The Modern Calvin

John Calvin in Nineteenth- and Twentieth-
Century Collective Memory

ReLiC – Centre for Dutch Religious History at the VU University in Amsterdam (www.relic-vu.nl) invites contributions to a volume examining how John Calvin (1509-1564) served as an icon, saint, (anti)hero and role model in nineteenth and twentieth-century collective memory. The volume will be published by Brill Academic Publishers (www.brill.nl) in their Religious History and Culture Series.

Much research has been devoted to “Calvin and Calvinism” in various national contexts as well as to the reformer’s influence on scholasticism, Protestant Orthodoxy and various individual theologians. There is, however, a surprising lack of studies investigating Calvin’s place in the collective memories of modern religious groups and denominations.

This volume seeks to explain how and why, in the period from about 1800 onwards, representations of John Calvin were created to serve religious, social, political and ethnic purposes, both in and outside “Calvinist” contexts. In particular, the volume will investigate how Calvin was interpreted, appropriated, domesticated and contextualized in response to such modern phenomena as a “feminization of religion” (Hugh McLeod), an “internalization of moral sources” (Charles Taylor) and a drifting apart of “experience” and “expectation” (Reinhart Koselleck) in the Western world.

Topics include, but are not limited to:

* the nationalistic appropriation of Calvin in, e.g., Scotland and Hungary;
* the use of Calvin in missionary (colonial) contexts;
* the invocation of Calvin in Apartheid South-Africa;
* the musealization of Calvin in Noyon, Geneva and Strasbourg;
* representations of Calvin in nineteenth-century history textbooks;
* the function of Calvin commemorations in religious identity politics;
* the public role of Catholic and/or Lutheran images of Calvin;
* Calvin’s role as patron saint of nineteenth-century civil society organizations;
* the status of Calvin in Dutch and/or American Neo-Calvinism;
* literary representations of Calvin in nineteenth-century novels.

Please note that the volume will not address Calvinism, Calvin’s theology or theological Calvin studies: it will focus on Calvin’s role in nineteenth- and twentieth-century collective memories.

The volume will be edited by Dr. Johan de Niet (Amsterdam), Dr. Herman Paul (Groningen/Princeton) and Drs. Bart Wallet (Amsterdam). Please submit 300-word abstracts to Dr. Herman Paul at hermanpaul[at]gmail[dot]com by October 1, 2006. Acceptance will be notified by November 1, 2006. Deadline for full-length articles: September 1, 2007. Informal inquiries are welcome.