AV����Ƶ

Bourses Regard 2021-2022

Lorenzo Comensoli Antonini, post-doctorant (Scuola Normale Superiore di Pisa, Classe di Lettere e Filosofia).
Sujet de recherche:��L'historiographie performative de Pierre Matthieu.
Date du séjour: du 24 janvier au 4 février 2022.

Mon séjour à l’IHR a été très fécond pour mes recherches, qui concernent l’oeuvre de l’historiographe Pierre Matthieu et le contexte de la fin des guerres de Religion et du procès de pacification henricienne. Il m’a permis notamment de consulter la bibliographie en français qu’il est difficile de repérer dans les bibliothèques italiennes. Par ailleurs, j’ai profité de mes journées à Genève pour rédiger l’article introductif du numéro spécial de la revue Renaissance & Réforme qui rassemble les contributions de la journée d’étude organisée à l’IHR en novembre 2021. La parution de ce numéro spécial est prévue au cours de l'année 2023 et s’intitulera Les communautés protestantes face aux pouvoirs politiques (XVI^e-XVII^e ����è������). Enfin, les discussions avec l’équipe de l’IHR ont été très utiles pour élargir les horizons de mes futurs projets.

��

Nathan Wallace, doctorant (AV����Ƶ of Oxford).
Sujet de recherche:“Dissenting Theodicy: An Engagement with Charles Taylor’s A Secular Age, with special reference to the ministries of John Calvin (1509–1564), Richard Baxter (1615–1691), and Jonathan Edwards (1703–1758).”
Date du séjour: du 10 septembre au 8 octobre 2021.

The opportunity to spend a month at the ���Ծ������������é de Genève exploring the collection of Reformation-era works in the IHR’s archives greatly enriched my research, and I appreciated the warm welcome from the scholarly community in Geneva. My doctoral dissertation is an ecclesiastical-historical analysis and critique of Charles Taylor’s interpretation of the Reformed tradition in A Secular Age (2007). By foregrounding aspects of Taylor’s intellectual biography that are often marginalized in the reception of his later work — such as his youthful political activity in Britain and Canada, his study of existential phenomenology with Maurice Merleau-Ponty in Paris, and the influence of G.W.F. Hegel’s philosophy on his social theory — I have sought to examine the various influences converging on his assessment of the Reformation as an 'engine of disenchantment'. At the IHR, I concentrated my research on Taylor’s phenomenology of Calvin’s liturgical reforms, and how he considers Reformed theology to have 'disenchanted' the Lord’s Supper. Indeed, Taylor suggests that in Calvin’s theology of this sacrament, ‘the sacred/profane distinction breaks down’. The initial focus for my archival project was to test Taylor’s reading with evidence from Calvin’s Communion preaching and the exercise of ecclesiastical discipline surrounding the Supper. It was excellent to have the volumes of the Calvini Opera and the Supplementa Calviniana readily available in the IHR alongside relevant secondary literature and other sources (online access to the CO via Archive Ouvert UNIGE has proved invaluable for my subsequent research). Working through this material, I sought to develop the evidential groundwork for a historical case study that gives a more authentic account of Calvin’s theology of the Supper, and sixteenth-century Genevan liturgical experience, in specific contrast with aspects of Taylor’s representation of Reformed worship. I enjoyed the opportunity to visit Les Archives d’Etat de Genève and consult the Registres du Consistoire, while working in the evenings to situate Taylor’s narrative of secularization in historiographical context. It was a privilege to spend time as a research fellow affiliated with the ���Ծ������������é de Genève, and I wish to express my sincere thanks to the IHR for hosting me and supporting my research.