'Religion & Politik', Westfälische Wilhelms-Universität, Münster
Paper 811-aCathars as Cultural Waste: A Global Theory of Cathar Heresy as the 'Other' of a New Social Order
(Language: English)
David Zbíral, Department for the Study of Religions, Masarykova univerzita, Brno
Index terms: Ecclesiastical History, Mentalities, Social History, Theology
Paper 811-bFormation of a Regional Persecuting Society?: Germany, c. 1390-1405
(Language: English)
Reima Välimäki, Department of Cultural History / Turku Centre for Medieval & Early Modern Studies (TUCEMEMS), University of Turku
Index terms: Ecclesiastical History, Mentalities, Social History, Theology
Paper 811-cLooking for Heretics: A Comment on Scholarly Discourses around Heresy, Medieval and Modern
(Language: English)
Theo Riches, Exzellenzcluster 'Religion & Politik', Westfälische Wilhelms-Universität Münster
Index terms: Ecclesiastical History, Historiography - Modern Scholarship, Lay Piety, Mentalities
Abstract

After the publication of The Formation of a Persecuting Society: Power and Deviance in Western Europe, 950-1250 by Robert I. Moore in 1987, the view of persecution and exclusion in medieval Europe changed significantly, as well as the approaches to social order and transgression, rules to follow and deviation from them, norm and dissent. The focus shifted from a straightforward discourse about repression of minorities to the study of complex processes of formation of identity by multi-layered references to a constructed/imagined 'Other'. The papers in this session aim at a rereading of Moore's book, evaluating his contribution after 25 years since the original publication, and applying his global theory to (or testing it against) particular case studies of medieval heresy, one of the pre-eminent 'Others' of medieval Christian order in the making.