CALL FOR PAPERS: Decadence, Magic(k), and the Occult

Goldsmiths, University of London, 19-20 July 2018
Keynote speaker: Professor Patricia Pulham (University of Surrey)

Nineteenth-century Decadence coincided with a resurgence of esotericism, alternative religions, and a belief in magic as a rejection of secularism and science. Until now, this intersection has been most richly considered in relation to Catholicism. Most well-known is Huysmans’s tetralogy, which traces Durtal’s movement from the Black Mass to the monastery. However, Decadent literature has a much more complicated relationship with mystical, supernatural, and magical realms, one which extends beyond a simple rejection of Christian faith and has a legacy reaching beyond the long nineteenth century.

This two-day interdisciplinary conference is organized by the Decadence Research Unit at Goldsmiths. Our aim is to investigate the role of occultism and magic(k) in the Decadent literary and artistic tradition through a consideration of the relationship between Decadence and the esoteric revival of the fin de siècle, providing an opportunity to re-examine the Occult roots of Decadence and explore the wide range of artistic responses to the blurred boundaries between Decadence, mysticism, ritual, and the Dark Arts. Is the meeting of practical magic and literary esotericism indicative of a symbiotic relationship between Decadence and the Occult, or does it represent merely another aspect of the Decadent rejection of mainstream ideologies?

We welcome proposals on any aspect of Decadence from any era, in relation to magic(k) and the Occult. Papers (about 20 mins in length) might include discussion of, but are not limited to:

• Occult/Decadent poets: Charles Baudelaire, Remy de Gourmont, Arthur Rimbaud, Jean Lorrain
• Occult/Decadent artists: Henry de Groux, Jean Deville, Fernand Khnopff, Felicien Rops
• Great beasts: Aleister Crowley, Joséphin Péladan, W. B. Yeats
• Salons and sects: the Salon de la Rose+Croix, the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn
• Satanic and occult feminism: Berthe de Courrière, Helena Petrovna Blavatsky, Althea Gyles
• Big ‘Isms’: Spiritualism, Rosicrucianism, Neo-Paganism, Symbolism
• Freemasonry, Theosophy, and New Age Spirituality
• Aesthetic esotericism and Decadent occulture
• Geomancy and liminal spatiality
• Poetry and ritual magic(k)
• Occlusion and the ocular
• Music and mysticism
• Rituals and rivalries
• Incubi and succubi

Abstracts of 500 words plus brief biography should be sent to: dru@gold.ac.uk by 31st March 2018

CALL FOR PAPERS: Medieval Mystical Theology in Dialogue with Contemporary Thought

An international conference on the occasion of the 750th anniversary of the death of Beatrice of Nazareth (1200-1268)

KU Leuven, Belgium, 30 May-2 June 2018
The annual conference of the Mystical Theology Network.

Submit your abstract

Registration will open shortly

The Institute for the Study of Spirituality and the Theology in a Postmodern Context Research Group invite abstracts for a conference that seeks to bring historical and contemporary theology into dialogue. In addition to commemorating Beatrice of Nazareth, the conference seeks to explore themes related to Beatrice’s text and context, but also to address theological issues that continue to resonate in contemporary debates. Both the historical- and contemporary-theological questions will be clustered around three main themes, but we strongly encourage interdisciplinary approaches that engage both historical and contemporary conversations.

Historical theological themes:

“Female theology” and “female mysticism”

• Women’s medieval education and their contribution to the history of ideas and intellectual development.
• Medieval reflections on embodiment.
• Problematizing the idea of “women’s mysticism and theology.”

Vernacular theology and vernacular authors

• Relationships between vernacular, monastic, and scholastic theology
• The social and spiritual context of poverty movements in the medieval Low Countries.
• Under-studied vernacular mystical authors and texts.

Medieval texts and sacramental theology

• Liturgical feasts (e.g. Corpus Christi) and their connection to mystical texts (cf. Hadewijch’s Visions).
• Devotion to the humanity of Christ in the later Middle Ages.
• The body and/or community as a locus of spirituality and mysticism.

Contemporary theological themes:

Theology of Eros/Agape

• The phenomenological appropriation of eros and its potential to be of use in fundamental theology.
• Eros and questions of embodiment from a contemporary theological perspective.
• Love and desire in contemporary thought.

Mystical consciousness and critical-theological thought

• Mysticism and political theology.
• Mystical consciousness and social movements and transformations; reflections on mystical theology and the “kingdom of God” (as related to Agape and Eros); social critique.
• Engagements with critical theory, hermeneutics and hermeneutical theology.

Mysticism and sacramentality

• Balancing the irreducible particularity of the sacraments with the universality of 'experience' or ‘consciousness’ (mystical or otherwise).
• Interconnection and interanimation between sacramental and mystical discourse.
• The Eucharist and mystical theology.

Call for papers deadline: 31 January 2018.

Keynote speakers:

Bernard McGinn (University of Chicago)
Amy Hollywood (Harvard University)
Carolyn Muessig (University of Bristol)
Alessandra Bartolomei Romagnoli (Pontifical Gregorian University)
Robyn Horner (Australian Catholic University)
Mark De Kesel (Radboud University, Nijmegen)

With an organizers' introduction by Lieven Boeve & Rob Faesen

Practical information:

Travelling to Leuven Accommodation

For more information, please email: John Arblaster or Derrick Witherington

CALL FOR PAPERS: Art and Articulation

8-9th January 2016, St Hilda's College, Oxford

The relationship between word and image, and the ways in which medieval art (be it visual, textual, or both) operates as a means of expressing the inexpressible, will be explored in a two-day conference held in Oxford under the auspice of the Mystical Theology Network.

This interdisciplinary conference will bring together theologians, art historians, and literary scholars to examine the ways in which various forms of artistic expression have been and can be used to articulate the mystical or that which cannot easily be spoken. The principal focus will be art and articulation in medieval works and modern responses to them.

The conference will investigate the role of art and its connection to forms of mystical knowing through various strands. From visual art, through optics, apophasis and ekphrasis to mystical theology, this multidisciplinary approach to illumination will shed new light on the role of art in mystical contemplation.

Keynote Speakers:

Barbara Baert, Professor of Art History, KU Leuven.
Inigo Bocken, Director of the Titus Brandsma Instituut for the Study of Spirituality, Radboud University of Nijmegen.
Sheila Gallagher, Artist, and Associate Professor of Fine Arts, Boston College
Vincent Gillespie, J.R.R. Tolkien Professor of English Literature and Language, University of Oxford.
Catherine Karkov, Professor of Art History, University of Leeds.
Michael Kuczynski, Associate Professor of English, Tulane University.
Bernard McGinn, Naomi Shenstone Donnelley Professor Emeritus of Historical Theology and of the History of Christianity, University of Chicago.
William Prosser, Artist and Fellow of the Centre for Christianity and Culture, Regent’s Park College, Oxford.

We welcome submissions for 20-minute papers and proposals for sessions of three 20-minute papers.

Topics may include, but are by no means confined to:

• The interplay between mysticism and art, both visual and textual.
• Art (visual, textual or both) as a means of communicating that which is hard to articulate.
• Apophasis.
• Theorisations of art and beauty and how these relate to notions of mysticism.
• Transformative visions and the therapeutic effect of ‘seeing as’.
• Medieval and modern ideas on optics, seeing and contemplation/mysticism.
• The intersection between visual and textual art.
• The role of illuminations and annotations in medieval manuscripts.
• Ekphrasis.

Please send an abstract of no more than 300 words to the conference organisers by 1st September 2015.

We warmly welcome papers from graduate students.

We also warmly welcome contributions from artists outside of academia. For more information about contributing as an artist please contact Tom de Freston

For further information please refer to https://artandarticulationconference.wordpress.com