Bringing together specialists in history, religion, language, and literature, this seminar explores on a global scale the phenomena of religious persecution and religious pluralism from 1500 to 1800. The conflicts between Protestants and Catholics and the missionary encounter with non-Christians and non-theists provoked a rich literature of ideas about religious accommodation, integration, pluralism, and syncretism at the same time as nation states and religious orders attempted to enforce orthodoxy and to convert heretics and heathens. These conflicts drew urgent attention not only to the ethical question of freedom of conscience but also to the presumed but contested relationship of religion and morality. Can ethics survive and thrive without religion?

Eric MacPhail; French and Italian, College of Arts and Sciences, IUB, macphai@indiana.edu

Daniella Kostroun, History, School of Liberal Arts, IUPUI, dkostrou@iupui.edu

Events:

Heresy and Humanity: Erasmian Retrievals and Overtures

Terence J. Martin; Professor Emeritus of Saint Mary's College

Friday January 31st 3:00 -5:00 PM

IU Bloomington Campus, Global and International Studies Building, Room 3170

The Conversion of Marie Tranchepain: Protestant Merchants and Catholic de'votes in the 17th-century French Atlantic

Professor Daniella Kostroun; Associate Professor of History, IUPUI

Friday November 22nd 3:00 - 5:00 PM

IUPUI Campus, Cavanaugh Hall, Room 438

Religious Toleration versus the Emergence of Religious Liberty and Separation of Church and State in Early 16th-Century Anabaptist Thought

Professor J. Michael Raley; Hanover College

Friday September 27th 3:00 PM

IU Campus, Global and International Studies Building, Room 3170