Sessions
Leuven 2016
Call for Papers
In the context of the 2016 Annual Meeting of EABS in Leuven, a workshop will be organized on Biblical Scholarship in the Early Modern Era. The 500th anniversary of Erasmus' Novum Instrumentum is an excellent occasion to reflect upon the heritage of early modern biblical scholarship in the wake of Erasmus. Papers are welcomed, dealing with following topics:
- An overview of a particular group of biblical-humanists, Catholic or Protestant Bible scholars, as well as a discussion of their most important achievements and characteristics of their work.
- A presentation of the hermeneutical principles a specific biblical scholar or group of early modern scholars followed in their work (e.g. on the basis of an analysis of programmatic passages in their commentaries).
- The textual-critical principles and procedures that guided biblical scholars while establishing the correct reading of the biblical text (e.g. on the basis of the analysis of a concrete biblical passage that was disputed from the perspective of textual criticism, and may even have had repercussions on the doctrinal debates that raged in that time).
- The way grace, free will and predestination, as well as other disputed issues such as Eucharistic sacrifice or issues regarding ecclesiology, were dealt with in their commentaries on key Bible pericopes.
- The main authorities the Bible commentators invoked to corroborate their point: Augustine and other patristic authors, Thomas Aquinas and the medieval masters, as well as early modern commentators.
- Through a comparative approach, insight into the theological tenor of a commentary will be refined, viz. through a comparison between commentaries on the same pericope stemming from confessional adversaries, and/or predecessors and colleagues belonging to rival theological currents or schools within the same confession.
- Papers may also pay attention to how the often complex theological debates found their way into the postils and sermon books issuing from the commentators’ hands and thus may have been communicated from the pulpit to the faithful.