Archives de catégorie : Colloques

Émotions animales : un malentendu ? XIIe-XVIIIe s. (Nantes)

Source : fabula.org

Émotions animales : un malentendu ? XIIe-XVIIIe s. (Nantes)

N.B : Pour obtenir le mot de passe du lien zoom et suivre le colloque à distance, merci d’écrire à cette adresse : 

Louise.Millon-Hazo@univ-nantes.fr

Jeudi 7 septembre

 9h30 Accueil 

10h Introduction (P.-O. Dittmar, J. Le Floc’h, L. Millon-Hazo) 20 min

10h20-11h00 Karl Steel, Conférence d’ouverture :  “The ‘rage of wild beasts’ and the ‘reasonings of men’ (Wisdom 7 : 20): Animal anger in the Middle Ages”

Pause 11h00-11h20

Session 1 : Débats 

Présidence Damien Boquet

11h20-11h40 Nicolas Correard : « L’origine animale des émotions : Marin Cureau de la Chambre »

11h40-12h Benedetta Piazzesi : « Connaître les émotions animales pour les gouverner (XVIIe-XVIIIe siècles) »

12h-13h Discussion

13h-14h30 Déjeuner

Session 2 : Rencontres

Présidence Justine Le Floc’h

14h30-14h50 Louis-Patrick Bergot : « L’empathie animale dans plusieurs récits chevaleresques du Moyen Âge »

14h50-15h10 Aude Volpilhac : « Il vint à m’aimer, à me connaître, à entendre son nom, et à distinguer ma voix ».  Malentendu scientifique et poétique galante des émotions animales dans l’Histoire de deux caméléons (1688) de Madeleine de Scudéry » 

15h10-15h30 Lucie Schneller Lorenzoni : « Les chiens et les Toulousains aux XVIIe et XVIIIe siècles : des histoires d’amour »

15h30-17h00 Discussion

20h Dîner de colloque 

 —

Vendredi 8 septembre

9h00 Accueil

Session 3 : Poursuites 

Présidence Louise Millon-Hazo

9h30-9h50 Myriam White : « Les émotions des chevaux dans quelques textes littéraires médiévaux »

9h50-10h10 Irène Salas : « “Pourquoi me chasses-tu ?” Les merveilleux effets des larmes du cerf (MA-XVIIe siècle) »

10h10-10h30 Margot Constans : « Enseignement pragmatique et discours sensible dans un traité de fauconnerie occitan (XIIIe siècle) »

10h30-11h00 Pause

11h00-12h30 Discussion

12h30-14h00 Déjeuner

Session 4 : Portraits 

Présidence Pierre-Olivier Dittmar

14h00-14h20 Loreline Pelletier « La Rage du loup ou la critique de Salon du XVIIIe siècle face à l’émotion animale »

14h20-14h40 Guillaume Cassegrain « Nom d’un chien. Le pathétique animal dans la peinture de Titien »

14h40-15h40 Discussion

15h40-16h00 Pause 

Table ronde conclusive : philosophie animale et éco-poétique

16h-17h30 Florence Burgat, Pauline Goul, Jan Miernowski et Pierre Schoentjes.

 

Colloque CIERA “Emotions politiques XIXe, XXe, XXIe siècles” – 8 & 9 juin 2023 – Sorbonne Université (Paris, Maison de la Recherche)

Source : Ciera

Ce colloque souhaite interroger le rôle, les significations et conséquences des émotions politiques sur la formation de groupes sociaux et dans l’établissement, par des groupes existants, de règles et valeurs aux fondements de leur vie commune aux XIXe, XXe et XXIe siècles. Il s’agit de mesurer comment différents degrés d’appropriation des émotions produites font l’histoire sociale du Politique. Si les émotions forment un axe fructueux et déjà institué de la recherche germanophone en histoire contemporaine, en France, l’attention portée aux sensibilités ou, moins souvent, aux émotions collectives, semble surtout enrichir les différentes approches d’histoire médiévale et moderne, moins celle des périodes les plus récentes. En sciences politiques, sociologie, ethnologie et anthropologie, cet objet a pourtant suscité de nombreux travaux français sur l’époque contemporaine. Ce colloque souhaite donc se consacrer à ce champ historique propre en établissant des passerelles entre les recherches francophone et germanophone portant sur l’histoire contemporaine, notamment en comparant – grâce aux différentes interventions – les divergences de traitement observables dans ces deux pays.

Programme

Jeudi 8 juin 2023 (Salle D223)

10:00 – 11:00: Conférence inaugurale: Alain Faure (Sciences Po Grenoble).

11:10 – 12:30 Émotions et cultures politiques
Modération : Charlotte Soria.

Haris Mrkaljevic (doctorant, ENS de Lyon) : « Heiterkeit und Gelächter : les réactions amusées au Reichstag entre 1871 et 1879. »
Bryan Muller (docteur et ATER en Histoire, UPJV) : « Haine, mépris et peur de l’Autre. La place des émotions dans le discours du gaullisme d’ordre (1968-1981). »

Discussion : Pierre-Marie Delpu (Université Libre de Bruxelles), Alain Faure (Sciences Po Grenoble).

12:30 – 14:00 Pause déjeuner

14:00 – 15:20 Émotions et mobilisation politique
Modération : Julien Corbel.

Thomas Caubet (masterant, Université Paris Cité) : « Quand la Commune exhume les crimes de l’église. Susciter l’émoi pour recharger l’engagement révolutionnaire. »
Charlotte Soria (docteure en histoire, SIRICE, Sorbonne Université) : « Émotions politiques et fêtes du 1er mai sous le Troisième Reich. »
Léa Silberzahn (doctorante, Sciences Po Paris) : « L’émergence d’une communauté de peur émancipatrice : retour sur la naissance de l’écoféminisme étasunien. »
Arthur Delacquis (doctorant contractuel, SIRICE, Sorbonne Université) : « Répandre une morale de l’environnement : émotion des politiques et politique par l’émotion dans les débuts de l’action publique environnementale française. »

Discussion : Quentin Deluermoz (Université Paris Cité), Alain Faure (Sciences Po Grenoble).

17 :15 – 18 :15    Table ronde : Alain Faure (Sciences Po Grenoble), Pierre-Marie Delpu (Université Libre de Bruxelles), Quentin Deluermoz (Université Paris Cité).

Vendredi 9 juin 2023 (Salle D040)

09:00 – 11:00 La musique, mobilisatrice d’émotions politiques
Modération: Charlotte Soria.

Julien Corbel (doctorant contractuel, CEREG, ED MAGIIE, Sorbonne Nouvelle) : « Jubilation ou souffrance ? Les émotions du Horst-Wessel-Lied. »
Maria Teresa Betancor Abbud (doctorante contractuelle, EHESS) : « Un répertoire à soi : la construction identitaire du mouvement féministe italien dans les années 70 à travers la pratique musicale. »
Clara Lucas (doctorante, Sciences Po Bordeaux) : « « Nou tyembo nou larg pa »/ « On lache rien » : analyser la discographie des Gilets Jaunes pour appréhender leurs registres émotionnels. »

Discussion: Esteban Buch (EHESS).

11 :20 – 12:00 Émotions politiques et changement social
Modération : Julien Corbel, Charlotte Soria.

Daniel Benedikt Stienen (docteur en histoire, Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften): « Der ‚Vaterlandsverräter‘ als emotionale Integrationsfigur. Die Fiktion ethnischer und normativer Homogenität in diskursiven Nationsbildungsprozessen. »

12 :00 – 13:30 Pause déjeuner

13:30 – 14:50 Weronika Adamska (doctorante contractuelle, EHESS/ Centre Marc Bloch) : « Les affects de l’état d’urgence. Une étude croisée Allemagne (1958-1968)/ France (2015-2022). »
Laura Moisi (post-doctorante, Technische Universität Dresden) : « Gefühlsstrukturen und gesellschaftlicher Wandel : Eine Fallstudie anhand von Diskursen zu Macht und Intimität in der Gegenwart. »

Discussion: Axel Dröber (IHA/ DHIP).

16:00 – 17:00        Conclusion.

Organisation

Julien Corbel (doctorant contractuel, CEREG – EA 4223, ED 625 MAGIIE, Université Sorbonne
Nouvelle), Charlotte Soria (docteure en histoire, UMR Sirice, Sorbonne Université)

Comité scientifique

Pierre-Marie DELPU, chargé de recherche FNRS, Université Libre de Bruxelles.
Alain FAURE, directeur de recherche CNRS en sciences politiques, Sciences Po Grenoble.
Sven Oliver MÜLLER, professeur en histoire contemporaine.
Armin OWZAR, professeur d’histoire moderne et contemporaine des pays de langue allemande, Université Sorbonne Nouvelle, Paris.

Colloque – Online Conference on Histories of Disability and Emotions

Source : RMBLF

The history of disability and the history of emotions are now two well established fields. Historians of disabilities have often referred to and included emotions in their historical narratives. Examples of these are the existing histories related to the instrumental place occupied by pity in telethons, the tangible presence of rage and anger in histories of disability activism or the reference to (un)happiness in histories dealing with the emergence of special education. Despite the seemingly overall presence of emotions in disabilities histories, however, a more detailed examination of the role played by emotions in the history of disability is lacking. On the basis of a wide range of historical case studies the organizers of the conference Histories of Disability and Emotions aim at moving forward our knowledge and insights with regard to the methodological and theoretical approaches towards emotional histories of disabilities. 

Programme :

Tuesday, 13 June 2023

All time indications are CET. Paper presentations are limited to 15 minutes.

9.30 AM: Welcoming remarks and introduction by Sara Scalenghe (Loyola University Maryland), Ninon Dubourg (University of Liège) & Pieter Verstraete (KU Leuven)

10 AM: PANEL 1 – Emotional normativities through time (Chair: Pieter Verstraete)

  • Corinne Doria (Chinese University of Hong Kong): From Pride to Embarrassment: Perception of Myopia in the 19th Century and Early 20th Century
  • Beck Chamberlain Heslop (University of Manchester): Feeling the Way: Emotional entanglements of white canes in Britain, c. 1960-1980
  • Simonetta Polenghi & Anna Debè (Catholic University of the Sacred Heart): From Christian commiseration to patriotic pride. Eliciting emotions in readers of Italian children’s literature, magazines and school textbooks (1870-1930)

11.15 AM: Coffee break

11.30 AM: PANEL 2 – Biographical and archeological approaches to emotions (Chair: TBD)

  • Gregory Carrier (University of Toronto): Sorrowful Parents and Joyful Brothers: Emotions in Two Biographies of Hermannus Contractus
  • Mari Eyice (Stockholm University): Feeling dis/ability in 17th century Sweden
  • June-Ann Greeley (Sacred Heart University): Reading “The Lament of the Old Woman of Beare”: Gendered Old Age as Disability

12.45 PM: Lunch break 

2 PM: PANEL 3 – Disability, emotions and experience (Chair: Ninon Dubourg)

  • Michael Rembis (University at Buffalo): Madness, Affect, and Asylums in the 19th-century United States
  • Wendy Turner (Augusta University): Emotion, Mental Health, and Intellectual Disabilities in the Legal and Administrative Records of Medieval England
  • Silvia Carraro (University of Padua): Odi et amo? Daily Emotions towards Disabled People in Medieval Venice (14th-15th century)
  • Maja Bondestam (Uppsala University): Disability and hot nature: How emotional, not physical, traits disqualified people from work and good manners according to late 18th century Swedish medicine

3.30 PM: Coffee break

4 PM: Keynote 1 by David Turner

Wednesday, 14 June 2023

10 AM: PANEL 4 – Emotional approaches to illness and disability (Chair: TBD)

  • Saghar Bozorgi (University of Texas at Austin): Be Fearful and/but Heal Yourself : Analyzing Emotions about Disability and Healing in mid-20th Century Iran
  • Emanuele Piazza (Università degli Studi di Catania): Healing Disabilities in the Diaologi of Gregory the Great
  • Mia Edwards (University of Warwick): Physical Disability, Physicality, and Masculinity within the Plantation Labour System, 1800-1861
  • Nicole Reibe (Loyola University Maryland): Silent Solidarity: Deafness, Anger, and Action in the Work of Teresa de Cartagena

11.30 AM: Coffee break

11.45 AM: PANEL 5 – The body and emotional politics (Chair: TBD)

  • Bianca Frohne (Kiel University): Disability, Emotions, and Pain in Medieval and Early Modern Miracle Accounts
  • Jack Litchfield (Independent scholar): Maimed, Wounded, Febled, and Debrused: Feeling Hurts in Late Medieval English Martial Culture
  • Wei Yu Wayne Tan (Hope College): Disability and Illness in Quarantine: Hōjō Tamio and the Experience of Leprosy (Hansen’s Disease) in Modern Japan 

1 PM: Lunch break

2 PM: PANEL 6 – Disability, narrativity and emotional prosthesis (Chair: TBD)

  • Marla Carlson (University of Georgia): Blindness and Disgust in Medieval French Farce
  • Magdalena Matczak (Nicolaus Copernicus University): Osteobiographies of Disability and Emotions in Medieval Culmen, Poland
  • Marit Ronen (Independent scholar): Disgust and Disability, Gatekeeping in Early Medieval England
  • Abigail Greaves (University of Nottingham): Impairment, Sadness, and Hagiography in Early Medieval England 

3.30 PM: Coffee break

3.45 PM: Panel 7 – Agency, the disabled self and emotions (Chair: TBD)

  • Chayyim Holtkamp (The Citadel): Resistance in a Mental Institution: The South Carolina Lunatic Asylum as a Site of Patient Agency
  • Paul Van Trigt (Leiden University): Disabling suffering. Dutch self-advocates and pain (relief) during the 1990s
  • Timo Houtekamer (European University Institute): Symptoms or Self-Expressions? The Role of Emotions in Patient Files of People Diagnosed with Schizophrenia in Zurich, 1908-1950

5 PM: Coffee break

5.15 PM: Keynote 2 by Barbara Rosenwein

Thursday, 15 June 2023

10 AM: PANEL 8 – Performing emotions and disability (Chair: TBD)

  • Kalina Hadzhikova (Johns Hopkins University): Folly, Performance, and Emotional Regulation in Medieval England.”
  • Kirstie Stage (Christ’s College, University of Cambridge): ‘Piss on Pity’: Disabled Activists Challenging Narratives
  • Flora Amann (University of Jean Monnet): A Language of Emotions in the Age of Reason. Sign Language, Rationalism and Sensualism in Eighteenth-Century France
  • Esme Cleall (University of Sheffield): Dancing for Joy’: Disability and the Affective Connection in British Missionary Writing

11.30 AM: Coffee break

11.45 AM: PANEL 9 – Educational regimes of emotions and disability (Chair: TBD)

  • Shilpaa Anand (BITS Pilani, Hyderabad Campus): Being Sentimental, Being Enraged: Historicizing the Symbolism of Ekalavya’s Amputation
  • Gábor Bradács (Independent scholar): Claudi quoque et muti, surdique et paralitici a suis sunt infirmitatibus liberati. The perception of the disability in the medieval Hungarian hagiography between abhorrence and compassion
  • Léo Delaune (University of Strasbourg): Fear of humiliation, desire for humility: shame and physical disability in medieval exempla

1 PM: Lunch break

2 PM: PANEL 10 – Emotional knowledge and disablement (Chair: Sara Scalenghe)

  • Hilary Buxton (Kenyon College): Pride and Pity: Performing Emotion in Interwar South Asian Disability Petitions
  • Marco Di Giulio (Franklin & Marshall College): Contesting the Politics of British Prosthetic Care: Pain, Nativeness, and the Plight of Palestinian Jewish Amputees in WWII
  • Nathanje Dijkstra (Utrecht University): Navigating pain, fatique and misery. A practice-focused analysis of emotional expressions in workers’ disability benefit claims in the Netherlands (1901-1967)
  • Elif Küskü (Istanbul Technical University): Feelings of the Orthopedically Disabled: Arm and Leg Prosthesis Petitions in the Ottoman Empire 

3.30 PM: Concluding remarks 

Informations pratiques :

13 Jun 2023 09:30 AM to 15 Jun 2023 04:00 PM
Online via Zoom (Register below to get the Zoom-link)

Colloque – Amusement, Joy, and Having a Good Time in Mystical Texts

source : RMBLF

Mystics who suffered, through illness, asceticism, the withdrawal of divine grace, the ruthlessness of their critics, or just from the harshness of life, often dominate our readings of the texts of and about mystics. While these are crucial aspects of their experience, what is often overlooked are the moments of happiness and contentment that also exist in these works. The M&LEN 2023 Annual Conference will answer Amy Hollywood’s call to not only speak of suffering and pain in relation to female mystical lives, but also of joy. We will be exploring the “lighter” moments, looking at how mystical texts discuss happiness, joy, amusement, playfulness, and the enjoyment of life, as well as how pain and suffering are transformed into joy in some works.

Inscription : ici

Programme :

Wednesday, June 14th , 16:00-17:15 BST

Einat Klafter & AJ Langley – Welcome and Opening Remarks

Keynote Speaker: Peter Jones (Complutense University of Madrid): “When and When Not to Laugh: A Cistercian Guide “

Thursday, June 15th, 14:00-15:30 BST

Lauren Cole (Northwestern University): The Acoustics of Joy: Hildegard of Bingen’s Chants for St Rupert

Tatiana Barkovskiy (University of Warsaw): “Marguerite Porete’s Metaphysics of Love and Epistemology of Joy”

Hannah Victoria (Sorbonne Université): Be Gay: Theorising the Joyous Queer in Mystical Texts

Friday, June 16th, 14:00-15:00 BST

Lieke Smits (University of Antwerp): Who wants to play? The infant Jesus having a good time in mystical and devotional Practice

Philip Liston-Kraft (Harvard University): Hide and Seek: Christina von Hane and the Infant Jesus at Play

Friday, June 16th, 16:30-17:30 BST

Ngo Hin Cheng (KU Leuven): The Joy of the Bride and the Maidens in Bernard of Clairvaux’s Sermones super Cantica canticorum

Erin Risch Zoutendam (Duke University): Readers and Lovers: The Song of Songs as Hermeneutic in Hugh of Balma’s The Roads to Zion Mourn

[16 mai 2023] Journée d’études : Dévotion et émotions. Pour une approche croisée des images et des textes

Source : CESCM

• Mardi 16 mai 2023 – 9h / 17h

• En présentiel à Poitiers et en visioconférence (voir fin du billet)

Hôtel Berthelot – salle Crozet – 24 rue de la chaîne – Bât. E13

Ouvert à toutes et tous

Programme :

9h / 12h20 – Session du matin

Présidence : Damien Boquet (Université d’Aix-en-Provence)

9h – Accueil
9h10 – Marcello ANGHEBEN (Université de Poitiers, CESCM) : Présentation de la journée.
10h – Nicolas BALZAMO (Université de Neuchâtel) : Condamner, justifier ou expliquer : les théologiens et la question des émotions suscitées par les images cultuelles.

10h40 – Pause

11h – Marielle LAMY (Sorbonne Université Lettres) : La dimension émotive et imaginative dans les méditations d’Étienne de Salwey, O. Cist. (début XIIIe siècle).
11h40 – Mathieu BEAUD (Université de Lille) : Impression visuelle et émotions : remarques sur l’enluminure de psautiers du XIIe siècle.

14h / 17h – Session de l’après-midi

14h – Catherine NICOLAS (Université Paul-Valéry Montpellier III) :
Compassion, componction, conversion : thématisation de la réception des semblances graaliennes par le texte et par l’image dans le Lancelot-Graal.
14h40 – Julia Maria GARCIA MORALES (Universidad de Murcia) : La Compassio Mariae dans la Péninsule ibérique.

15h20 – Pause

15h30 – Bertrand COSNET (Université de Lille, IRHiS) : L’iconographie de la tristesse aux XIIIe et XIVe siècles : entre acédie et componction.
16h10 – Anne-Laure IMBERT (Université Paris I Panthéon-Sorbonne) : Dévotion et émotion dans la peinture siennoise (Trecento, Quattrocento)
16h10 – Conclusion

Informations complémentaires

Contact :   marcello.angheben@univ-poitiers.fr

Visioconférence

• Inscription préalable requise, par mail auprès de : marcello.angheben@univ-poitiers.fr

• Lien de connexion : https://univ-poitiers.webex.com/meet/marcello.angheben

Nobles Dames et Histoire des Émotions. Atelier et études

Source : RMBLF

 

Longtemps assimilée à l’histoire des mentalités, la question de l’étude des émotions commence depuis quelques années à connaître sa propre évolution. Elle se concentre sur l’articulation entre codes socioculturels, conjonctures et individualités. Pouvant souvent mener à la spéculation, l’histoire des émotions est à écrire avec prudence, nonobstant, elle permet d’apporter un éclairage nouveau sur les actions des acteurs du passé. Les émotions mises en scènes dans les textes, tels que les traités, les chroniques ainsi que dans les romans et dans l’iconographie, sont autant de témoins des préoccupations du temps. Cependant, il s’agit bien là de textes et d’images travaillés. Même les correspondances, associées à une forme d’intimité, sont souvent codifiées, destinées à être reçues et lues dans des contextes bien particuliers qu’il ne faut pas négliger. Mais, cela signifie-t-il qu’il est impossible de déceler l’émotion dans une source historique ? La mise en relation de différents facteurs offre des clefs de compréhension, au- delà de ce que les individus veulent bien laisser entendre. De plus, la prise en compte des réseaux, de l’agentivité, de la corporalité, de la gestuelle, des espaces ou de l’iconographie permettent de déceler le sentiment dissimulé sous les normes des sources qui nous sont parvenues.

Dans cet atelier sur l’histoire des émotions, nous nous intéresserons, sur différentes périodes historiques, à la question des sources produites par les femmes occupant des rangs sociaux élevés, afin de comprendre les enjeux de méthode qui existent quand on travaille sur les femmes nobles et leurs émotions.

Accès libre selon les capacités d’accueil. Atelier ouvert aux masterisant·e·s, doctorant·e·s et chercheur·se·s

Programme :

Jeudi 6 avril IRHiS, Univ. Lille

13h – Introduction : Clara Kalogérakis (IRHiS, Univ. Lille, Univ. Castilla-La Mancha) Julie Özcan (CRH, EHESS)

Matthieu Mensch (ARCHE, Univ. Strasbourg)

14h – Histoire médiévale : discutant, Christopher Fletcher (CNRS, IRHiS, Univ. Lille)

  • Camille Paccou (IRHiS, Univ. Lille, Univ. Gand), « Isabelle de Luxembourg et Gui de Dampierre : une famille soudée face à la menace française (1298) »
  • Camille Rutsaert (CRHiDI, Univ. Saint-Louis-Bruxelles, LaRHiS, CEMR, UCLouvain), « De l’amour, de l’affection, de la sollicitude ou juste de l’attention, la construction des émotions en dialogue entre un discours trop construit et l’absence d’information. Jeanne de Brabant (1322-1406), une amoureuse malaimée ? »

    15h – Pause

    15h30 – Histoire moderne : discutante Julie Özcan

  • Jules Dejonckheere (LaRHis, UCLouvain), «Marie de Hongrie face aux tribulations des guerres d’Italie : expressions et usages de la peur dans sa correspondance (1531-1555) »
  • Isabelle Paresys (IRHiS, Univ. Lille), « Habits de cour de nobles dames au prisme des émotions à la Renaissance »
    16h30 – Pause

    17h – Histoire moderne/contemporaine :

  • Jean de Saint Blanquat (IREL, EPHE), « “Triste et contrariée” Émotions mises en avant ou de côté dans l’autobiographie de Kata Bethlen »
  • Matthieu Mensch (ARCHE, Univ. Strasbourg), « Le sentiment de culpabilité d’une reine. L’alcoolisme chez Marie-Joséphine de Savoie. »

Vendredi 7 avril CRH, EHESS

13h – Introduction : Clara Kalogérakis (IRHiS, Univ. Lille, Univ. Castilla-La Mancha) Julie Özcan (CRH, EHESS), Matthieu Mensch (ARCHE, Univ. Strasbourg)

14h – Histoire médiévale/moderne : discutante, Clara Kalogérakis
• Annabelle Marin (Centre Roland Mousnier, Sorbonne Université), « Caractériser le pouvoir relationnel de l’aristocrate : Quelles sources pour une archéologie des sentiments des nobles dames ? »
• Lucie Jardot (LAMOP, Paris I Panthéon-Sorbonne), L’affectio conjugalis dans les lettres d’Isabel de Portugal et de Charles Quint : amour ou émotions stéréotypées ? »

15h – Pause

15h30 – Histoire moderne : discutante Julie Özcan
• Clara Kalogérakis (IRHiS, Univ. Lille, Univ. Castilla-La Mancha), « Argent, maison et émotions : relire les mariages des infantes d’Espagne par leurs sources de revenus (1496-1530) »
• Pascale Mormiche (DYPAC, Univ. Cergy-Pontoise), « Pas d’émotions chez les princesses ? »

16h30 – Pause

17h Histoire moderne/contemporaine :

• Jean de Saint Blanquat (IREL, EPHE), « “Triste et contrariée” Émotions mises en avant ou de côté dans l’autobiographie de Kata Bethlen »

• Matthieu Mensch (ARCHE, Univ. Strasbourg), « Des larmes au rire, les sentiments de la duchesse de Berry dans sa correspondance familiale (1820- 1822) »

Informations pratiques :

IRHiS 6 avril –
Campus Pont de Bois, Villeneuve d’Ascq – Bâtiment A – A1.230

EHESS 7 avril –
54bd Raspail, Paris – AS1_08

Comité d’organisation :

Julie Özcan (CRH, EHESS)
Matthieu Mensch (ARCHE, Univ. Strasbourg)
Clara Kalogérakis (IRHiS, Univ. Lille, Univ. Castilla-La Mancha)

La haine en héritage dans l’Antiquité gréco-romaine

La haine en héritage dans l’Antiquité gréco-romaine
Colloque international

Jeudi 23 mars de 8h30 à 18h30 et vendredi 24 mars de 8h30 à 12h30
Maison de la Recherche
Faculté de Lettres, Langues, Sciences humaines et sociales
56321 LORIENT

ORGANISATION
Laboratoires TEMOS (CNRS, Université Bretagne Sud), TDMAM (AMU, CNRS) et ANHIMA (CNRS, Université Paris I Panthéon-Sorbonne)

– Emmanuèle Caire, Aix-Marseille Université, CNRS, TDMAM

– Cyrielle Landrea, Université Bretagne Sud, TEMOS
– Sylvie Pittia, Université Paris 1 – Panthéon Sorbonne, ANHIMA

Consultez le programme

https://www.cpaf.cnrs.fr/IMG/pdf/colloque-haine-antiquite-greco-romaine-temos-tdmam-anhima.pdf

La haine a certes fait l’objet d’un certain nombre d’études en sciences humaines et sur le temps long. Cependant, ce colloque international souhaite aborder la haine sous un angle inédit pour l’Antiquité, celui de l’héritage de la haine politique, y compris dans sa dimension familiale. Il s’agira d’analyser les discours de haine, les modalités de transmission de l’aversion en termes de postures, de pratiques et de stratégies. En outre, les représentations associées à la haine valent d’être étudiées dans une perspective de critérisation. La perspective de ce colloque est de faire dialoguer les disciplines (Histoire et Lettres classiques) et de mettre l’accent sur la dimension diachronique. Les mondes grec et romain de l’Antiquité classique sont privilégiés.

L’héritage de la haine pourra être abordé à travers de nombreuses thématiques et à plusieurs niveaux (niveau personnel, niveau infra-familial, mais aussi celui d’un groupe social ou de la communauté civique). L’étude des alliances au sein des aristocraties gouvernantes (mariage, adoption, divorce…) permettra également de considérer la transmission de la haine et ses implications politiques. Peut-on renoncer à la haine héritée de sa famille, doit-on adopter les haines des groupes que l’on intègre, les haines multiples sont-elles compatibles ? Comment les haines, au fil des générations, nourrissent-elles la compétition politique, mais aussi la vie judiciaire, tout particulièrement les procès intentés aux dirigeants de la cité ? La réaction et relation des hommes et des femmes face aux phénomènes de haine politique sont-elles comparables dans un univers civique très largement masculin ?

Le ridicule en question à l’époque médiévale

Source : RMBLF.be

Journée d’étude internationale
Le ridicule en question à l’époque médiévale
27 mars 2023, Bordeaux
Université Bordeaux Montaigne, UR 24142 Plurielles

Cette manifestation scientifique propose d’aborder la question du ridicule dans l’art et la littérature du Moyen Âge, en se fondant sur différents types de récits et d’œuvres, afin d’explorer sa fabrication, ses mises en scène, ses objets, ses visées, ses rejets et ses effets. Il s’agira aussi d’analyser le rapport que ces œuvres ou passages ridiculisants entretiennent, d’une part, avec le monde, d’autre part, avec l’art lui-même. Si les notions voisines de comique et de grotesque ont été étudiées de longue date dans l’art médiéval, notamment par le biais du rire – grâce à l’historien Jacques le Goff, par exemple – ou du comique, en relation étroite avec le tragique et le sérieux – ainsi que l’ont montré les travaux d’Élisabeth Lalou[1] –, la question du ridicule quant à elle demeure peu travaillée.

La plupart des travaux sur le sujet ne touchent pas la sphère francophone. En outre, les études parues à ce jour s’inscrivent avant tout dans les domaines sociologique, politique, philosophique et ont trait à des époques antérieures ou postérieures au Moyen Âge. Par exemple, Michael Billig, dans Laughter and Ridicule. Towards a Social Critique of Humour (2005)[2], étudie en diachronie le rapport de la notion de ridicule avec la norme sociale. Un peu plus tard, dans Rhetoric of ridicule[3], Greg Grewell reprend la distinction établie par Renate Lachmann entre force centripète et force centrifuge dans l’humour carnavalesque[4]. Il différencie dans sa théorie deux manières de construire le ridicule : un discours monologique et un discours dialogique. Le premier discours, de type centripète, tend à conformer l’individu à une norme sociale et le second, de type centrifuge, dans un mouvement inverse, amène ce même individu à faire voler en éclat les représentations normées de l’objet ou du sujet ridiculisé. Ce dernier modèle de discours permet alors l’invention de nouveaux codes et donc un décentrement par rapport aux normes préétablies, voire une désacralisation de ces dernières. Nous pouvons sans doute envisager le ridicule dans les œuvres littéraires et artistiques selon cette double dynamique. Au niveau littéraire, les études ont été plutôt ponctuelles, elles concernent des auteurs en particulier, comme Molière ou Scarron[5], ou encore des genres spécifiques comme la comédie[6]. Toutefois, la notion de ridicule dépasse le simple cadre des genres comiques, nombreux et identifiés au Moyen Âge (farce, fabliau, fatrasie, sottie, théâtre) et relie des genres d’aspect très divers si bien qu’elle conduit à les mettre en perspective.

Aussi, dans une approche interdisciplinaire et transgénérique, nous souhaiterions confronter et comparer, dans leurs différences, les genres, les supports et les approches scientifiques afin d’enrichir une réflexion autour d’une notion très présente dans la production médiévale. Ridiculiser vise avant tout à faire rire, mais tourner en ridicule c’est aussi déprécier, porter un jugement de valeur, c’est enfin faire ressortir l’absurdité, le non-sens d’un être, d’une chose ou d’une situation et se placer ainsi sur le terrain du sens, en particulier du bon sens. Ridiculiser permet autant d’écarter que de souligner, de faire rire que de susciter de la compassion. Semblent se nouer des rapports aux normes, au pouvoir, au sens, à un ordre et à des effets variés, qui, tous, contribuent à installer la richesse registrale et interprétative de l’art médiéval, quel qu’il soit. Le ridicule semble être ainsi le lieu de l’évidence autant que de l’ambiguïté.

Axes de recherche

           Fabliaux, récits de voyage, chansons de geste, poésies, nouvelles, enluminures, statues, etc. : nombreux sont les supports qui accueillent et fabriquent le ridicule au Moyen Âge. Le corpus est immense. Nous souhaitons travailler selon différents axes afin de cerner progressivement la notion et ses fonctions tout autant que la variété de ses apparitions.

  • Axe 1. Les différents sujets et objets de ridicule

Il s’agira d’observer les thèmes et les sujets du ridicule afin d’installer l’étude : quelles sont les récurrences et les irrégularités en la matière ? La ridiculisation du clergé et de la scolastique est fréquente dans l’art profane et les genres comiques ; en est-il de même dans d’autres domaines ? Quelles sont les figures ridiculisées et de quoi sont-elles la cible ? L’homme, l’étranger, la femme, le vilain, le chevalier sont autant de personnages typiques fréquemment caricaturés, moqués. Quelle est ainsi la visée de ces peintures grotesques, qui tournent en ridicule leur objet ?

  • Axe 2. Ridiculiser : mode d’emploi et style(s)

L’examen des différentes manières de ridiculiser, des plus évidentes aux plus subtiles, retiendra l’attention. Le ridicule se limite-il à la parodie ? Quels effets ou quelles figures sont mobilisées pour construire le ridicule ? Les procédés de grossissement, de rétrécissement, de déplacement, d’ironie sont-ils préférentiellement employés dans un genre ou chez un auteur ? Produisent-ils des effets identiques ?

  • Axe 3. La déconstruction ou le renforcement d’une norme

Interroger le rapport à la norme de manière plus générale en explorant les visées des auteurs permettra de voir s’il s’agit de ridiculiser pour dénoncer, rire, défaire ou refaire un modèle, de manière à comprendre quelles postures sont adoptées et quelles valeurs sont déconstruites. Qu’en est-il par ailleurs du rapport aux genres et aux normes génériques ?

  • Axe 4. Non-sens ou bon sens ?

La question du langage, littéraire ou artistique, pourrait aussi nourrir la réflexion autour du sens. Si le ridiculum dictum chez Plaute peut renvoyer à l’idée de bon mot, peut-on envisager le recours au ridicule comme simple jeu sur le sens ? Le jeu de pouvoir se nouant autour du ridicule amène-t-il à la construction d’un bon sens, autant qu’il permet de révéler les absurdités d’un code ou d’une norme ?

D’autres réflexions pourront bien sûr venir étayer cette étude.

Modalités de participation

Les propositions de communication accompagnées d’un argumentaire d’une dizaine de lignes et d’un bref curriculum vitae sont à envoyer aux organisatrices avant le 20 février 2023.

Raphaëlle LABARRIÈRE, r.labarriere@hotmail.fr

Priscilla MOURGUES, priscilla.mourgues@gmail.com

Le logement et le repas du midi seront financés par l’organisation, les frais de transport seront laissés à la charge des équipes de recherche des participant.e.s.


[1] E. Lalou, « Le théâtre médiéval, le tragique et le comique : réflexions sur la définition des genres », dans Tragique et comique liés, dans le théâtre, de l’Antiquité à nos jours (du texte à la mise en scène), Rouen, Publications numériques du CÉRÉdl, 2012, disponible en ligne, URL : <http://ceredi.labos.univ-rouen.fr/public/?le-theatre-medieval-le-tragique-et.html&gt;.

[2] M. Billig, Laughter and Ridicule : Towards a Social Critique of Humour, Londres, Thousand Oaks, New Dehli, SAGE, 2005.

[3] G. Grewell, Rhetoric of ridicule, ProQuest Dissertations Publishing, 2013, disponible en ligne, URL : <https://www.proquest.com/docview/1500846086?parentSessionId=safon260V7ZDX4wQheTQckcsZWknSQf5LZdtVH3L5Z8%3D&pq-origsite=primo&accountid=9671>.

[4] R. Lachmann, Bakhtin and Carnival : Culture as Counter-culture, Center for Humanistic Studies, College of Liberal Arts, University of Minnesota, 1987.

[5] P. Dandrey, Molière Ou L’esthétique Du Ridicule, Paris, Klincksieck, 1992.

[6] On peut par exemple citer P. Lerat, Le ridicule et son expression dans les comédies françaises de Scarron à Molière (thèse dir. R. Lathuillère, Lille, ANRT, 1980, URL : https://excerpts.numilog.com/books/9782307481843.pdf) et E. Pinon, « Perdican et « la fleur nommée héliotrope » : ridicule et sacré du classicisme au romantisme » (Toulouse, Littératures, 2009, p. 75-86, URL : https://doi.org/10.4000/litteratures.2030)

Aimer

Source : Cité des Sciences et de l’Industrie

Le Collège international de philosophie et la Cité des sciences et de l’industrie invitent les classes préparatoires scientifiques et aux grandes écoles de commerce et d’économie, à deux séances spécialement conçues sur les thématiques au programme. C’est l’occasion de croiser différents regards sur ces notions. Ces séances sont néanmoins ouvertes à toutes et tous.

Aimer

samedi 11 décembre 2021 à 14h30

Sur un tel thème, la tradition philosophique hellénique nous propose de distinguer l’éros (l’amour passionnel), l’agapè (l’amour spirituel) et la philia (l’amour amical).
Cependant le verbe « aimer » nous invite à explorer l’acte d’aimer. À la manière des troubadours, nous pouvons opposer « aimer » comme amar, amour bestial « qui
affole le sot », à « aimer » comme amor, « amour pur », ou fin’amor, « amour courtois », inséparable de l’exercice inquiet de la poésie.
C’est donc d’une pratique, ou, pour citer le philosophe Michel Foucault, « d’un souci qu’aimer se doit méditer » : souci de soi qui est aussi souci de l’autre, et en appelle
à l’effort conjoint d’un « faire » et d’un « dire », en vue d’une intensité lucide.

Avec

Marie Bergström, sociologue à l’Institut national d’études démographiques (INED) ; Damien Boquet, historien, professeur d’histoire médiévale à l’université d’Aix- Marseille ; Pierre Zaoui, philosophe, professeur à l’université de Paris.

Rencontre animée par Victorine de Oliveira, journaliste à Philosophie Magazine

Colloque international “Honte et vertu dans l’Antiquité” / “Shame and virtue in Antiquity”

Source : TDMAM – Centre Paul-Albert Février

8, 9 et 10 novembre 2021, Aix-en-Provence
Salle de colloque 2, Bâtiment multimédia T1, Campus Schuman, 29 Av. Robert Schuman, 13100 Aix-en-Provence.


Colloque co-organisé par le Centre Gilles Gaston Granger et le laboratoire TDMAM, Aix-Marseille Université, CNRS.
Pass sanitaire requis

Contact :
Anne Balansard / anne.balansard@univ-amu.fr
Isabelle Koch / isabelle.koch@univ-amu.fr


PROGRAMME
**********************************************************
LUNDI 8 NOVEMBRE | APRÈS-MIDI
>>> SESSION PLÉNIÈRE


13h30 | Accueil, vérification des pass sanitaires

14h | Allocutions d’ouverture

14h30 | Charlotte Murgier (Université Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne)
L’aidôs, entre courage et tempérance, chez Platon

15h15 | Discussion

15h30 | Olivier Renaut (Université Paris Ouest Nanterre)
Honte au regard de la convention, honte au regard de la vérité : Aristote, Rhét. II 4-6

16h15 | Discussion

16h30 | Pause café

17h | Marta Jimenez (Emory University, Atlanta)
Shame as the Proto-Virtue of the Learner in Aristotle’s Ethics

17h45 | Discussion



**********************************************************


MARDI 9 NOVEMBRE | MATIN
>>> SESSION PLÉNIÈRE


9h | Accueil, vérification des pass sanitaires

9h15 | Christopher Gill (University of Exeter, GB)
Shame and Virtue – how does Stoicism fit in ?

10h | Discussion

10h15 | Pause café

10h30 | Antje Junghanß (Technische Universität Dresden, Deutschland)
“…adeo illi ex alto suffusus est rubor ” (epist. 11. 1) : la honte chez Sénèque

11h15 | Discussion

11h30 | Carlos Lévy (Université Paris 4 Paris-Sorbonne)
Immanence et transcendance chez Philon d’Alexandrie : le problème de la honte

12h15 | Discussion

12h30 | Déjeuner



**********************************************************



MARDI 9 NOVEMBRE | APRÈS-MIDI
>>> 2 SESSIONS PARALLÈLES



Salles 1 et 2 du bâtiment T1


14h15 | Accueil, vérification des pass sanitaires


>>>>>Salle de colloque 1


14h30 | Rodrigo Illarraga (University of Buenos Aires & CONICET, Argentina)
Xenophon’s Psychology of Shamelessness and Shame

14h55 | Bernhard Kaiser (Technische Universität Dresden, Deutschland)
The function of shame in Plato’s Gorgias

15h20 | Discussion

15h45 | Pause-café

16h | Julia Pfefferkorn (Universität Tübingen/ Universität Mainz, Deutschland)
Shame, moderation, and moral education in Plato’s Laws

16h25 | Giulio Di Basilio (Irish Research Council, Trinity College Dublin, GB)
Aristotle on Shame and Natural Virtue in the Eudemian Ethics

16h50-17h15 | Discussion

**************


>>>>>Salle de colloque 2


14h30 | Julien Decker (Université de Rouen, laboratoire SPH, Bordeaux)
Ἀναίδεια et ἀναισχυντία dans le Cynisme antique : la vertu naît-elle de l’absence de honte ?

14h55 | Tomohiko Kondo (Hokkaido University, Japan)
Why Do We Have Sex in Secret ? Sexual Shame in Later Stoics

15h20 | Discussion

15h45 | Pause-café

16h | Francesca Scrofani (professeure certifiée, Aix-en-Provence)
Mauvaise honte et entraînement à la vertu dans le Περὶ δυσωπίας de Plutarque

16h25 | Joachim Haddad (Aix-Marseille Université)
Devant qui avoir honte ? La place de la honte chez saint Augustin

16h50-17h15 | Discussion


**********************************************************


MERCREDI 10 NOVEMBRE | MATINÉE
>>>SESSION PLÉNIÈRE


9h15 | Accueil, vérification des pass sanitaires

9h30 | Alexandrine Schniewind (Université de Lausane, CH)
Vertu et honte dans les Ennéades de Plotin

10h15 | Discussion

10h30 | Louis-André Dorion (Université de Montréal, Canada)
Faire honte au péché : l’elenchos chez Clément d’Alexandrie

11h15 | Discussion

11h30 | Pause café

12h | Jérôme Lagouanère (Université Paul-Valéry – Montpellier 3)
“Non sit honestior philosophia Gentium, quam nostra Christiana” (c. Iul. , IV, 14, 71). Quand Augustin discute avec Cicéron des notions de pudor et de concupiscentia au livre IV du Contra Iulianum

12h45 | Discussion

13h | Conclusions et clôture du colloque

Archéologies des transidentités : mondes médiévaux (Colloque, 24-26 novembre 2021)

Source : Philomel

24-26 novembre 2021

Colloque international co-organisé par Sophie Albert (Sorbonne Université, EA4349)
et Clovis Maillet (ESAD Angers/EHESS)

Lieu : Sorbonne Université, Paris

 

Partenariat entre Sorbonne Université (Philomel et mission Egalité), la MSH Ange Guépin (projet
TRANS) avec le soutien du laboratoire TEMOS (UMR CNRS 9016) et l’ESAD TALM avec le
soutien du Ministère de la Culture (DGCA) et la fondation Khôra-Institut de France

 

Argumentaire

 

Nous connaissons une trentaine de textes hagiographiques de l’Antiquité tardive au XVe siècle évoquant des saint·es ayant passé partie ou totalité de leur vie sous une apparence et une identité qui n’était pas congruente avec leur genre assigné à la naissance. Les sources judiciaires révèlent plusieurs cas de personnages ayant passé une partie de leur vie sous une identité masculine, et une autre féminine. Dans les textes en ancien français, ces fluctuations de genre se disent dans une plasticité du genre (grammatical) qui n’a pas d’équivalent en français moderne. Est-ce à dire que le monde médiéval était ouvert à ce que nous appelons aujourd’hui transidentités ? Est-ce jouer des anachronismes que d’importer des concepts issus de la théorie et de l’activisme contemporain pour envisager les fluidités de genre à l’époque médiévale ?
Ce projet de colloque s’inscrit dans une vision critique et historicisée des questions et des régimes de genre. Depuis les années 1990 et l’émergence de la théorie queer, sous l’impulsion de Teresa de Lauretis, des penseur·ses et des activistes se sont tourné·es vers l’histoire, et ont remis en cause de la binarité de genre exclusive dans les siècles passés (Leslie Feinberg). Mais alors que les études queer, les études trans et l’histoire du mouvement LGBTQI+ se développent, il semble nécessaire de mobiliser davantage les sources anciennes. Sam Bourcier proposait déjà en 1999 de passer au prisme queer le terme utilisé par les historien·nes de « travestissement », issu d’une terminologie pénale et psychiatrique, et de lui substituer l’expression « pratiques transgenres ». Son article fut publié au sein du numéro Femmes travesties : un mauvais genre de la revue Clio, dirigé par Christine Bard et Nicole Pellegrin, en même temps qu’un article de Frédérique Villemur sur les « saintes travesties ». Ce numéro a marqué les études francophones sur la question : nous souhaiterions lui faire écho vingt ans plus tard.
Le titre du colloque, « Archéologies des transidentités », invite à resituer le genre ou les genres (on préfèrera le pluriel, si l’on considère que le terme au singulier renvoie à un binarisme qu’il s’agit précisément de contester ou de remettre en cause) au sein d’un spectre plus large de critères définissant la personne : ordre ou classe sociale, confession, règne humain, animal, végétal. Dans une perspective inspirée par l’approche intersectionnelle, on interrogera les formes de fluidité qui remettent en question non seulement les frontières des genres, mais aussi leurs rapports avec ces autres critères. En effet, il est rare que la question du genre se pose indépendamment d’autres variables et que les transitions de genre ne s’accompagnent pas d’autres modes de dépassements.
Dans les conceptualisations modernes du genre, la distinction sexe/genre dépend de la différence nature/culture. Or à l’époque médiévale, les concepts de « nature » et de « naturel » sont polysémiques, et non superposables avec leurs équivalents actuels. La différence entre nature et culture (plutôt exprimée par le terme « norreture ») n’a pas le même sens qu’à partir des XVIIe-XVIIIe siècle, période de la « naturalisation » du monde (Donna Haraway, Bruno Latour et Philippe Descola). On pourrait défendre qu’il n’y a que du genre au Moyen âge, et pas un sexe biologique d’un côté et un genre social de l’autre.
Corollairement, avant le XVIe siècle, la plupart des langues vernaculaires ne font pas l’objet de codifications grammaticales ; la littérature ne relève pas des classifications génériques que l’époque moderne s’attachera à définir ; sauf circonstances particulières, l’image n’est pas régulée par les autorités ecclésiastiques. De ce fait, on observe une grande labilité dans l’expression et la représentation des genres.
Enfin, dans la pensée chrétienne, la répartition du masculin et du féminin n’est pas nécessairement soumise aux caractéristiques que l’on assigne aujourd’hui à chaque sexe. En effet, l’appréhension morale du sujet infléchit la pensée du genre : le masculin et le féminin sont hiérarchisés d’un point de vue axiologique, ce qui est masculin étant considéré comme plus parfait que ce qui est féminin ; mais tout individu peut performer des qualités de genre diverses. En outre, des concepts comme l’engendrement ou l’allaitement, envisagés en termes spirituels, peuvent se déplacer entre le masculin et le féminin, mais aussi entre l’humanité et l’animalité ou le terrestre et le divin.
Ce colloque vise à faire dialoguer des recherches sur des champs de la médiévistique qui ne communiquent pas suffisamment. Les pistes et hypothèses présentées dans cet appel pourront être confrontées à l’étude de textes mystiques, hagiographiques, médicaux, judiciaires, littéraires… des mondes judaïques, chrétiens et islamiques. L’examen de formulations de la transidentité dans d’autres aires culturelles sera le bienvenu. Priorité sera donnée à des dossiers inédits ainsi qu’à des approches interdisciplinaires, croisant littérature médiévale, linguistique, philosophie, histoire et histoire de l’art. Il s’agira d’échanger, de partager et de discuter sur des questions du passé qui invitent à repenser les enjeux du présent.

 

Programme provisoire

 

Comité scientifique :


Pauline Boivineau (UCO Angers)
Didier Lett (Université de Paris)
Hyacinthe Ravet (Sorbonne Université)
Jean-Claude Schmitt (EHESS)
Anne Tomiche (Sorbonne Université)
Jean-René Valette (Sorbonne Université)
Maaike van der Lugt (Université Versailles-Saint-Quentin)
Sylvain Villaret (Le Mans Université)

Comité d’organisation :

Sophie Albert & Clovis Maillet
Lee Rozada (Museum d’histoire naturelle)
Hannah Johnson (Sorbonne Université)
Sarah Mariez (Sorbonne Université)
Sarah Waroquet (Sorbonne Université)

 

Mercredi 24 Novembre

 

Salle des Actes – Sorbonne, 1 rue Victor Cousin, Paris 5e

14h

Allocutions d’ouverture par Hyacinthe Ravet (Mission Egalité – lutte contre les discriminations de Sorbonne Université), Anne Tomiche et Frédéric Regard (groupe PHILOMEL de Sorbonne Université), Sylvain Villaret (Le Mans Université)

14h30

Introduction au colloque par Sophie Albert et Clovis Maillet

Conférence introductive de Maud-Yeuse Thomas (Observatoire des Transidentités), « Qu’est-ce qu’un corps ? »

Interlude

Lecture performance de textes produits par les participant·es de l’atelier d’écriture du 3 mars 2020 : « L’un·e et l’autre en soi·e », avec la participation des étudiant·es de l’ESAD Angers.

15h30


Session 1 – Le sujet en question

Blake Gutt (University of Michigan) et Alicia Spencer Hall (Institute of Advanced Studies), « Trans and genderqueer saints : holy subjects, medieval and modern »
Sarah Waroquet (Sorbonne Université), « L’orgasme comme expérience de transidentité dans Erec et Enide et Floire et Blanchefleur »

17h30-21h

Atelier d’écriture créative, animé par Sophie Albert, Maud-Yeuse Thomas, Clovis Maillet
Sur réservation

 

Jeudi 25 Novembre

 

Amphi Georges Molinié – Maison de la Recherche, 28 rue Serpente, Paris 6e

9h

Session 2 – Hagiographies byzantines

Georges Sideris (Sorbonne Université – INSPE), « La Vie de Matrôna de Pergé et le monde des eunuques à Byzance : pour une reconsidération épistémologique historique Queer »
Nathalie Delierneux (UMR Orient et Méditerranée), « Le travestissement féminin au Xe siècle, quelques remarques sur les réécritures de Syméon Metaphraste »

Héctor González Palacios (Université de Málaga/EHESS), « “Saintes travesties” byzantines et “vierges jurées” albanaises : une étude comparative sur les changements de genre au
Méditerranée Orientale »

11h

Pause

11h15

Session 3 – Voir et reconnaître 1

Robert Mills (University College London), « Recognising Wilgefortis »
Diane Château Alaberdina (Sorbonne Université), « La femme guerrière dans l’archéologie et l’iconographie Viking »

14h30

Interlude

Lecture performance de textes produits par les participant·es de l’atelier d’écriture du 3 mars 2020 : « L’un·e et l’autre en soi·e », avec la participation des étudiant·es de l’ESAD Angers.


15h

Session 4 – Genre et parenté


Yasmina Foehr-Janssens (Université de Genève), « Erémitisme et sainteté : un réservoir d’identités mouvantes dans les continuations du Roman des Sept Sages de Rome »
Virginie Picot (Université Littoral Côte d’Opale), « Le lys en virginité : la transfiguration de Galaad dans la Queste del Saint Graal (XIIIe siècle) »

Sophie Albert (Sorbonne Université), « Dire la parenté divine par les frontières du genre. Le Roman de saint Fanuel (fin du XIIIe siècle) »

17h

Pause

18h

Performance de l’atelier théâtre coordonné par Emanuele Arioli à partir des Miracles de Nostre Dame par personnages (XIVe siècle)

 

Vendredi 26 Novembre

 

Amphi Georges Molinié – Maison de la Recherche, 28 rue Serpente, Paris 6e

9h

Session 5 – Mondes islamisés

Anna Caiozzo (Université Bordeaux Montaigne), « Culture visuelle et indétermination du genre du XIIe au XVIe siècle dans les mondes islamisés d’Orient ».

Nina Soleymani (Université de Grenoble-Alpes), « Travestissement et représentation des transidentités dans l’épopée byzantine et persane : la Digénide et le Livre des Rois de Ferdowsi »

10h30

Pause

10h45

Interlude

Lecture performance de textes produits par les participant·es de l’atelier d’écriture du 3 mars 2020 : « L’un·e et l’autre en soi·e », avec la participation des étudiant·es de l’ESAD Angers.


Session 6 – Voir et reconnaître 2

Emanuele Arioli (Université de Valenciennes), « Transgenres par miracles : les Miracles de Nostre Dame par personnages du ms. BnF, fr. 819-820 (XIVe siècle) »
Jessy Simonini (Université de Nantes, Laboratoire L’Amo), « Venise, 1354 : le procès à Rolandin.e ou le récit d’un corps »

14h

Session 7 – Voix et voies poétiques

Frédérique Le Nan (Université d’Angers), « Voix singulières, voix plurielles et porosité
identitaire dans un fragment attribué à Na Tibors en Occitanie médiévale, XIIIe s. »
Hannah Johnson (Sorbonne Université), « Dieu est (dame) amor : la transidentité de Dieu dans la mystique de Hadewijch von Antwerp »

Fabienne Pomel (Université Rennes 2), « Les jeux et brouillages de genre dans les textes
allégoriques des XIIIe-XVe siècles »

 

LOVE AND EMOTIONS IN OLD NORSE LITERATURE : PATTERNS, FORMULAE, REALITY — CFP

Love and Emotions in Old Norse Literature

Patterns, Formulae, Reality  

2nd Symposium of the Project “Formulae in Icelandic Saga Literature”

Tartu, 28-29 January 2022

Call for papers: Cfp1_Love_and_Emotions_Tartu

Love and emotions did for a long time belong to the periphery of Old Norse scholarship. During the last decades this has changed. Since the 1990s several monographs and articles have been published within this field of research, concerning all Old Norse genres. Today, emotions, and particularly love, in Old Norse literature constitutes an active field of research. Old prejudices concerning dating, taste, and originality have been abandoned. New perspectives are used, and new conclusions have been reached.

The present symposium is devoted to the theme of love and the depiction of emotions in Old Norse literature in all its genres, the courtly translations as well as the native sagas and poems. Both the role and meaning of love and the description of it will be in focus. At the symposium, we will share our knowledge, present and discuss our ongoing research, test new perspectives, develop new methods, and make new contacts for future collaboration.

Keynote speakers:

Alison Finlay, University of London

Sif Ríkharðsdóttir, University of Iceland

Klaus Johan Myrvoll, University of Stavanger

Brynja Þorgeirsdóttir, University of Cambridge

All researchers (including PhD students) who are interested in presenting their ideas or research results connected to these or similar topics are encouraged submit proposals for 20-minute paper presentations (followed by 10 minutes of discussion). The venue of the symposium will be University of Tartu, Department of Scandinavian Studies.

Please send short abstracts by November 1st, 2021, to daniel.savborg@ut.ee. Further information about the symposium and its sub-topics can be found on the symposium website: https://www.maailmakeeled.ut.ee/en/departments/formulae-icelandic-saga-literature  

The organizers strongly believe in scholarly meetings in-person. Coffee breaks and free time at conferences usually offer the most important occasions for exchange of ideas, constructive debates, establishing of new contacts and planning of cooperation. We therefore plan to hold the symposium in-person. If, however, the corona situation makes it necessary, we will hold the symposium online.

You are of course welcome to forward this announcement to anyone whom you think might be interested.

Welcome to Tartu in January!

The Passions in the Platonic Tradition, Patristics and Late Antiquity – symposium

19-20 April 2021 [colloque virtuel]

PRESENTATION

The effects of the pandemic this past year have given rise to a plethora of emotions: fear, anxiety, frustration, despair, pain, surprise, sadness. What are we to make of these intense emotions? What do these emotions make of us as individuals and communities? How are we to deal with them moving forward? Do we ignore them, reject them, accept them, transform them? How do they affect religious life and the experience of God? This interdisciplinary virtual symposium aims to explore how the treatment of the passions in the Platonic Tradition, Patristics and Late Antiquity can help provide answers to these questions. The symposium is organized around the study of any emotion arising in the corresponding stages of the pandemic: (1) undergoing forceful SEPARATION at the outbreak of the pandemic, (2) experiencing LOSS during the pandemic and (3) embracing CHANGE as we reimagine a life after the pandemic. How do emotions in these stages affect corporeality, community, lived experience, identity and religious practice?

Registration: open to everyone; to register free of charge, please email the contact below.

Organizers: Pablo Irizar (School of Religious Studies, McGill University), Anthony Dupont (Faculty of Theology and Religious Studies, KU Leuven), Mateusz Stróżyński (Institute of Classical Philology, Adam Mickiewicz University)

Contact: Pablo Irizar (pablo.irizar@mcgill.ca, https://mcgill.academia.edu/PabloIrizar)

PROGRAM

Monday, 19 April 2021

Session 1: SEPARATION [7h45 – 16h00 (Eastern Time)]

7h45               Welcome

8h00                Opening Lecture

‘The Christianization of Emotions’

Piroska Nagy, Université du Québec à Montréal

9h00               ‘Grief and Loss in Confessiones IV’

Matthew W. Knotts, National Louis University

9h30                ‘Three Evagrian “thoughts” Related to our Feelings about COVID-19’

Marc Malevez, Université Libre de Bruxelles

10h00              ‘Surprise and Fear as Conditions of Psychic Change and Progress in Proclus’

Corentin Tresnie, KU Leuven and Université Libre de Bruxelles

10h30              ‘Individuality, Community, and Passions in the Philosophy of Plotinus’

Mateusz Stróżyński, Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznań

11h00              ‘Epidemics and the Game of Blame’

Rafał Toczko, Nicolaus Copernicus University

12h00             Break

13h00             ‘Separation, Loss, Confinement and Change in Evagrius’

Monica Tobon, University College of London

13h30             ‘The Passions in Saint John Cassian’s Monastic Writings’

Alexandru Ojica, Centre Orthodoxe d’Étude et de Recherche « Dumitru Stăniloae »

14h00              Passions of the Body and of the Soul

Panagiotis G. Pavlos, University of Oslo

14h30              Keynote Lecture

‘Separation and Suffering in Patristic Thought’

Susan Wessel, Catholic University of America

Tuesday, 20 April 2021

Session 2: LOSS [7h45 – 11h30 (Eastern Time)]

7h45               Welcome

8h00               ‘Claudian’s Gigantomachia: Coping with Reality’

Adrien Bresson, Université de Lyon

8h30               ‘Plutarch and his Daughter: Coping with Loss as a Platonist’

Konstantinos Gkaleas, University of Thessaly

9h00                ‘How to Cope with Loss: Plato’s Arguments on the Immortality of the Soul in the Everyday Life of the Late Neoplatonists’

Benedetto Neola, Sorbonne University and University of Salerno

9h30               ‘The Theurgic Gift of Wellbeing’ – Marios Koutsoukosm, University of Liverpool

10h00             ‘Christ’s Grief: the Therapy for timor mortis of St. Augustine’

Weicong Ruan, University of Tübingen

10h30              ‘Shall I show joy or sorrow? (Poem 31). Pain of loss – a study of Paulinus of Nola’s Works’

Marcin Wysocki, John Paul II Catholic University of Lublin, KUL, Poland

11h00              ‘Suffering Loss as a Divine Turn to the Heavenly Hope: Insights from Augustine’s City of God

Jimmy Chan, University of Toronto

11h30              ‘Bridging the Gulf of Suffering: Sacramental Vision in John Chrysostom’s Preaching on Job’

Douglas Finn, Saint Anselm College

12h00             Break

Session 3: CHANGE [13h00 – 17h00]

13h00             ‘Moments of (Potential) Transformation. Plato and the Pandemic’

Vasilis Politis, Trinity College Dublin

13h30             ‘Into the Desert: a Call to Spiritual Renewal with Anthony of the Desert’

Sydney Sadowski, Pontifical University of John Paul II in Kraków

14h00             ‘A Noble Compassion: ἔλεος in Plato’s Gorgias and Laws

Santiago Eslava Bejarano Universidad de los Andes

14h30              ‘Deadly Passions in the Life of Christians: Isidore of Pelusium and Theodore Stoudites’

Eirini Artemi, Hellenic Open University

15h00             ‘The Function of Pathos in the Central Myth of the Phaedrus’

Pedro Mauricio Garcia Dotto, New School for Social Research

15h30             ‘Hope in Sadness and Desolation in Augustine of Hippo’

Tamara Saeteros Pérez, Sergio Arboleda University

16h00             ‘Augustine on Hope in Times of Suffering’

Matthew Drever

16h30             Closing Lecture

‘Augustine’s Tears: a Plea for the Virtue of Honesty’

Anthony Dupont, KU Leuven

17h00             Concluding Remarks

 

PRESENTERS

Piroska Nagy (Université du Québec à Montréal), Mateusz Stróżyński (Adam Mickiewicz University), Susan Wessel (Catholic University of America), Anthony Dupont (KU Leuven), Adrien Bresson (Université de Lyon), Douglas Finn (Saint Anselm College), Matthew W. Knotts (National Louis University), Konstantinos Gkaleas (University of Thessaly), Benedetto Neola (Sorbonne Université and University of Salerno), Sydney Sadowski (Pontifical University of John Paul II in Kraków), Santiago Eslava Bejarano (Universidad de los Andes), Marc Malevez (Université Libre de Bruxelles), Corentin Tresnie (KU Leuven and Université Libre de Bruxelles), Rafał Toczko (Nicolaus Copernicus University), Alexandru Ojica (Centre Orthodoxe d’Étude et de Recherche « Dumitru Stăniloae »), Weicong Ruan (University of Tübingen), Vasilis Politis (Trinity College Dublin), Eirini Artemi (Hellenic Open University), Marios Koutsoukosm (University of Liverpool), Monica Tobon (UCL), Pedro Mauricio Garcia Dotto (New School of Social Research), Tamara Saeteros Pérez (Sergio Arboleda University), Marcin Wysocki (John Paul II Catholic University of Lublin), Jimmy Chan (University of Toronto), Matthew Drever (University of Tulsa), Panagiotis Pavlos (University of Oslo), Claudia Luchetti (University of Tübingen)

KEYNOTE LECTURE

Separation and Suffering in Patristic Thought [Keynote Lecture]

Susan Wessel, Catholic University of America

In English, ‘to be separate’ is to be moved apart and disconnected, while ‘to separate’ is to divide something into its distinct parts. Among the early Christians, such ideas are expressed in a variety of Greek and Latin words, and are called to mind through actions and imagery. The Gospels attest to the earliest disciples leaving behind family and community to take up the Cross and follow Jesus. In doing so, they become pilgrims, set apart from the world. And once set apart, they form a community, both separate and united.

Patristic theologians have elaborated upon such biblical ideals to make separation a multi-layered and transformational reality for Christians. To the extent that separation produces radical disenfranchisement, it is interwoven with a theology of suffering. Gregory Nazianzen illustrates this point nicely when he discusses the plight of the lepers. Denied entry into the churches, their intense physical suffering separates them from the community of Christians. Gregory shows how that suffering connects them to Christ on the Cross, binds them to each other, and reintegrates them into the body of Christ. Likewise, Augustine addressed the confusion and despair among pagans and Christians alike after the Goths sacked Rome in 410. He saw it as a problem of discernment that was rooted in separation. While pagans and Christians seemed to experience a similar kind of suffering, there was a difference in its magnitude and in the way in which it was perceived. Among the body of Christ, it was a confirmation of their indifference to the world, and of their rightful place apart from it. Finally, for Maximus the Confessor, human beings are in a perpetual state of separation and division until we are transformed in Christ, the unifier, in whom all was created and by whom all become one.

Susan Wessel is the James H. and Mary F. Moran Professor of the History of Early Christianity at the Catholic University of America in Washington, DC. An expert in Patristics and the early Christian world, she is the author, most recently, of Reading Augustine: On Compassion, Healing, Suffering and the Purpose of the Emotional Life (Reading Augustine, Bloomsbury Academic, 2020)* and Passion and Compassion in Early Christianity (Cambridge, 2016).

*Professor Wessel’s book will be available to purchase at special discount to Symposium presenters and participants, direct from the publisher.

PUBLICATION OF PROCEEDINGS

  1. Papers will be considered for publication in the topical issue entitled The Passions in the Platonic Tradition, Patristics and Late Antiquity in VOX PATRUM 81 – March 2022 [Editor: Marcin R. Wysocki (John Paul II Catholic University of Lublin), Guest Editor: Pablo Irizar (McGill University)].
  2. Submission deadline: 1 September 2021

[Submit through the website: voxpatrum.pl]

  1. Submission Guidelines and Typography
  2. About VOX PATRUM

VOX PATRUM is a patristic journal (quarterly), published since 1981, first by the Institute of Research on Christian Antiquity of the Catholic University of Lublin, then (since 1 October 2012) by the Institute of History of the Church and Patrology in John Paul II Catholic University of Lublin. “Vox Patrum” is the only kind of so spacious journal in Poland, focused on early Christianity, well-known in all patristic centres all over the world. The journal is valued not only for the published scientific articles, but as well because of the published bibliographies, translations, reviews, and documentation of the patristic life in Poland and all around the world. Rev. Prof. Stanisław Longosz was its founder and the first editor-in-chief.

ABSTRACTS

Claudian’s Gigantomachia: Coping with Reality

Adrien Bresson, Université de Lyon

When Claudian wrote his Gigantomachia, the 4th century AD was coming to an end in a politically troubled context, as can be seen through the various epics that the poet wrote to praise the emperor and his glorious general Stilicho. Yet, Claudian seems to be exceeding his place as a royal poet with the Gigantomachia, because if one considers his epic to be voluntarily uncompleted, then the poet expressed a rather pessimistic vision of the future. The status quo at the end of Claudian’s work, as Delph is about to succumb to the Giants, could indicate that despite the joint efforts of Stilicho and the Romans, the war between mighty powers may cause the fall of all. As such, it is not impossible that, through his Gigantomachia, Claudian might have chosen to express more personal views and to represent his own trouble in coping with reality through mythology, so as to partially veil his intentions. When Claudian oversteps his role as an official poet in order to transcribe the state of the Empire as he saw and understood it, he may well be aiming at mirroring the general atmosphere of the world he lived in, that is a decaying Empire. Indeed, the Roman empire, once great and united, was divided in two parts in 395 AD, causing a considerable change in the mindset of Roman citizens, all the more so as both the Occidental and the Oriental parts considered each other as their arch enemy. Furthermore, Roman could not find refuge in their religious belief as Christianism was becoming the official religion and as a consequence paganism was about to be forbidden, which is why Claudian took a stand in writing a mythological epic poem. Then, and in that respect, Claudian’s Gigantomachia could be studied as a work gathering the passions of the author in a fiction which would take on a cathartic value.

How to Cope with Loss: Plato’s Arguments on the Immortality of the Soul in the Everyday Life of the Late Neoplatonists

Benedetto Neola, Sorbonne Université and University of Salerno

«A boy, older than the philosophers, was born to Hermeias from Aedesia, and when he was seven months old Aedesia was playing with him as is natural, and softening her voice she would call him “babion” or even “little child”. On hearing this, he became angry and castigated these childish diminutives, pronouncing his criticism in a clear and articulate voice. He [scil. Damascius] relates many other extraordinary anecdotes about this child and says that since he could not endure bodily existence, he departed from life at the age of seven; for his soul could not be contained in this earthly region» (Damasc., Vit. Isid. fr. 57 apud Phot., Bibl. 242, 341b1-11; transl. Athanassiadi 1999).

Late antique Neoplatonists did not only further develop Plato’s arguments on the immortality of the soul from a theoretical point of view, but that they also relied on Plato’s tenets to cope with threatening emotions of the everyday life, notably the loss of the beloved ones. The premature death of Hermias of Alexandria and Aedesia’s son is a striking and moving example. Hermias, Syrianus’ pupil and co-disciple of Proclus, is the author of the only ancient commentary on Plato’s Phaedrus that has been handed down to us (c. 410-455 AD). Indeed, Damascius tells us (fr. 54) that, lying on his deathbed, Hermias assured his friend, Egypt, that the soul is immortal to soothe his friend’s deep sorrow and grief. Once again, the theoretical appropriation of Platonic stances turns out to be also a tool to cope with the loss. With my paper, I will then show, on the one hand, how Proclus and Hermias developed Plato’s arguments on the immortality of the soul and, on the other, that in their everyday life, too, and faced with loss they relied on them to soothe their pains.

Augustine’s Tears: a Plea for the Virtue of Honesty

Anthony Dupont, KU Leuven

How honest was Augustine? This is not an easy question to place over an author who could be such an incisive theoretician of human traits on the one hand, yet who on the other hand, was so very open, so very willingly confessional with regard to the complex plays of his own emotions, and the practice of his concrete life. In our paper, (1) we will first consider Augustine’s reflections about the opposite of honesty, namely lying. (2) Subsequently we will explore his Confessions to unravel his personal experience of honesty, (3) which will result, thirdly, in a reflection about the tears of Augustine.

 

Three Evagrian “Thoughts” Related to our Feelings about COVID-19. An Approach Based on Late Antiquity Egyptian Texts

Marc Malevez, Université Libre de Bruxelles

The current epidemiological crisis causes many feelings that come from the so-called “passions” by authors of late Christian antiquity, from what Evagrius calls the “bad thoughts” or the “spirits of malice”. This author is certainly the one who reflected the most on theses “vices” and their classification. We will therefore first quickly expose his system, comparing it to other visions of time. Then, we will focus on three of these “thoughts”, “sadness”, which is very much linked to “anger”, and followed, according to Evagrius, by the “acedia”, namely, the disgust of everything, the renunciation of his spiritual reasoning. These three “vices” are clearly found, among others, in our present suffering: isolation and illness that surrounds us leads us most often to be sad and, lacking solutions, to fall into anger which, in many cases, provoke despair, which leads us to give up the rules and the confinement, to allow ourselves to take unreasonable risks, simply to escape the reality of the situation. We will follow the main Evagrian classification by first evoking sadness, good or bad, then anger, also good or bad, then acedia which can only be bad, bringing the monk back to the world and the starting point of his reasoning. We will obviously rely on Evagrius but also above all on the apothegms, in order to approach as much as possible the real thought of the anchoretic monks. We will also use the text of the Life of Onnophrius/Mission of Paphnutius, at the base of our doctoral thesis. We will discuss the causes, but also the consequences and, finally, the remedies that were then considered against these disorders.

 

Individuality, Community, and Passions in the Philosophy of Plotinus

Mateusz Stróżyński, Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznań

Too much emphasis has been put in the last century on the famous last sentence of Plotinus’ Enneads: “escape of the alone to the Alone”, which was generally misunderstood as expressing a very individualistic or narcissistic type of spirituality and ethics. Porphyry’s Vita Plotini gives us a completely different picture of Plotinus, a very sociable and generous man, taking care of orphans, associating himself with the aristocratic elite of Rome, even to the point of trying to get the permission of the emperor Gallienus to found a city ruled according to Plato’s Laws. This puzzling contradiction is not puzzling at all, if we look closely at what Plotinus means by being alone (monos or mone) and at his conception of passions, the body, and the fall of the soul. In the paper, I will present briefly Plotinus’ view that passions do not in fact link us to other people, but separate us from them, while the purification of our affective life and attaining the state of aloneness, deepens our relationships with others.

 

Plutarch and his Daughter: Coping with Loss as a Platonist

Konstantinos Gkaleas, University of Thessaly

During one of his journeys, an unfortunate event came upon the Platonist philosopher, Plutarch. Receiving the news at Tanagra, it is being said, his granddaughter informed him of his daughter’s loss. In order to console his wife, Plutarch then proceeds to write her a letter. The specific text known as Παραμυθητικὸς πρὸς τὴν ἐαυτοῦ γυναίκα, literally in English Consolation to his wife, constitutes a consolation in epistolary form, where the philosopher clearly acknowledges the gravity of the misfortune, since he was not born “from oak or rock” (608C), yet he urges his wife to cope with this loss in a philosophical, measured way that, according to the philosopher, is most suitable to her simple and cultivated personality. Plutarch begins his argumentative effort underlining the importance of moderation for not only “in Bacchic riot” must the virtuous woman remain uncorrupted; but she must hold that the tempest and tumult of her emotion in grief requires continence no less, a continence that does not resist maternal affection, as the multitude believe, but the licentiousness of the mind (609A-B). Plutarch presents a plethora of arguments drew from the Ἀκαδημία and the platonic corpus along with other philosophical sources, showing his syncretic spirit. One could say wisely that he chooses not to neglect the religious tradition, all the while aiming to comfort not only logically, but also emotionally his wife, since it is rather in our ancestral and ancient usages and laws that the truth of these matters is to be seen(612 A). Thus, the text radiates a universal message that remains completely relevant and applicable to our era, helping us to deal with an immense stressful impact of the allpervading fear of loss in the midst of a pandemic.

 

Surprise and Fear as Conditions of Psychic Change and Progress in Proclus

Corentin Tresnie, KU Leuven and Université Libre de Bruxelles

In his Commentaries, Proclus (Neoplatonic philosopher, 5th century A.D.) describes the ways in which a teacher can awake the desire for knowledge and philosophy in a given soul, and help this soul to make cognitive and moral progress. He considers such an intervention to be a case of providence, analogous to both the action of divine Pronoia and the care of one’s personal daemon. As the soul to be thus educated is still unaware of the merits of rational thought, the teacher needs to use the emotions of his student to stimulate him; he might even want to generate desirable emotions in his soul. In this paper, I will focus on two interrelated emotions: surprise and fear. According to Proclus, they are the natural state of the soul of any young person. For lack of enough experience, we tend to be overly impressed by any external stimulus, which hinders us to properly articulate rational thoughts. A long process of preliminary education (paideia) of the irrational soul is thus necessary as a preparation for rational thinking. But even when it comes to the education of the rational soul, they are instrumental to generate astonishment, which is the starting point of philosophical discovery, but also one of the preconditions for being able to learn at all and for entering a state of sumpatheia with the good order or things. Moreover, surprise is necessary to compensate for some side effects of pride, another affective state very important for the learning process. Fear, on the other hand, is to be understood as awe rather than anxiety, as it is meant to induce one’s soul to accept the daemonic care of the teacher. To summarize, I claim that in Proclus’ theory, fear and surprise are both the initial irrational state to be overcome, and a mean for inducing someone to think rationally and to turn towards the divine Good.

 

 

Into the Desert – a Call to Spiritual Renewal With Anthony of the Desert 

Sydney Sadowski, Pontifical University of John Paul II in Kraków

Separation is often the cause of anxiety and fear, especially when forced upon us as at the beginning of the pandemic. Loss and uncertainty of how to manage our day-to-day existence can quickly arise leading toward despair. During these times we can look to the Desert Fathers, especially to Anthony of the Desert, for guidance on how to manage the passions and learn to embrace our forced hermitage as well as find ways of connection in seeking a path toward a spirit of renewal. The Christian way of life has always called for detachment from the world, to be in the world but not of the world. Embracing a new religious praxis founded on the principals of the Desert Fathers can lead individuals to a deeper and fundamentally stronger faith and sense of well-being as well as establishing a foundational shift in the individual to answer the Church’s call toward mission, for when an overwhelming spiritual rejuvenation occurs in individuals, as is seen with Anthony, others are drawn up, strengthened and called to join on this new path to freedom. This paper will show how identifying spiritual attacks by the enemy and learning to live in a modern way by the disciplines outlined by Anthony, we will find that faith in God through simple ascetic disciplines will lead to a good life no matter what our present circumstances. 

 

The Passions in Saint John Cassian’s Monastic Writings

Alexandru Ojica, University of Bucharest

The goal of this paper is to present how can the monastic writings of Saint John Cassian (The Institutes and The Conferences) be full of relevance for humankind in the Covid-19 pandemic context? Which is the link between the spiritual diseases and boy diseases? Can we apply the teachings of Saint John Cassian? The phenomenon of monasticism in the first Christian centuries, especially in the fourth century, in Egypt, offers us an exemplary model of life in the context of the Covid-19 pandemic. We live in a consumer society, whose pillars of support are supply and demand and whose main rule is competition. The ideal of the monastic community is to live in God. Monks are called to live alone, not necessarily in the solitude of the desert, away from people, but alone in the middle of one community. In this order, we find Saint John Cassian talking of the Desert Fathers as angels in the flesh so as to assert very robustly the possibility of attaining this lofty state. Saint John Cassian says that “we must always keep in mind the origin of our thoughts and carefully consider all the thoughts that arise in our hearts”. He is a spiritual therapist with a spiritual objective: “We should then be able to expel this most injurious passion from our hearts, so that by spiritual meditation we may keep our mind constantly occupied with hope of the future and contemplation of the promised blessedness”. The diseases of the soul are the same for both layman and monks. The medication is obviously the same. Saint John Cassian finds a connection between the origins of the spiritual diseases and body diseases, generally called passions.

 

Bridging the Gulf of Suffering: Sacramental Vision in John Chrysostom’s Preaching on Job

Douglas Finn, Saint Anselm College

For the advertised conference, I propose to draw upon the late antique bishop John Chrysostom’s preaching on Job’s disease for insight into how Christians today might seek to overcome one of the most devastating aspects of the coronavirus pandemic: separation and isolation. The scholar Antigone Samellas has studied Greco-Roman views on the isolating aspects of pain—particularly public pain—and how early Christian preachers sought to overcome that isolation by turning Christians into co-sufferers in the ecclesial body of Christ. Drawing upon the work of Samellas, as well as Blake Leyerle, Jan Stenger, and Susan Holman, among others, I would like to investigate how, through his rhetoric, John Chrysostom turns both the liturgy and, within that context, Job’s diseased body, into a spectacle. John compels his hearers to see what they would often rather push away, and, in the process, he hopes to enable them to see differently. He attempts to lead his hearers to a new kind of vision—a sacramental mode of seeing—which helps them reorder their priorities and detach themselves from worldly values and things. In so doing, Chrysostom strives to cultivate in his congregants a bond of love and sympathy for the poor and diseased, a form of spiritual and material attachment intended to overcome the social isolation that often accompanied disease, e.g., leprosy, in the ancient world. I will conclude by reflecting on some of the lessons we might be able to draw from Chrysostom regarding preaching, the recognition of others in spiritual, emotional, and physical distress, and the building of spiritual and affective community even when, on account of the pandemic, we must remain physically distant from one another.

 

Grief and Loss in Confessiones IV

Matthew W. Knotts, National Louis University

This contribution focuses on grief (dolor) in Augustine’s account of the death of his friend in the Confessiones (4.4.8–4.7.12), with particular attention to the stage of Loss. I concentrate especially on the implications of Augustine’s grief for lived experience and religious practise. I argue that Augustine’s reflections can inform our own response to grief during the pandemic. Augustine is struck with grief at the death of his friend, and his entire experience is transfigured, becoming a living torment (4.4.9). Now everything reminds him of his loss, intensifying his pain. How often have the sights of empty streets only irritated our own feeling of grief? Moreover, Augustine finds no refuge, for he carries his grief with(in) himself (4.7.12; cf. Coyne 2015). Our own experience of confinement, especially for those completely alone, is reflected in Augustine’s own struggle to be with himself. Augustine locates the source of his misery in loving finite things as if they were infinite. Thus not only does their loss cause one grief, but even the fear of their potential loss (4.6.11). The suddenness with which the world changed little more than a year ago serves as a stark reminder of the finite and contingent nature of human existence. Augustine’s reflections may also teach us something about religious practise. O’Donnell (1992) describes Augustine’s haunting psychological account of grief as ‘God-less’. Because he held a false conception of God (phantasma), not even prayer could provide Augustine with any relief. However, this traumatic loss serves to move Augustine to look for God, and so becomes a kind of contact with God, albeit oblique (Fischer 2013). To what extent is God ‘present’ in absence? Can God be found even in the most apparently negative experiences of life?

 

A Noble Compassion: ἔλεος in Gorgias and Laws

Santiago Eslava-Bejarano, Universidad de los Andes

The testimonies and images of healthcare workers and Covid-19 patients worldwide have reminded us of our shared vulnerability. In addition to the expectable fear that these images elicit, there is another significant emotion that arises in many of us: compassion towards those who face the virus or have lost loved ones during the pandemic. Compassion also occupied a prominent place in Greek philosophy, and both Plato and Aristotle commented on this emotion, albeit in apparently contrasting ways — Plato’s stated disregard for compassion (in Apology and Republic) standing at odds with Aristotle’s appraisal of it as a legitimate and even desirable response (in Poetics and Rhetoric). Given the scope and extent of compassion’s role in Greek thought, however, one may revisit and reassess this commonplace opposition, and especially its guiding premise, namely that Plato did away with this emotion entirely. I argue against this assumption, proposing instead that Plato conceived a form of compassion that would constitute an appropriate answer to a specific kind of misfortune. Indeed, in Gorgias and Laws, there is a kind of pity that is positive and can even serve reason (just as anger —θυμός— can be an ally of reason in R. 440b). In this presentation, I will show how this pity does not contradict the critiques that Plato outlines in other dialogues insofar as they are directed to the common Greek notion of pity, which is different from the emotion presented by Socrates and the Athenian in Gorgias and Laws. This comparative study will elucidate how Plato reinterpreted the common notion of pity in order to accommodate it to his own views about justice and virtue.

 

Moments of (Potential) Transformation. Plato and the Pandemic

Vasilis Politis Trinity College Dublin

It is a common view that Plato propounds a rationalist ethics, with reason as the single authority. But this view is one-sided. It is hard to reconcile with the role that Plato affords love (erōs) when he has Diotima conclude that it is through this passion, which springs from the contemplation of beauty, that we are able to give birth to genuine virtue (Symposium, 211d–212a); and with Socrates’ statement (in the Phaedrus) that “the greatest of goods”, of which erōs is foremost, “come to us due to madness, provided that it is given as a divine gift” (244a). It is also difficult to reconcile with the way in which, in the Cave story, Plato characterizes a moment in us of liberation and reorientation: not as part of rational enquiry but rather as something that triggers and enables such enquiry at its best (Republic 515c). What triggers such moments of (potential) transformation? And what forms can they take? I want to take up these questions, by bringing a Platonic perspective in touch with our current situation of the pandemic and our reactions to it. I suggest that our situation presents us with an opportunity of certain recognitions; which include: that we can do without much of the overly active character of the world as we know (or knew) it; and without some of the overly regulated character of such a world. However, it is doubtful whether such recognitions are available if we confine ourselves to predominantly analytical and scientific responses. Rather, a mentality is called for that is (also) passionate. Plato’s favourite passion is love, understood as the openness to the beauty of things and the potential this has for bringing us together in shared creative activity. This may be a good model for such recognitions in our present situation.

 

Christ’s Grief: the Therapy for timor mortis of St. Augustine

Weicong Ruan, University of Tübingen

Against the historical background of the sack of Rome in 410 A.D., Augustine of Hippo paid more attention than ever to the teaching of death in his eschatological salvation. His explanation of timor mortis (the fear of death) directly responded to the inner anxiety and restlessness of the Romans. For Augustine, timor mortis, on the one hand, as the natural passion (first-order passion), is inevitable in this life and unable to be rid of by oneself. It exposes the affiliation to this life and points forwards the death of the body. On the other hand, although the despair derived from this very fear (second-order passion) is more terrible for pointing towards the death of the soul (second death), it is still possible for one to relieve it when death is approaching. Christians could console themselves by learning from Christ’s grief, which thereby indirectly heals and overcomes timor mortis. To make it clear, I will first combine the passages on death from the City of God and some anti-Donatistic sermons to clarify why Augustine regards timor mortis as a natural (in a sense even justified) passion of humans. Second, according to the two-order structure consisting of passion and the passion generated by the former, I will elaborate on the diagnosis of timor mortis, an illness of human nature, given by Augustine in the City of God and other relevant works. Finally, by analyzing the Tractatus LX on the Gospel of St. John and other sermons regarding the martyrs, I will investigate what kind of therapy Augustine gives for timor mortis and how it exactly works in the human soul with the aid of Christ’s grief in Scripture. It will be manifest that, unlike the “cold” philosophy in late antiquity, the Christian theology of Augustine presented a kind of pastoral care in the way of faith, hope, and love.

 

Deadly passions in the life of Christians: A comparative study according to Isidore of Pelusium and Theodore Stoudites

Eirini Artemi, Hellenic Open University and Hebrew University of Jerusalem

Adam and Eve served their passion of gastrimargy and their ambition to become gods without the grace of God. The result was their exile from Paradise and death. The incarnation of Logos, His crucifixion, His death on the cross and His resurrection gave a second chance of man’s salvation. Unfortunately, people don’t put into practice this gift of their reconciliation to God. In this paper, we will compare the opinion of two important Church Fathers, Isidore of Pelusium and Theodore Stoudite . It is important to underline for what kind of passions these Church Fathers speak. Do they relate the passions only with monks or general with Christians? How can we get rid of a passion? Can their teaching be put into practice in nowadays? Which is the worst passion according to them? Are diseases and pandemic a punishment of God for our sins? Of course we should explain that the passions in the life of a Christian can be proved deadly but they have no connection with the view that diseases are punishments from God for our passions. This was an opinion which exists in the Ole Testament. Through the texts of these two fathers we will present the results of the passions in the life of the Christian and in the life of priests and monks. Is it easy someone to get rid of the passions? What is the method that he should follow?

 

Epidemics and the Game of Blame. A Comparative Study

Rafał Toczko, Nicolaus Copernicus University

From Homer, through Sophocles and Thucidydes to Ammianus Marcellinus all the ancient authors reflecting on the sudden outbreak of some life-threatening disease imprint in the mind of the readers a similar impression: there is always someone to blame for the epidemic. And people do not hesitate to ascribe the guilt to a certain groups or individuals, mostly foreigners, cultural or religious minorities. All this was driven by a widespread, yet somewhat atavistic, belief that some form of impurity invites the Gods to punish the humankind with an ultimate form of it: the rotting and disintegration of the bodies. In a striking opposition to this, early Christian moralists (of which I choose to focus on Cyprian and Augustine) contextualise pestilence and disease as just a radical sign of conditio humana, a rather normal event on our pilgrimage through saeculum. It is quite astonishing to learn how, nowadays, some Christians throughout the world picked-up this pagan game of blame to emotionally cope with the outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic. In my paper I discuss some of the most vivid examples of this sort of reaction.

 

The Theurgic Gift of Wellbeing

Marios Koutsoukosm, University of Liverpool

This presentation intends to explore a Middle Platonic method for attaining happiness (εὐδαιμονία) through the practice of theurgy. Drawing on Iamblichus’ On The Mysteries and, more specifically, from the tenth and final chapter of the work, which addresses this particular subject, I will examine individual religiosity in late antique Middle Platonism as a tool for achieving self-actualisation through methexis with the divine first principle. It will be argued that it is through detachment from the world of generation, wherein all thing perishable and prone to dissolution reside, that the individual can attain a sustainable form of happiness, especially in challenging periods. At the same time, it is important that this process is not merely a noetic exercise or a deliberate flight of fancy. Since we are referring to a theurgic practice, it is important to keep in mind that one of the main components of theurgy was material and firmly grounded upon the realm of the tangible. Within this context, the individual’s private religious practice plays a key-role in the attainment of happiness and lived religion becomes an active process of engagement in safeguarding one’s mental and spiritual well-being. I would argue that presently, in a time of crisis which we are seemingly powerless to fight against, with the world undergoing radical changes for us all and threatening to overwhelm our established emotional balance, there is much to be gained by exploring this proactive approach to individual happiness that Iamblichus proposed more than sixteen centuries ago.

 

Separation, Loss, Confinement and Change in Evagrius

Monica Tobon, University College of London

For Evagrius, separation and loss are the preconditions of the change whereby the nous is freed from the pathe it acquired in falling. Our true nature is a nous united to God in love and true knowledge of reality, but when the nous fell it fragmented into a soul, its body became mortal, and knowledge was detached from love. Although Evagrius never makes the connection, we recall the plight of the sea God Glaucus (Republic 611d-612a). While some Evagrian pathe coincide with states we would call emotions, a pathos is not an emotion but, echoing the Stoics, the affective aspect of a false evaluation; for Evagrius, of de facto idolatry. Characterised by excess, it is sustained by assent to such evaluations and enslaves the nous to the pursuit of false goods. Because pathos is so deeply rooted in us, to become free of it the monk must first embrace radical separation and loss, just as an addict who wishes to become free of addiction might start a new life elsewhere. Then, sustained by ascetic disciplines and virtues, they undergo a protracted struggle to reduce its hold on them. Apatheia frees the soul from attachment to false goods; harmonises its three powers by reorienting them to the true good, thereby beginning the reunification of the nous; and establishes love as the soul’s stable disposition, meaning that love becomes the foundation of knowledge and true knowledge of reality is re-enabled. Evagrius shows us how to cope with separation and loss, and resulting trauma, by endowing them with meaning as the start of a journey into a more authentic way of living, by mapping that journey, by describing the various forms the pathe can take, by prescribing remedies for them, by recognising the need to include the body in such remedies, and by describing how to recognise progress. In doing all this he also shows us that others have, in his words, embarked upon the same path.

 

The Function of Pathos in the Central Myth of the Phaedrus

Pedro Mauricio Garcia Dotto, New School for Social Research

There are several ways by which one may define what is distinctive about philosophy for Plato. Most of the definitions are concerned with demonstrating who the philosopher is by what the philosopher does, that is, the activities that are proper to him: “to philosophize is to learn how to die” (Ph. 67e); “philosophy is an acquisition of knowledge” (Euth. 288d); “love of learning is the same thing as philosophy” (376b); those who philosophize make use of the dialectical art (Soph. 253e). In this paper, nonetheless, by closely following the central myth in the Phaedrus I will analyze the distinctiveness of the philosophers in relation to his fundamental experiences, instead of his peculiar activities. The palinode in the Phaedrus reports that the perception of intense visual beauty in this world can trigger in the philosopher a recollection of the form of the Beauty first gazed in the mythical-cyclical procession with the gods in the prenatal state (250a-b); that the experience (τὸ πάθος) of love is essential to the philosophical life (252c); and that it is the shame that the charioteer feels in approaching the beloved what allows for their relationship to be sublimated into a higher and purer form (254d-e). In all of these instances, pathos has precedence praxis, so that what one undergoes comes before what one undertakes. In other words, the right form of pathos is necessary for one to turn into a philosopher. Against this backdrop, I believe that in the current struggle against the pandemics, and in an effort to prevent future disasters of this kinds, perhaps we would need not just to take vigorous actions (praxis), but also to allow ourselves to be receptive in the right way to the magnitude of ongoing misery in order to assume a responsibility that is suitable to our collective experience (pathos).

 

Hope in Sadness and Desolation in Augustine of Hippo

Tamara Saeteros Pérez, Universidad Sergio Arboleda

During 2020, we have experienced a big deal as humanity with the COVID-19 pandemic, and we have felt many emotions, passions, and contradictory wishes in this time. For a moment, it seemed like everything was lost. With this context in mind, I would like to analyze three emotions as Augustine explains them in his work in order to illuminate our path: hope, sadness and desolation. I would like to begin with the example of Proba. Proba is a widow who writes Augustine with the question of how to pray. Augustine explains her that prayer is necessary as we are always in this world in a desolation condition and as pilgrims to the eternal life. During the pandemics, we have learnt there is no way to live safely due to the continuous dangers and risks that we are exposed to as humanity. Beside this, we have lost friends, relatives, but also energy, enthusiasm, and joy. We can find this in Augustine’s life, his resilience based in hope, and the enjoyment of friendship can help us to face this adversity. Because of this, desolation and sadness are not “a small illness for the soul”. In letter 244, Augustine explains that sadness is produced when we lost some goods that have a special place in our hearts or maybe some cared people for us. However, if we realize the most important thing is not losing the Great Good, in whom we recuperate all the other things; we will be able to take care of our friends and ourselves, and we will rejoice again with Christian hope in mind and heart.

 

Shall I show joy or sorrow? (Poem 31). Pain of loss – a study of Paulinus of Nola’s Works

Marcin Wysocki, John Paul II Catholic University of Lublin, KUL, Poland

“Shall I show joy or sorrow?” (Poem 31). Pain of loss – a study of Paulinus of Nola’s works 2. Abstract: Without a doubt, one of the most interesting, but also not known very well, personalities of the turn of the 4th and 5th centuries was Paulinus of Nola. Born into a wealthy senatorial family, appointed governor of Campania, he abandoned his wealth and political career, was baptized and settled in a monastery he founded at the tomb of St. Felix in Nola near Naples where he lived till his death as a bishop of Nola. The period he was living in and his life gave him many occasions to feel the pain after the loss of his dear ones – first his brother, then his only child, or share such a pain with others, after the death of their relatives, friends, and believers during the invasion of the barbarian hordes. As a well-known and appreciated spiritual director Paulinus, mostly in his letters, gave an answer to the pain of those who lost their children, partners, and friends. The aim of the proposed paper is to show on the example of his life and his preserved poems and letters, which are among the most interesting examples of early Christian epistolography and poetry, what kind of advices he gave to the people who felt the pain of loss, how he understood this pain and loss itself and what he advised them to deal with this pain moving forward in their lives, what can be helpful in dealing with it in and after pandemic time.

 

To Fear, or Not to Fear. Platonic Variations on Phobos

Claudia Luchetti, University of Tübingen

In my contribution, I intend to discuss two different ways in which Plato, in the Phaedo, describes the feeling of fear. My analysis starts from the conception of virtue accompanied by intelligence (arete meta phroneseos), in which Plato describes, by contrast, cases of apparent virtue. Contradictory situations such as that of being “tempering by intemperance”, controlling pleasures that we do not fear to lose, being dominated by superior pleasures that we fear to lose. There is therefore a fear (and an absence of fear) which is unjustified, that is, not based on a knowledge of the truth. The second kind of fear is that of the true philosopher and follows him wherever he goes like his own shadow: it is the awareness of his own ignorance, authentic driving power of philosophical research. What is the relevance of these platonic reflections to the situation in which we citizens of the world are all involved at the moment with the pandemic? In my speech I will try to show that the first type of fear described by Plato enters in our lives when we behave only apparently virtuously by following the rules, not because we believe they are right, but for fear of losing things that we consider goods. The second type of fear, by giving us the opportunity to seriously question both the foundations of our social life and our existence as species of our planet, presents us as a more unique than rare opportunity, which we should try to exploit.

 

Passions of the Body and of the Soul: Coronavirus Pandemic in a Fallen World

Panagiotis G. Pavlos, University of Oslo

Rarely in the modern era has humanity experienced such a great amount of fear, anxiety, uncertainty, and loss of hope due to a threat to human health, as in the current state of coronavirus pandemic. What seems to be a powerful constituent of the present global health crisis is not the severity of a virus alone, but rather its appearance on a global scale -what precisely makes it a ‘pandemic’- and the specific emotions that this threat generates, and which -to a large degree- define the mode of response to it in a globalizing world. Yet, how much justifiable are the emotions that such an apparent state of emergency causes into human beings? How much real is the threat? And, even, how much real are these very emotions? To what extend do they associate with the very phenomenon of the pandemic rather than with a sequence of secondary consequences that derive from it? This paper wishes to offer relevant reflections by discussing insights to the passions of the human compound (body and soul). I shall argue, inter alia, that the fear caused by a pandemic is a fully irrational one, mainly due to the fundamental ignorance about the cosmos being an entity and a living whole, a rather old idea, stemming from Plato’s Timaeus and preserved throughout in the Christian philosophical tradition. Moreover, that the state of health of the body is a state of reduced and partial health, due to the body’s corruptibility caused by the Fall. In such a view, what the real problem is, is death itself and not the way it comes. This presentation shall mainly draw from the brief work On the Soul and the Resurrection, of Gregory of Nyssa, with references, whenever necessary, to the Ascetic works of Abba Isaak the Syrian.

 

Augustine on Hope in a Time of Suffering

Matthew Drever, University of Tulsa

Augustine’s era was no stranger to widespread suffering and social dislocation. As a bishop and public intellectual, Augustine confronted myriad problems on both practical and theoretical levels. Today, his writings still have much to contribute to how we face the current pandemic and the suffering it has wrought. Interestingly, Chan Hellman, a researcher at the University of Oklahoma with joint appointments in Social Work and the Medical School, has developed a body of research that argues that for those who face trauma and deep suffering hope is a lead indicating factor for recovery. This has led Hellman to found the Hope Institute, which offers social services, especially to poor and adversely affected communities, that promote the development of practices that cultivate and train individuals in hope.

I would like to consider what Augustine might offer us on the topic of hope, which I admit may not be the most obvious resource. Known as the Doctor of grace, Augustine is not often associated with hope. Indeed, of the three theological virtues—faith, hope, and love—Augustine’s views on faith and love are develop more explicitly in his works, in part through his views on grace, while hope receives the least amount of press both within his own writings and within secondary scholarship. Augustine’s Ench., a late work on the virtues of faith, hope, and love typifies this point. The text is oddly weighted with only 3 paragraphs (out of 121) devoted to hope. Does this leave the Doctor of grace in a hopeless place? Sensing the mixed bag Augustine seems to present, contemporary scholarship can be skeptical and dismissive of Augustine on the topic of hope. Often the criticism goes something like this: Augustine’s scattered references to hope throughout his corpus reduce to an avoidance strategy of enduring suffering and repressing emotions in the hope of future reward, coalescing into an otherworldly prescriptive approach to human suffering.

While Augustine may not give us a systematic account of hope, he has much to say on the topic within his wider writings—especially his Letters and Sermons—that he intended to help those suffering within his own time, even as they can offer us guidance today. Augustine develops nuanced stances on hope, using it to bridge the historical and eschatological without a reduction to either. Augustine draws on hope to maintain a tension between temporal and eternal life, between the present reality of suffering and the future hope of happiness. We can see here a close connection between hope and its compatriots of faith and love, a connection Augustine utilizes to explore how hope epistemically and affectively transforms the moral and spiritual principles that guide our actions in the world. Reading Augustine’s views on hope as superficially otherworldly, mistakenly reduces the historical-eschatological tension in such way that the hope of eternal life completely eclipses and neglects the reality of temporal sufferings. This misses the way Augustine treats hope as a bridge to the promise of eschatological happiness in a transformative manner to realign and reevaluate both spiritual practice and civic (public) virtue without reducing either to a purely otherworldly end.

 

Suffering Loss as a Divine Turn to the Heavenly Hope: Insights from Augustine’s City of God

Jimmy Chan, University of Toronto

The pandemic that has lasted over a year brings all kinds of loss, or sense of loss, to the world, including the loss of lives, the loss of financial status and more subtly, the loss of freedom and self-worth. And suffering these losses brings negative passions such as grief, sadness and despair. Augustine faced similar situation when he composed the City of God, where he had to deal with the aftermath of the sack of Rome in 410. Augustine’s discussion on the passions in his magnum opus et arduum is arguably the most extended one in late Antiquity. In those days, the Stoic theory of emotions were still very much in the air; nowadays there is a surge of resorting to a Stoic way of dealing with losses by freeing oneself of bad emotions. Exploring Augustine’s ambivalent reception of the Stoic theory of the passions would give us insights of coping with losses that would not just heal people from the negative emotional traps but also turn them into the heavenly hope in Christ. On one hand, Augustine acknowledges the fourfold Stoic categorization of emotions —delight (laetitia), distress (aegritudo), desire (libido, cupiditas or appetitus), fear (primarily, metus or timor). On the other hand, he rejects the Stoic appreciation of apatheia, and yet approves of their idea of eupatheia. And those who suffers loss could turn around and receive divine hope by focusing not on oneself but on the passions of God and share his misericordia with this suffering world. Hence, while true happiness cannot be attained in this troubled world, such as one going through the pandemic, Augustine re-baptizes the Stoic theory of the passions and asserts that right-ordered passions that resembles that of God are indispensable for one to live with temporal peace and to seek eternal happiness.