Tag: religion

How to Talk About God in Sidonius’ Time?

‘How to Talk About God in the Time of Sidonius Apollinaris?’ is the theme of the international conference organised by Annick Stoehr-Monjou in Clermont-Ferrand 12-14 November 2025.

Programme (download here):

Mercredi 12 novembre 2025
Après-Midi
13h30 Accueil
13h45 Allocutions et ouverture du colloque
Conférence inaugurale
14h Laetitia Ciccolini (Sorbonne Université)
Être auteur et chrétien aux IIIe et IVe siècles : quelques réflexions
15h Questions
Session 1 : Discours religieux entre Afrique et Gaule
15h15 David Ungvary (Bard College)
Unsung Heroes : Silence and Violence in Victor of Vita’s History of the Vandal Persecution
15h40 Raphael Schwitter (Bonn)
Sidonius Apollinaris and the religious discourse of his time – An analysis of literary trends in fifth-century Gaul and their impact on modern scholarship
16h05 Questions
16h20 Pause
16h50 Franca Ela Consolino (L’Aquila)
Parler de Dieu dans la Vie de Germain d’Auxerre
17h15 Michele Cutino (Strasbourg)
La réception d’Augustin dans la poésie gauloise du Ve siècle
17h40 Marie Achet-Haushalter (Sorbonne Université)
Une approche sensible de Dieu chez les auteurs latins du Ve s. ? L’influence d’Augustin
18h05 Questions
18h20 Fin de la session
20h Dîner

Jeudi 13 novembre 2025
Matin
Session 2 : Discours et construction d’un èthos chrétien ?
9h Accueil
9h15 Stefan Freund (Wuppertal)
Parler de Dieu en langue virgilienne ? Sidoine Apollinaire et le classique de la poésie romaine
9h25 Katharina Pohl (Wuppertal)
Dank an Gott – Dank an Menschen. Das carmen 16 des Sidonius Apollinaris als Ausdruck des Gottes – und Menschenbildes
9h50 Étienne Wolff (Nanterre)
La construction (après Sidoine) de l’image de Sidoine comme auteur chrétien
10h15 Questions
10h30 Pause
Session 3 : Amicitia et ascétisme dans la Gaule du Ve siècle
11h Laurent Ripart (Chambéry, Univ. Savoie Mont Blanc)
Sidoine Apollinaire, le mouvement monastique et la culture ascétique dans la Gaule de la seconde moitié du Ve siècle
11h25 Pierre-François EVANO (Rennes)
Dynamiques socio-politiques, relationnelles et géographiques des réseaux épiscopaux gaulois au Ve siècle – Le témoignage des sources épistolaires
11h50 Questions
12h05 Fin de la session
12h15 Déjeuner

Après-Midi
Session 4 : Parler de Dieu dans les échanges épistolaires
14h Silvia Condorelli (Messina)
Defensio fidei e defensio civitatis : Sidonio Apollinare e Fausto di Riez
14h25 Stefania Filosini (L’ Aquila)
Dio e la Scrittura nell’epistolario di Ruricio di Limoges : tra presenze e assenze
14h50 Marino Neri (Rome, Pontificia Università “S. Tommaso d’Aquino”)
“Ad portum religionis”: unità di intenti e diversità di accenti nella corrispondenza tra Fausto di Riez e Ruricio di Limoges
15h15 Questions
15h30 Pause
Session 5 : Formes de la piété collective : réflexions et pratiques
16h Johannes van Waarden (Amsterdam)
Sidonius in his liturgical vestments
16h25 Gaëlle Herbert de la Portbarré-Viard (AMU / TDMAM)
Comment dire Dieu au Ve siècle ? L’œuvre de Sidoine Apollinaire, miroir de l’émergence de la culture matérielle du christianisme en Gaule
16h50 Questions
17ho5 Fin de la session
17h45 Au musée Bargoin sur les traces de Sidoine
19h45 Dîner

Vendredi 14 novembre 2025
Matin
Session 6 : Être poète face à la Bible
9h Alice Leflaëc (Strasbourg)
Les sources scripturaires chez Sidoine Apollinaire
9h25 Luciana Furbetta (Ferrare)
Comment parler de Dieu ? Sidoine Apollinaire et Avit de Vienne entre poésie, Bible, intertextualité
9h50 Questions
10h05 Pause
Session 7 : Quels vers pour parler de Dieu ?
10h35 Lucie Martin (Paris, IRHT)
La postérité d’Orientius dans la poésie chrétienne de la Gaule du Ve siècle
11h Céline Urlacher-Becht (Mulhouse, Univ. de Haute-Alsace)
Parler de vers pour construire son image de clerc : de Sidoine Apollinaire (epist. 9, 16) à Ennode de Pavie
11h25 Bruno Bureau (Lyon III)
‘‘Aruernisque canis, Sidoniana chelys’’, parler de Dieu avec la poésie de Sidoine Apollinaire : l’Historia Apostolica d’Arator
11h50 Questions
12h10 Conclusions
12h30 Fin du colloque
12h45 Déjeuner

Si vous souhaitez assister à distance au colloque, merci de contacter l’organisatrice le 11 novembre au plus tard : annick.stoehr-monjou@uca.fr

18th Annual Conference of the European Association for the Study of Religions

Hosted by IAHR, the Italian Society for the History of Religions.

Resilient Religion

Resilience can be considered as the ability to counteract or absorb a process of transformation. It is also characterized by a capacity to endure changes without having to adapt permanently, an ability to find what best suits new environmental conditions; and an awareness of how to cope with a crisis. In this sense, religion – whether in its institutionalized forms or just as a simple belief in any relationship with a super-human agency – represents a powerful tool for reacting to difficult situations and establishing a relationship with the sacred thanks to the interaction between spirituality, mindfulness, empathy and the emotions.

Shifting Frontiers in Late Antiquity 13

The Society for Late Antiquity is pleased to announce the thirteenth biennial meeting of Shifting Frontiers in Late Antiquity, to be held at Claremont McKenna College, in Claremont, California. Specialists in art and archeology, literature and philology, history and religious studies, working on topics from the 3rd to the 8th century CE, will present a series of papers examining the impact of disasters on late-antique communities, including their susceptibility to disaster, the means by which they coped, and factors that increased resilience and facilitated recovery from disasters. In order to foster the thematic breadth and interdisciplinary perspective for which Shifting Frontiers is well-known, the papers will consider the full range of traumatic events, and also long-term processes, that could distress communities: economic, environmental, political and religious. The aim of this conference is to move beyond the descriptive and stimulate analytical and theoretical approaches to understanding how distressed communities behaved in the short and long term. Local communities developed daily and seasonal rhythms to mitigate vulnerabilities and fragility. The dread of disaster shaped the late-antique psyche and, in some ways, the cultural landscape of communities. And disasters of various kinds had a wide range of impacts, depending upon severity and the nature of communal resilience. Therefore, presentations will query the extent to which the economic, cultural, political or religious resources of communities (or their lack) determined levels of susceptibility, impact, response or resilience. To what extent do late-antique sources acknowledge vulnerability and fragility? What mechanisms created durability and resilience? What were the emotional and intellectual responses to disaster? Does an awareness of the psychological impact of fragility and disaster alter our interpretation of various forms of evidence in Late Antiquity?

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New: Brill Early Christianity Online

The new Brill Encyclopedia of Early Christianity (BEEC) focuses on the history of early Christianity, covering texts, authors, and ideas. The BEEC aims both to provide a critical review of the methods used in Early Christian Studies and also to update the history of scholarship.

The print publication consisting of six volumes is scheduled for early 2022. The content available already in advance of that date comes with the launch the online version of the BEEC (abbreviated EECO). This year some 300 articles will be published on Brill’s online platform and updates of the online version are envisaged on a regular basis.

Doctorate Lucie Desbrosses

Lucie Desbrosses has got her doctorate at the University of Besançon (supervisor Stéphane Ratti). The title of her thesis is: ‘Sidoine Apollinaire et la Gaule chrétienne au Ve siècle’.

Abstract: ‘This dissertation investigates how Sidonius Apollinaris’ poetry and letters shed light on the Christian identity of Gaul in Late Antiquity, and how the author takes part in defining it. It focuses on Christian reactions to traditional culture and the “pagan” background in particular, paying special attention to claims of renunciation and to actual comprises with past patterns. It first of all paints a picture of fifth-century Christianity in Gaul, studying how, and how deeply, the religio nova had penetrated the Gallic provinces, pointing out the remains of heterodox and “pagan” beliefs. It also examines the cultural (dis)continuity in the individual transition from lay status to conversio and clerical status, for which Sidonius, belonging to the lay social élite, and then to the clerical sphere, is a key figure. It pays special attention to writing poetry to enhance Christian identity, but also to express one’s nostalgic attachment to the ancient world, its literature, its culture, and its past pleasures.’

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