PROGRAMME AND ABSTRACTS - Università degli Studi di Messina

Veikko Anttonen, University of Turku, Finland
Theorizing the Sacred as a Category Boundary
Having been discontent with the notion of hierophany proposed by Mircea Eliade more than
half-century ago (see Eliade 1959) as a concept for pointing out places and situations in which
‘the sacred’ manifested I have aimed at identifying generative mechanisms that become
operative in and have an effect on the cognitive organization of perceptions, emotions and
bodily behavior. Sharing a similar theoretical objective, Thomas A. Tweed has recently
introduced the notion of sacroscapes as a scholarly concept for making sense of religion and
distinguishing it from other cultural forms (Tweed 2006: 61). According to Tweed, invitation
to look at religions as sacroscapes involves ways of seeing and distinguishing “movements
and flows” which have left traces and transformed peoples and places, social arenas and natural
terrains (Tweed 2006: 62). In my paper in the panel I shall take a closer look at the role played
by terms denoting ‘sacred’ in various languages in the European cultural and religious history.
I shall argue that semantic contents of terms denoting ‘sacred’ in vernacular of various
languages constitute the so-called primary religious data (cf. Idinopulos and Yonan 1996),
which – if properly theorized – provides access to insights into constraints that underlie the
formation of religious ideas and behavior in general and historically and geographically
contingent religious representations in particular.
Rosalba Arcuri, University of Messina, Italy
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Wed 16 th , 15.20, Classroom 5
Vescovi e barbari dinanzi alla crisi dell’impero: Orienzio e la Gallia del V secolo
The identification between Roman ecumene and Corpus Christianorum, in a providential
vision of the same empire, became problematic owing to the crisis crossed by the imperial
institution in the early decades of fifth century, together with the great barbaric migrations that
concerned the Occident. A new history’s theology becomes popular in the Christian thought. It
integrates the new gentes among the transient human realities. A transience that Roma, once
believed aeterna, is not able to escape. As the other Gallic writers in these years, Orientius
turns himself to the spiritual life. He is conscious to live in a new age, the age of a necessary
integration with the new ethnicities appeared on the stage of European history. The diplomatic
mission to the Romans in favour of Toulousian Visigoths, related by Vita Orientii in the Acta
Sanctorum, reveals the basic part of the bishops in the defence of their city, but also their
awareness about the need to establish a less polemic dialogue among cultures.
Marlis Arnhold, Max Weber Center, Germany
Wed 16 th , 9.20, Classroom 6
The Community as an Option for Religious Experience in Sanctuaries of Roman -Imperial Italy
The segmentation of society in Roman Imperial Italy is a process that already started during the
Hellenistic Period, and which received further input with the transformations from Republican
to Imperial Roma. Religion, that is to say, believes, rituals and myth, plays a major role in this
process, as it serves as a legitimizing cover, helps to create various forms of identity, and still
remains a way to gain and show prestige. My contribution to this conference panel aims to deal
with different examples of communities, such as the family, clubs, and devotees of certain
cults/rituals (e.g. the Taurobolium, Christian cults etc.). Furthermore light is shed on small