Imagining the Last Things: Eschatology and Apocalypticism, 1500-Present


A 2-day conference to be held at the British School at Rome, 25-26 October 2018.
Via Antonio Gramsci, 61, 00197 Roma RM, Italy

Organizers: Lloyd Strickland and Andrew Crome

We are now pleased to announce the programme for the conference:


Wednesday 24 October (evening talk - all welcome)

Sainsbury Lecture Theatre, British School at Rome, via Antonio Gramsci 61, at 18.00
  1. Lloyd Strickland (Manchester Metropolitan): Heavenly Creatures? Visions of Animal Afterlife in Early Modern Europe


Thursday 25 October: Apocalypse
  1. 10.00: Welcome and Introduction
  2. 10.15: Audrey Borowski (Oxford): The strange indetermination of Cousin de Grainville's 'Last Man'
  3. 11.15: Coffee break
  4. 11.30: Valeria Kosyakova (Moscow): From the image of the Apocalypse to the apocalyptic actions: eschatological thinking of pre-Modern Russia
  5. 12.30: Eva Charlotte Mebius (UCL): Unending Apocalypse: A Victorian Sense of an Ending
  6. 13.30: Lunch
  7. 14.30: Petr Pavlas (Institute of Philosophy of the Czech Academy of Sciences): The Search for the Last Language: Jan Amos Comenius's Linguistic Eschatology
  8. 15.30: Anna Szyrwińska (Vechta): Between Apocalypticism and Open Theism. The Eschatology of German Pietism in context of the double truth theory
  9. 16.30: Coffee break
  10. 16.45: Andrew Crome (Manchester Metropolitan): Nations at the End of the World: Christian Zionism and Apocalyptic National Identity
  11. 17.45: Close / Drinks reception


Friday 26 October: Eschatology
  1. 10.00: Welcome and Introduction
  2. 10.15: Daniela Cavallaro (Auckland): Go, and sin no more: theatrical representations of the afterworld as moral teaching
  3. 11.15: Coffee break
  4. 11.30: Chris Date (Fuller): An Unquenchable Doctrine: The Tenacity of Conditional Immortality in Recent History
  5. 12.30: Ariel Hessayon (Goldsmiths): That 'most wicked opinion and false' 'Hell-hatcht' doctrine: universal salvation in England, c.1640-c.1715
  6. 13.30: Lunch
  7. 14.30: Fellipe do Vale (Southern Methodist University): Cappadocian or Augustinian? Adjudicating recent debates on gender in the resurrection
  8. 15.30: Kristof K.P. Vanhoutte (Rome/South Africa): Knock Knock, Who's There? On Various Forms of Attempted Interference between the Here and the After
  9. 16.30: Coffee break
  10. 16.45: Steven Umbrello (Ontario): Technological Eschatology: How Technological Determinism has Secularized Eschatology
  11. 17.45: Close / Drinks reception


The conference is open to all and free to attend. For planning purposes, we would be grateful if those planning to attend would please register in advance.


The original call for papers:

Debate about the "last things" has engaged philosophers and theologians for thousands of years. Whether discussions of the process of death and entry into the afterlife, or speculation on apocalypse and millennial renewal, eschatology has played an important role in the development of Western thought, theology, and literature. This interdisciplinary conference aims to examine the nature of these debates from the early modern period up to the present day. In particular, it aims to explore the historical, philosophical and cultural development of eschatological thinking in the western imaginary. Proposals are invited for 45-minute papers on one of four broad themes: "Apocalypse," "Resurrection," "Purgatory," and "Heaven and Hell."

Abstracts for papers falling under any of the above themes, broadly construed, are welcomed. Abstracts should be no more than 500 words in length (those that exceed the word limit will not be considered) and prepared for blind review. Abstracts in Microsoft Word or PDF format should be emailed to both Lloyd Strickland and Andrew Crome by midnight on 18 February 2018. In the body of your email, please indicate clearly which of the four themes your paper relates to and include your name, affiliation, and contact details. Decisions on submissions will be relayed no later than 18 March 2018. Please note that the language of the conference is English.

Following the conference, the organizers aim to compile and publish a peer-reviewed volume consisting of high-quality contributions developed from the papers delivered at the conference. Those submitting abstracts should indicate whether they wish their final paper to be considered for this volume or not.

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