In early modern Europe, religious affiliation was often communicated through specific gestures and special items of clothing. One can find numerous examples in which religious boundaries and attributions were defined via the description of body practices. We only have to consider the polemical attacks against suspected sexual practices, the discussions about the practice of self-mortification, the flogging of religious dissidents, or, more specifically, the debates about Quakers, who only took off their hats for religious services and not for social superiors. The importance of body practices in Christian Europe can be traced back to the significance of ritual gestures in the liturgical context, to the tradition of imitating the tortured body of Christ, to the discourses of purity, and to the societal norms that regulated sexual practices. Physicians and theologians fought for sovereignty over the interpretation of bodily phenomena. At the same time, we encounter bodies in Policey-regulations: in the early modern social order one’s social status was supposed to be clearly identifiable to outside observers.
Despite many attempts to define specific practices, they remained extremely fluid and lent themselves to individual appropriation. They evaded the control of church and state authorities. Dissimulations could rely on the adaptation of body practices. Concurrently, bodily symptoms could be interpreted as the expression of a tangible experience of God. It seems important to examine external perception, connections to rituals and ways of self-fashioning. Bodies manifestly prompted debate. Therefore, they provide a good starting point for calling into question the thesis of clear denominational divisions in early modern Europe and thus for exploring smaller and more radical divergent groups. The focus on bodies (and on conflicts over body practices) allows us to leave behind the established tracks of national and denominational historiographies and to analyze the often-ambiguous phenomena that can be found beyond confessional boundaries. In this way, we can take a deeper look at the variety of religious living conditions, of different socio-cultural groups, and spiritual networks of early modern Europe.
Bodies provide a concrete target: they can be veiled, bared, negated, and vilified. At the same time, they can also provide self-assertion and can be worshiped. How were bodies or body parts staged during conflicts, how were they used, and how were they tortured? How were they cared for, (re) interpreted, and memorized? What happened to dead bodies? What role did the category of gender play? Is the thesis of a ‘crisis of corporeality’ tenable?
During the two-day workshop, we will inquire into the physical signs of religious dissent and analyze the language and symbolism of the body on the basis of various case studies.

The languages of the conference will be German and English.

Public event. Registration recommended to xenia.vontippelskirch@hu-berlin.de