IMC 2017: Sessions
Session 833: Confession in the Middle Ages, II: After the Fourth Lateran Council, 1215
Tuesday 4 July 2017, 16.30-18.00
| Sponsor: | Network for the Study of Late Antique & Early Medieval Monasticism / Forschungsstelle für Vergleichende Ordensgeschichte (FOVOG), Technische Universität Dresden |
|---|---|
| Organiser: | Albrecht Diem, Department of History, Syracuse University, New York |
| Moderator/Chair: | Cristina Andenna, Forschungsstelle für Vergleichende Ordensgeschichte (FOVOG), Technische Universität Dresden |
| Paper 833-a | Semantics of Confession: Religious Communication in Middle High German Books of Sermons (Language: English) Index terms: Ecclesiastical History, Language and Literature - German, Religious Life, Sermons and Preaching |
| Paper 833-b | Confession and Space: Considerations on Medieval loca confessionis (Language: English) Index terms: Architecture - Religious, Ecclesiastical History, Lay Piety, Religious Life |
| Abstract | In his History of Sexuality, Michel Foucault described confession as the predominant way of producing knowledge in Western societies. The Western individual is, as he describes it, a 'confessing animal'. Despite the increasing interest in penance and penitential literature, the medieval origins of confession, the transformation of confessional practices and the role of confession as a textual technique have hardly been studied systematically. We hope that the two sessions on confession form the beginning of a collaborative endeavour to explore the origins of confession as a religious and literary practice. Undoubtedly the Fourth Lateran Council (1215) with his famous clause Omnis utriusque sexus formed a turning point in the history of confession. The first session focuses on confessional texts and textual practices rooting in the pre-1215 world, the second session focuses on confessional practices emerging after the Council that imposed on every Christian to confess at least once every year. |