PROGRAMME AND ABSTRACTS - Università degli Studi di Messina

studies according to our history and then , we can make a study about brazilian religion based
on fundamentals surveys of studies.
Douglas J. Davies, University of Durham, UK
James, John and Hebrews in the Book of Mormon
73
Wed 16 th , 17.40, Classroom 4
This paper will explore aspects of the presence of texts originating within John’s Gospel, The
Epistle to the Hebrews, and the Epistle of James within the Book of Mormon. The focus of the
paper will consider the influence of the textual material upon significant theological structures
within Latter-day Saint thought. Particular attention will be paid to Johannine texts in relation
to the development of Mormon Trinitarian thought and aspects of Mormon piety; to Hebrews
and the role of Melchizedek in the formation of the LDS priesthoods, to the theme of
repentance and to blood sacrifice within Mormon spirituality; and to the distinctive use of
James in Joseph Smith’s early religious quest. The paper will conclude with a consideration of
the dependence of Mormonism upon non-Mormon Christianity at the textual level and will
raise the question of whether Mormonism in the future will, in more general terms, be as
dependent upon non-Mormon Christianity as it has in the past.
Darwin and Evolutionary Theory in the British Study of Religion
Tue 15 th , 10.20, Classroom 9
This paper will be in three sections. First, a very brief outline of the influence of Darwin’s
work on biological evolution upon the great development of the study of religion in later
nineteenth century Great Britain, considering E.B.Tylor, William Robertson Smith, and Sir
James Frazer. Second, a more detailed description of the influence of evolutionary thought
upon the work of Frank Byron Jevons whose extensive studies on religion and evolution were
influential over the turn of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Third, a final brief note of
recent developments in British anthropology relating to theories of religion to ask whether they
show continuity or discontinuity with the aims of the nineteenth century early anthropologists
and historians of religion.
Jakob De Roover, University of Ghent, Belgium
‘Religion’ and the European Conception of Human Nature
Wed 16 th , 10.00, Classroom 13
From early modern times, the concept of religion has played a central role in European debates
on human nature. Starting with theological claims about the presence of an innate awareness of
God in the human soul, such debates continue today with speculations about the biological and
cognitive origins of religion. My paper will analyze a decisive moment in the formation of the
European conception of human nature: the discovery of nations and ‘tribes’ without religion.
During the sixteenth and seventeenth century, many travelers and missionaries reported to the
European reader that they had found such people without religion in the Americas, Asia and
Africa. The question as to how human societies could lack religion captured the public