Historiography of Religion: New approaches to origins of narrating a religious past

Historiography of Religion: New the past, that is to acknowledge and sequence

approaches to origins of narrating a the pastness of the past, have been used in
religious past historicizing religions?“; „How do religions
make themselves immune against historicist
Veranstalter: Jörg Rüpke / Susanne Rau, Uni- claims?“
versity of Erfurt The conference programme included some
Datum, Ort: 10.09.2012–14.09.2012, Norr- 26 papers focusing on the above-mentioned
köping questions and covered a variety of topics and
Bericht von: Jörg Rüpke, Max-Weber-Kolleg religious traditions (see below). A poster ses-
für kultur- und sozialwissenschaftliche Studi- sion offered the opportunity to present ca-
en, se studies as contributions to the other sessi-
Universität Erfurt; Susanne Rau, Historisches ons. It was used by nearly 20 young scholars.
Seminar, Universität Erfurt; Bernd-Christian Alongside the paper and poster sessions, a si-
Otto, Institut für Religionswissenschaft, Uni- gnificant amount of time was reserved for dis-
versität Erfurt cussion, partly after the talks and panels, part-
ly during the common lunch and dinner mee-
The research conference, generously funded tings and the final discussion at the end of the
by a conference grant of the European Sci- conference.
ence Foundation, and hosted by the Univer- The questions addressed in the sessions
sity of Linköping (LiU), focused on the ques- contributed to three basic axes of research.
tion: ‘How, under which conditions and with
which consequences are religions historici- 1 Origins and developments
zed?’. It aimed at furthering the study of re- JOHANNES BRONKHORST (Lausanne)
ligion as of historiography by analysing how dealt with ancient Indian Brahmanism
religious groups (or their adversaries) em- and focused on the Indian pattern of de-
ploy historical narratives in the construction historicization present in the doctrine of
of their identities. Likewise it asked how such ‘yugas’ (world ages). Bronkhorst presented
groups were invented by later historiography an exception to this pattern in a text called
and are continued in modern research. Thus it ‘Kali purana’ which significantly curtailed
also focused on the biases and elisions of cur- the (typically very large) timeframe of the
rent analytical and descriptive frames. Com- ‘Kali yuga’ and proposed the hypothesis that
bining disciplinary competences of Religious the authors felt in fact living close to the end
Studies and History of Religion, Confessional of the world. Systematically the talk and its
Theologies, History, History of Science, and discussion led to the question whether the
Literary Studies, the participants initiated a failing of prophecy might be an important
comparative historiography of religion. instigations for historiography by religious
Numerous scholars from different fields agents.
of historical and religious research, from INGVILD GILHUS (Bergen) introduced the
Circum-Mediterranean and European as well concept of living literature and analyzed the
as Asian religious traditions from the first collection of texts in the codex Nag Hammadi
millennium BCE to the present came together. II. The phenomenon of an additional temporal
The conference was structured by a series of framing before biblical origins and in the very
six sessions in three days (including one pos- end points to an elite establishing its status by
ter session) which combined impulses from specialist knowledge. Within this frame, inte-
short (10 minutes) and long (20 minutes) lec- rest is in permancency, not change; the inten-
tures with plenary discussions. Here, the im- sive historicisation of heresiographic literatu-
pulse of the initial question was driven for- re in the form of genealogies is countered by a
ward by further questions developed in the lack of names and events.
opening lecture by the organizers like „Which CHASE ROBINSON (New York) started
contexts do provoke processes of historiciza- from the notion of history as a repository of
tion and the development of historiography knowledge claims based on plausibility, a cri-
in particular?“; „Which practices to historicize terion that has to be historicized itself. Initi-

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al Islamic historiography, starting in the se- groups that remained defeated minorities in
cond Islamic century, legitimated the Quran their struggle with French Catholicism and
by connecting it with the man Muhammad as the importance of historiography for a specific
the prophet, sketched in the genre of biogra- Protestant identity.
phy. The prophet is the locus of historicisati-
2 Writing histories
on, for instance in construing a „translatio im-
perii“ to the Muslim community. In compari- ULRIKA MÅRTENSSON (Trondheim) pre-
son, non-prophetic biographies are formulaic sented a paper on the medieval Arab histo-
and serial. rian at-Tabari. She discussed his interpretati-
SYLVIE HUREAU (Paris) presented her on of the appearance of the Qur’an as a god-
work on medieval Chinese Buddhist hagio- ly reaction to a former breach of contract and
graphies and proposed a two-fold hypothesis: advocated a more elaborate scholarly recep-
(1) that the miraculous events in these biogra- tion of at-Tabari in order to understand ear-
phies are not arbitrary but illustrate typical ly Islam. For the general question of religion
patterns of Indian Buddhist sutras known to being confronted with history, her demonstra-
the readers at that time; (2) that these texts ad- tion showed important differences in the tre-
apted Indian narrative patterns to a Chinese atment of the Quran by one and the same aut-
context. hor, but in the different genres of history and
PER K. SØRENSEN (Leipzig) gave a sur- Quranic commentary.
vey on medieval Tibetan historiography, sepa- SHAHZAD BASHIR (Stanford) focused on
rating five typical historiographic genres: an- the Early Modern Persian historian Muham-
nals, genealogy, register of sources, ‘origins of mad Khwandamir and his massive work Ha-
the dharma’, and apocryphal ‘treasure litera- bib as-siyar. He described the different layers
ture’. While discussing the different institutio- and historiographical subjects of the text and
nal and functional contexts of these genres, particularly focussed on the different repre-
Sørensen stressed their relative homogeneity sentation of Islamic, Persian, and Mongol his-
and the quick dissolution of their boundaries. tory. From an analytical point of view it was
Thus, it proved to be more fruitful to analyti- interesting to see how sensitive the chronicler
cally distinguished ‘inner’, ‘outer’ and ‘secret’ is of how to produce meaning.
as narrative patterns in these sources. JON KEUNE (Göttingen) presented his
PEKKA TOLONEN (Turku) traced back the work on the West Indian Hindu movement of
textual sources on the origins of the medieval ‘Varkari sampraday’ and discussed aspects of
European Waldensian movement and presen- its pre-colonial, colonial and post-colonial his-
ted six texts from 1174 to the 1360s that ad- tory. He stressed the problem of writing a his-
opted very different narrative and ideological tory of this movement as the sources – writ-
patterns while dealing with the movement. In ten by practitioners, opponents, and others –
their quest for origins, Protestant historiogra- tend to instrumentalize this development wit-
phy later based its judgment of the Walden- hin different cultural and narrative (that is po-
sian movement and Peter Waldes on the two lemical) patterns.
motifs of sanctity of the founder and apostolic Even more attention to the practitioners of
origins in these early accounts. historiography was given by SUSANNE RAU
YVES KRUMENACKER (Lyon) analyzed (Erfurt). Historiography is a tool for creating
French Protestant historiography of the 17th purpose and identity, but religion is always
century as a sort of texts answering the ques- involved in many purposes, from embedding
tion „Where was your church before Lu- local history into the history of salvation to of-
ther’s and Calvin’s reformation?“ The heuri- fering actual and virtual experiences within
stic apparatus developed included dogmatic the framework of education of a prince. Ad-
inventions or critique before 1500, individu- ditionally, the narratives are usually written
als who spread new ideas, and the continuity by individuals (not groups), hardly full-time
of groups from Apostolic times onwards. The academics before 1650, frequently priests or
contribution demonstrated the role of narra- preachers.
tives of martyrdom for the historiography of In the context of historiography in the con-

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Historiography of Religion: New approaches to origins of narrating a religious past

fessional age HANNAH SCHNEIDER (Paris) ces became apparent.

narrowed the focus down to outright pole- RENÈE KOCH-PIETTRE (Paris) discussed
mics in the 19th century. She identified im- the 18th century European scholar Charles de
portant topoi in the narrative proper – for ex- Brosses, particularly focussing on his work
ample the topos of talking about the govern- Du culte des dieux fétiches. She stressed
ment of the churches offered space for advan- Charles de Brosses’ innovative approach in in-
cing or criticizing the infallibility of the pope – terpreting ancient polytheism by describing
or in paratext like mottos on title pages – „the his usage of the concept of ‘fétichisme’ that
gates of hell shall not prevail against it“. has been adopted by various later scholars.
Against this background FRANZISKA GABRIELLA GUSTAFSSON (Uppsala) ex-
METZGER (Fribourg) developed a tool-box emplified mechanism of ancient as well as
for analyzing an entagled history of religion, modern historiographical distortions by sho-
history, and the nation. She pointed out that wing the gradual transformation of verbal
attention must be paid to the amalgamation ideographic accounts in early narratives (e.g.
of different discursive fields (dealing with evocare, ‘they called out the god’) into abs-
region or religion for instance), to processes tract and generalizing nouns (evocatio, ‘the
of sacralisation in certain discourses (even calling out of gods’), suggestive of established
of science), and of different communicative and formalized rituals.
communities: of memory, of knowledge, REINHARD G. KRATZ (Göttingen) added
of generations. Paying attention to meta- an important facet to the conference’s results
narratives and discourses about methodology by discussing the reconcilability of historical
helps to achieve this aim, for example to method and belief. He followed the tenet of
explain the dominance of the religious factor scholarship destructing the historia sacra and
in national-liberal and catholic narratives in this being an attack on religion from Julius
the 19th century. Wellhausen onwards and analyzed its histo-
Making fruit of the comparative approach riographical roots. On this basis he developed
of the conference, PHILIPP HETMANCZYK a hermeneutical approach that asks to a) rea-
(Zürich) pointed to similar entanglements in lize how irrational elements of ‘sacred histo-
the early 20th century’s engagement with the ry’ are articulated in religious traditions, star-
factor of religion in accounts of the economic ting from textual conjectures in the biblical
development of China. Here, Confucian an- tradition, and b) to historicise ‘modern’ scho-
cestor worship could be seen as mirroring feu- larship itself. Here, he converged with many
dal structures or hindering the accumulation other contributions who had shown the high
of capital, even if Confucianism could be se- methodological standards of supposedly ‘pre-
en as inspiring a productive economic ethos critical’ scholarship.
in other accounts. GIOVANNI FILORAMO (Torino), finally,
contributed a paper that contextualised the
3 Transforming narratives: scholars, me-
establishment of chairs of „History of Chris-
thods, disciplines
tianity“ as a replacement for the discipline of
In the last section, dedicated to the esta- „Church History“ in Italian Universities from
blishment of modern disciplines, CRISTIA- the late 19th century onwards within the dis-
NA FACCHINI (Bologna) analyzed the histo- cussion of the substantial or merely accidental
ry of the historicization of Judaism from the character of historical change in matters reli-
17th century onwards, programmatically go- gious.
ing beyond the usual starting point of the The results of research presented in talks
19th century when dealing with historic disci- and posters demonstrated that the research
plines. In following the reception of the see- question informing the conference is high-
mingly antiquarian account of Jewish ritual ly productive. New interpretations and per-
by Leon of Modena (publ. 1637/38) the in- spectives were generated for many texts or
fluence of far-ranging historical comparisons, textual traditions. The seemingly anachroni-
the influence of small networks, and the failu- stic and Eurocentric application of the term
re of political projects and its fatal consequen- ‘historiography’ to widely different religions

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and texts in past and contemporary socie- the practices of historiography enables a more
ties proved hermeneutically successful in in- complex analysis of the interplay of collective
troducing new perspectives into pre-modern meta-narratives and shared ethos with indi-
and non-Western traditions as well as brea- vidual agenda and appropriations. Here, reli-
king down notions of ‘pragmatic historiogra- gious studies will have to approach relevant
phy’ or ‘modern scholarship’. Thus, the par- sciences as well as tap hermeneutical techni-
ticipants initiated a comparative historiogra- ques as developed by anthropological, litera-
phy of religion by applying literary compa- ry and media studies.
rison and historical contextualization to tho-
Conference Overview:
se texts that have been used as central docu-
ments for histories of individual religions and Welcome Address: Susanne Rau / Jörg Rüp-
by analyzing their historiographic character, ke, University of Erfurt, DE
tools and strategies. The questions addressing
Historiographic texts and contexts
the tensions between orientation by a history
and critical plurality of historiographic voices 1. Which contexts do provoke processes of
as well as the tensions between continuities historicization and the development of histo-
of historiographic techniques and claims to riography in particular?
qualitatively different scholarship proved ir-
Johannes Bronkhorst (University of Lau-
resolvable, and hence fruitful, as these tensi-
sanne, CH): The historiography of Brahma-
ons are informed by and indicate larger issues
nism
of human culture and its observation, perma-
nency and change. Chase Robinson (City University of New
„Historiography of Religion: New Approa- York, US): History and Heilsgeschichte in ear-
ches to origins of narrating a religious past“ ly Islam
has proven crucial in establishing a new field
Susanne Rau (University of Erfurt, DE): Prac-
of research that forces scholarship to integrate
titioners of religious historiography
historiographic reflections of the participating
disciplines with a fresh look onto the classical Ingvild Gilhus (Bergen, NO): The invention of
textual „sources“ of any historical reconstruc- identity and the creation of history as cosmic
tion of religious practices and ideas. Three is- myth: Interpreting Codex II from Nag Ham-
sues will be of special relevance in the ne- madi
ar future. a) A history of historical research
2. Writing histories of religion
on religion was stimulated by identifying key
steps in the early modern and modern histo- Franziska Metzger (University of Fribourg,
ry of research. For disciplines adherent to the CH): Conflicting historiographical claims in
paradigm of „History of Religion“ historio- religiously plural societies
graphy will move from a special field on the
Yvonne Maria-werber (Lund University, SE):
margins of the relevant discipline to the cen-
Religion and Gender in Scandinavian histori-
ter of methodological reflection with the next
ography
decade. b) At the same time it will contribute
to an already visible shift in other fields, that 3. Poster session
is, the reinvigoration of comparative approa-
4. Which practices to historicize the past, i.e.
ches, including the more complex notions of
to acknowledge and sequence the pastness of
transfer and entanglement. On the basis of the
the past, have been used in historicizing reli-
permanent recreation of group boundaries in
gions?
historiographic accounts, the concept of indi-
vidual „religions“ will be seriously questio- Reinhard Gregor Kratz (University of Göttin-
ned as ordering principle of research. Here, gen, DE): Historia sacra and Historical Criti-
the entanglement of religion, region, langua- cism in Biblical Scholarship
ge, and historiography has to be critically re-
Thematic round table and short talks
evaluated as is the case in national history
or national literature. Finally, c) focusing on Shahzad Bashir (Stanford University, US): Is-

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Historiography of Religion: New approaches to origins of narrating a religious past

lamic, Persian, and Mongol Times in Early Eunapius of Sardis

Modern Persianate Historiography
Sylvie Hureau (Ecole Pratique des Hautes
Ulrika Mårtensson (NTNU-The Norwegian Etudes, FR): Reading sutras in biographies
University of Science and Technology, NO):
Assia Maria Harwazinski (Tuebingen Univer-
How medieval Muslim historical writings can
sity, DE): Cinema and Islam: Reconstruction
further contemporary research into the histo-
and Presence of History in Arabic Cinema
rical origins of the Qur’an
Cristiana Fachini (University of Bologna, IT):
Pekka Tolonen (University of Turku, FI): Con-
Jewish Studies, Identity shaping by scientific
struction of the origins of a heresy: medieval
Historiography
narrative sources on the origins of the Wal-
densian movement in context Giovanni Filoramo (University of Torino, IT):
History of Christianity, Church history and
Yves Krumenacker (Université de Lyon, FR):
storia delle religioni
French Protestantism and the use of History
Thematic round table and short talks
Hannah Schneider (German Historical Insti-
tute Paris, FR): „The gates of hell shall not pre- Gabriella Gustafsson (Uppsala University,
vail against it“ – interconfessional polemics in SE): Verbs, nouns, temporality and typology
French church histories of the 19th century
Renée Koch-Piettre (CNRS - Centre ANHI-
5. How does historicization modify certain MA, FR): How to consider polytheism as a
characteristics of religions? How do they in- valuable religion: Charles de Brosses and his
tegrate a historical dimension? How do religi- „fétiches“
ons make themselves immune against histori-
Darja Sterbenc Erker (Humboldt-Universität
cist claims?
zu Berlin, DE): Historicizing religion in anci-
Per K. Sørensen (University of Leipzig, DE): ent Rome: emic and „etic“ accounts
Tibetan Historiography: A survey
Forward Look Session
Anders Klostergaard Petersen (University of
Aarhus, DK): Presentification of history Tagungsbericht Historiography of Religion: New
approaches to origins of narrating a religious past.
Thematic round table and short talks
10.09.2012–14.09.2012, Norrköping, in: H-Soz-
Jon Keune (Georg-August-Universität Göttin- Kult 30.01.2013.
gen, DE): The Conditions of Historicizing Re-
ligion: Hinduism, Social Change, and Regio-
nal Identity in Western India
Madlen Krueger (Ruhr-University Bochum
University, DE): Narration of Buddhist Revi-
val in Sri Lanka
Philopp Hetmanczyk (University of Zurich,
CH): Economic Histories of Religion in China
Eimer O’brien (National College of Art and
Design, Dublin, IE): The Art of Narrative: Re-
ligious Identity in Modern Ireland
6. How did different disciplines dealing with
religion take up the impulse of historicism?
Thematic round table and short talks
Aliki Theochari (University of Athens, GR):
Pagans or Christians in Late Antiquity? Con-
struction of identity and polemic: the case of

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