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Changing faiths in early modern Europe

Posted on 28 September 2010

Two University of York scholars are to lead a major investigation into the religious upheavals in 16th and 17th century Europe.

Humanities researchers Dr Simon Ditchfield and Dr Helen Smith have received an Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC) award of more than £450,000 to examine the nature of conversion and people’s individual accounts of their changing beliefs.

Postdoctoral researchers, Dr Peter Mazur and Dr Abigail Shinn, will travel to France, Belgium, Italy, Spain and Portugal to trace stories of converts, missionaries, and travellers. Two international conferences in June 2011 and July 2012 will place the work in a global context, and the Conversion Narratives in Early Modern Europe project will also generate an important series of publications.

Between 1550 and 1700, the Protestant and Catholic Reformations, pressure from the Ottoman Empire, and the expansion of global trade, meant an unprecedented number of people across the world were confronted by new beliefs.

Dr Ditchfield, of the University’s Department of History, said: “Some people changed faith voluntarily, while others were forced to do so. For others still, conversion meant not a change but an intensification of religious belief which changed their sense of identity.

“A better understanding of the part religion played in early modern cultures, will help us gain fresh perspectives on topical issues such as the way interfaith communities work together, and the importance of religious toleration in a multicultural society.”

“Our project will explore a huge range of printed and manuscript accounts, as well as paintings, statues, and other materials, by and about individuals who converted from and to Judaism, Islam, Christianity, and other faiths. Our aim is to explore how these people -- from slaves to merchants and ambassadors -- made stories from their experience of conversion.”

Dr Ditchfield is an expert on the history of religion -- he is currently writing a book which surveys the making of Roman Catholicism as a world religion (1500-1700). Dr Smith’s focus is on how books were reproduced and moved between people and across political and geographical boundaries.

Dr Smith, of the University’s Department of English and Related Literature, said: “It is important for us to understand just how important religious belief was to people’s sense of self in the early modern period. Stories of conversion feature in many literary works: Shakespeare’s Othello is a converted Christian; Christopher Marlowe explored the tensions between different faiths; John Donne was a convert and frequently returned to themes of religious belief and personal identity.

“A better understanding of the part religion played in early modern cultures, will help us gain fresh perspectives on topical issues such as the way interfaith communities work together, and the importance of religious toleration in a multicultural society.”

The research team, part of the Centre for Renaissance and Early Modern Studies, will be based at the University’s Humanities Research Centre in the spectacular new £11m Berrick Saul Building.

Director of the Humanities Research Centre, Professor Jane Moody, said: “Conversion Narratives is a project which will transform our understanding of religious beliefs in and beyond Europe, both in the past and in the present. This is urgent and exciting research and we are thrilled that the AHRC is funding it.”

An interactive ‘Conversion Narratives’ website will give access to a variety of rare archival materials and researchers will blog about their experiences. They will also create teaching materials and visit local schools. The project’s climax will be an exhibition exploring the pressures of religious change in a period when individual consciences were exposed to public scrutiny as never before.

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