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Internationale Tagung

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"Unterstützung bei herrscherlichem Entscheiden: Experten und ihr Wissen in transkultureller und komparativer Perspektive" - "Supporting sovereign decision-making: Experts and theirknowledge in a transcultural and comparative perspective"

Tagung: 16. bis 18. Mai 2018

Zentrales Anliegen der Tagung ist es zu untersuchen, welche Ressourcen vormoderneHerrscher in ihr Entscheidungshandeln miteinbeziehen konnten oder zur Verfügung hatten. Sokonnten Berater und Experten mit ihrem Wissen beim Finden von Entscheidungenunterstützend wirken. Sie nahmen an Beratungen teil, konnten Lösungswege aufzeigen undEntscheidungen beeinflussen. Dabei gründeten sie ihre Expertise auf unterschiedlichenRessourcen von Wissen, die exakten Wissenschaften (Astronomie, Astrologie sowieBeobachtungen von Naturerscheinungen) spielten dabei eine wesentliche Rolle. Sowohlnormative als auch narrative Quellen nehmen mannigfaltig darauf Bezug.

Aim of this conference is to investigate which resources were available to premodern rulers intheir decision-making duties. Through their knowledge, advisors and experts could assist thesovereign in taking decisions. Therefore, they took part in councils and thus were able toindicate solutions to problems and influence decisions. In so doing, they based their expertiseon various re- sources of knowledge, amongst which the exact sciences (astronomy, astrology,as well as observations on natural phenomena like thunders and earthquakes) played anessential role. Normative and narrative sources refer to those sciences in many ways.

Das Programm finden Sie hier (PDF).

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LEHRVERANSTALTUNGEN IM SOMMERSEMESTER 2018

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Alle Lehrveranstaltungen des Instituts für das Sommersemester 2018 mit ausführlichen Kommentaren finden sie PDF Datei (hier).
(letzte Änderung: 19.02.2018) 

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VORTRAG DR. NEKTARIOS ZARRAS

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DR. NEKTARIOS ZARRAS (University of Aegean / University of Münster)
"... for our salvation on the moment of Judjement": Revealing the Patronage behind dedicatory inscriptions and donor portraits in Byzantine Macedonia
Forschungskolloquium 400-1500. Mittelalter

Mittwoch 18. April 2018, 18-20 Uhr
Raum JO 101, Johannisstr. 4 (48143, Münster)

Patronage and its manifestations in Byzantium have steadily attracted scholarly research in recent years, as study of these offers a different and fascinating approach to the interpretation of Byzantine culture, through a combination of the personal views and the individualized needs, as well as of the ideological conventions of Byzantine society. Aim of the project is the systematic recording and study of the written and the visual sources of the Middle and Late Byzantine period in Byzantine Macedonia, which offer data on the founding of religious and secular buildings and the donating of objects, such as icons, metalwork and textiles, by men and women. Specifically, the project places emphasis on the prosopography of the founders or refounders and donors, and the connection between identity and patronage. The material will be studied through the comparative presentation and processing of the foundations and donations made by males and females considering issues such as social conceptions and state ideology. Specifically, the buildings and the moveable objects will be examined not only from the perspective of archaeology and art history, but also from that of other disciplines, such as social anthropology, as well as of political and ecclesiastical ideology.

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VORTRAG PROF. DR. PAUL MAGDALINO

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PROF. DR. PAUL MAGDALINO (St. Andrews / UK)
Prophecy, Divination and the Church in Byzantium
Forschungskolloquium 400-1500. Mittelalter

Mittwoch 29. November 2017, 18-20 Uhr
Raum F 3, Fürstenberghaus (Domplatz 20-22, 48143 Münster)

The starting-point for this presentation is St John Chrysostom’s definition of prophecy in the introduction to his commentary on Jeremiah. The definition was obviously considered normative in Byzantium, because it was reproduced almost word for word by two ‘encyclopaedic’ works of the 9th and 10th centuries. The binary opposition that Chrysostom formulated between “spiritual prophecy” and “diabolical prophecy” represented the official attitude of the Byzantine church. It was applied by ecumenical councils and local synods, and it systematically developed by the 12th-century canonists, above all Theodore Balsamon, into an absolute condemnation of all sorts of divination. But in reality things were rather more ambivalent reality. On the one hand, divination often took on a Christian appearance through the use of sacred language and symbols, the participation of monks and clergy, a tendency to syncretism among Byzantine intellectuals, and a long tradition of Christianising the practice of astrology on the basis of Genesis 1, 14. On the other hand, the existence charismatic, spiritual prophecy in contemporary society was not recognised outside the closed, circular discourse of hagiography, which insisted that every prophet had to be a saint and every correct prophecy was a proof o sanctity. Other sources present predictions by self-styled holy men in neutral or hostile terms. Neither Chrysostom nor Balsamon presents any contemporary example of divine prophecy. For Chrysostom, the model of legitimate prophecy lay in the past and in the Old Testament, and true prophecy was a threat of divine punishment that could be averted by repentance. For Balsamon, the prophecy of ascetic monks was indistinguishable from the divination of soothsayers and ‘wise old women’. Byzantine literature has left us two vivid portraits of ambivalent prophets who were consulted by the authorities: the visionary Dosithea described by Michael Psellos in his indictment of the patriarch Michael Keroularios, and ‘Father Basilakios’ at Raidestos as described by Niketas Choniates in his account of the downfall of Isaac II (1195).

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Internationale Tagung

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"Figurationen von Macht im byzantinischen Mittelalter"

Anlässlich des 50. Todestages von Joachim Scharf und 50 Jahre Byzantinistik in Münster fand vom 14.01. bis 16.01.2015 im Liudgerhaus Münster eine internationale Fachtagung statt.
weitere Informationen zur Veranstaltung (PDF)

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Institutsbibliothek

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