Since Autumn 2013 the FOVOG Graduate Programme for the Interreligious Comparison of Monastic Cultures has been examining religious communities in an interreligious perspective, bringing a range of disciplines together into a single research unit. This event will be our second international open conference, following our event on ‘Between Community and Seclusion’ in late 2015.
Asceticism has been chosen as a theme for this conference. In the last decades, asceticism has become an increasingly prominent focus in religious studies, history, and social theory.
This conference will develop the existing research, through a focus on religious communities from varied traditions. Our aim will be expanding each research field through open discussion around the shared thematic point of ascetic practices. Our hope is to demonstrate both the variations and commonalities which exist in ascetic practices, and to fruitfully exchange analysis through disciplinary dialogue between specialists of respective religious cultures.
Programme:
Thursday, 12th January 2017
16:30 Klaus-Dieter Mathes/Gert Melville: Conference Opening / Eröffnung der Tagung
17:00 Peter Dinzelbacher (Vienna/Salzburg): Opening Lecture: Der Höhepunkt asketischer Frömmigkeit im Katholizismus: Der spätmittelalterliche Dolorismus
19:00 Dinner
Friday, 13th January 2017
1st session, Chair: Gert Melville (Dresden)
9:00 Karl Baier (Vienna): Askese aus der Sicht vergleichend-systematischer Religionswissenschaft
09:30 Katrin Rösler (Dresden): Ambiguous Ambitions. Challenges of Asceticism in Medieval Monastic Communities
10:00 Discussion
10:30 Coffee break
2nd session, Chair: Claudia Rapp (Vienna)
11:00 Richard Valantasis (Santa Fe): Regulae: Theorizing the Interplay of Individual and Corporate Asceticism in Monastic Rules
11:30 Jules Gleeson (Dresden/Vienna): Moderating Asceticism at Mount Athos
12:00 Discussion
12:30 Lunch break
3rd session, Chair: Karin Preisendanz (Vienna)
14:30 Federico Squarcini (Venice): What it is like to be a tapasvin. Controversies, hypocrisy, ambiguity and the ‘crazy’ lives of ‘Greater Maghadian’ ascetics
15:00 Edgar Leitan (Dresden/Vienna): Ascetic Discourses as Markers of Normative Identity: Case of Forest Hermits and Renouncers
15:30 Discussion
16:00 Coffee break
4th session, Chair: Klaus-Dieter Mathes (Vienna)
16:30 Jim Rheingans (Bonn): The Meaning and Use of the Terms 'Renunciation/Letting Go' (nges 'byung) and 'Reverting Attachment' (zhen log) in Selected Tibetan Mahāmudrā Instructions
17:00 Gabriele Coura (Dresden/Vienna): Asceticism for Beginners: The Preliminary Practices (sngon 'gro) in the Tibetan Karma bKa' brgyud Tradition
17:30 Discussion
19:00 Dinner