The Department of History, the Department of Medieval Studies, and the Center for Religious Studies invite you to a lecture by
Philippe Buc (University of Vienna)
Medieval Eschatology and Modern American Apocalypticism
Thursday, March 5, 2015
5:30 pm
CEU Auditorium
Abstract: Surprising lectures given in 2003 by a high-ranking American officer open up a window on current notions of History entertained by important segments of the United States population, and on its similarities with medieval conceptions of the same. In particular, this lecture will address notions of election and the co-inherence of material and spiritual warfare.
Philippe Buc was trained in History both in the United States (BA Swarthmore, MA Berkeley) and in France (Maîtrise Paris I - Sorbonne, Doctorat EHESS). After 20 years at Stanford University (USA), he returned to Europe in 2011 to a Universität-Professur at the University of Vienna (Austria). His specialties include politics and exegesis, illustrated by his first book, L´ambiguïté du Livre. Prince, pouvoir et peuple dans les commentaires de la Bible (Paris: 1994), on models of power produced by Northern French exegesis between ca. 1100 and ca. 1350; History and Anthropology, discussed in The Dangers of Ritual. Between Early Medieval Texts and Social-Scientific Theory (Princeton: 2001); religion and violence, with Holy War, Martyrdom and Terror: Christianity, Violence, and the West (Philadelphia: 2015). A preview translated in Hungarian just came out in Világtörténet (2014).