PROGRAMME AND ABSTRACTS - Università degli Studi di Messina

dell’Europa Centrale. Ad esempio la pratica di celebrare le nozze il giovedi’. Se e’ noto che
l’Europa si e’ caratterizzata come centro di “diffusione” del cristianesimo nelle Americhe, sia
nella versione anglosassone protestante, sia in quella cattolica latina, meno studiato e’ il pur
significativo apporto dei movimenti anabattisti di origine germanica o centroeuropea. Oltre agli
Amish, nel Nuovo Mondo hanno infatti trovato una terra d’elezione gruppi religiosi come i
Mennoniti, i Brethrens e gli Hutteriti. Ma se talune di queste comunita’ appaiono
completamente inserite nel contesto d’immigrazione, per gli aderenti ai gruppi del Vecchio
Ordine le radici europee rappresentano un patrimonio imprescindibile. Talvolta
ingenerosamente stigmazzitati come “tedeschi” gli Amish del Vecchio Ordine non rivendicano
alcuna specifica appartenza “terrena”. Religiosamente, ritengono infatti il “Cielo” l’unica loro
Patria.
Wed 16 th , 18.20, Classroom 14
Philippe Bornet, University of Lausanne, Switzerland
"Nature" and "Religion" in the European Construction of India (18-19 th centuries)
The paper intends to show how the idea of ‘nature’ had a crucial importance in the
qualification and understanding of India and Indian ‘religions’ among missionaries and
scholars, between the 18th and 19th centuries. Two examples will be briefly examined and
contrasted: the French Jesuit Gaston-Laurent Coeurdoux (1694-1778) and William Ward
(1769-1823), a Baptist missionary in Bengal (Serampore). We shall first examine Coeurdoux’s
Moeurs et coutumes des Indiens (1777). Indian religion, we are told, is typically a religion of
nature, based on the worship of the elements of earth, water and fire. If those practices are
clearly identified as idolatry, Coeurdoux expresses a theory according to which they were once
only allegories. We shall then focus on the figure of Ward and his A view of the History,
Literature, and Religion of the Hindoos (1817). In this work, Ward asserts that the ‘primary
elements were the first objects of worship among this people’. He then proceeds to describe
gods and rites in relation to those natural elements. In conclusion, we shall ask to what extent
the respective political, religious and philosophical framework of our two authors explains
their divergence of views.
Sergio Botta, University of Roma “La Sapienza”, Italy
Raffaele Pettazzoni and the Challenge of Native American Religions
Olga Breskaya, University of Brest, France
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Tue 15 th , 9.00, Classroom 13
Tue 15 th , 11.00, Classroom 8
Christian Tradition and Contemporary Practice in Eastern Orthodoxy - How Human Values
talk about Religion
Every religion forms the certain type of a personality, its social and individual features. These
personality features are closely connected with religious dogmatic, statements of religious
anthropology and social doctrines, and also with the character of institutional religious action
in public life.The Christian tradition of anthropological thought since the researches of