87367 - Entangled History and Religions (1) (LM)

Learning outcomes

By the end of the course students will have acquired a thorough knowledge of the methods and historiography necessary for the study of religions in interconnected contexts. They will be able to analyze different source material in order to understand and describe how religions create their worldviews and interact with the broader cultural, economic and material context.

Course contents

Religious diversity and Urbanity. An Historical Journey

The aim of this class is to investigate the relationship between religion and urban life, focusing on the theme of religious diversity, as it might have been organised and performed in different urban contexts. A historical journey through different cities will offer a number of different urban examples of how religion contributed to forge the built environment, how religious interactions and encounters were established and negotiated, and ultimately how religious conflict might determine the future of cities.

Week 1: Introduction to key terms: Religion & Urbanity. Theoretical approaches: the School of Chicago and the German School. The study of religion in contemporary society.

Week 2: Funding urban mythology. Ancient urban models. The rise of Christianity and Islam and their relationship to cities. Religious texts and cityscapes

Week 3: What is diversity? How to conceptualize religious diversity in the city: urban models, rituals, and practices. Visibility and invisibility of religious groups

Week 4: Religious diversity, the age of exploration and the rise of early global capitalism (1450-1750). Migrating goods, people, objects.

Week 5: Religious diversity, migration, violence & memory. Urban religion between nationalism and empires. Religion and the industrial city. Current questions

Classes will be held from 10 February to the end of March 2020

MONDAY, TUESDAY, WESNESDAY H 15-17 Room SPECOLA

Readings/Bibliography

Week 1

• Richard Sennet, ed., Classic Essays on the Culture of the Cities, Meredith Corporation, New York 1969;
• Susanne Rau, History, space, and place, Routledge, London - New York, 2019;
• Cristiana Facchini, “Building places & forging space: theoretical remarks on space, religion, and the city”, working paper of the MWK (Erfurt)
• Lewis Mumford, The City in History, New York, 1961
  

Week 2

• Richard Sennet, Flesh and Stone: the Body and the City in Western Civilization, Norton, New York - London, 1996
• Richard Sennett, The Conscience of the Eye: The Design and Social Life of Cities, Norton, New York - London, 1992
• Joseph Rykwert, The idea of a town. The Anthropology of Urban Form in Rome, Italy, and the Ancient World, MIT, Massachussetts, 1988 (Chaps. 1 & 2)
• Richard Krautheimer, Three Christian Capitals: Topography and Politics, University of California Press, Berkeley, Los Angeles, London, 1983 (Chapter 1)
• Nimrod Luz, The Mamluk City in the Middle East, Cambridge University Press, Cambrdige, 2014
• Arnaldo Momigliano, Introduction to Fustel de Coulange, The Ancient City, Johns Hopkins University Press, Baltimore - London, 1980
• Arnaldo Momigliano, Alien Wisdom: the Limits of Hellenization, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 1990

Week 3

• Guy G. Stroumsa, “Alexandria and the Myth of Multiculturalism,” in L. Perrone, ed., Origeniana Octava: Origen and the Alexandrian Tradition, vol. 1 (Leuven: Peeters, 2003), 23-29
• Nina Rowe, The Jew, the Cathedral, and the Medieval City: Synagoga and Ecclesia in the Thirteen Century, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge – New York, 2011 (chaps. 3,4,5)
• Dana Katz, The Jewish Ghetto and the Visual Imagination of Early Modern Venice, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 2017
• Louis Wirth, The Ghetto, University of Chicago Press, Chicago, 1928
• Heinz Schilling, “Calvinist and Catholic Cities: Ritual Architecture and Ritual in Confessional Europe” European Review 12/3 (2004): 293-312
• Mark Mazower, Salonika, City of Ghosts: Christians, Muslims, and Jews, 1430-1950, Vintage Books, New York, 2004 (Chapters 1,2,3,6)
• Cristiana Facchini, Seeing: cities and religious diversity in the early modern period, De Gruyter, Berlin 2019 (online publication)
• Cristiana Facchini, Ghettos and segregation: an appraisal, De Gruyter, Berlin 2020 (online publication)
• Cristiana Facchini, Theology of Stones: reflections upon the Christian city and the place of religious minorities De Gruyter, Berlin 2020 (online publication)
• Cristiana Facchini, Port cities, religious toleration, and commerce, Working paper of the Max Weber Kolleg (Erfurt)
• David Sorkin, Port Jews and the Three Regions of Emancipation, in David Cesarani, ed., Jewish Communities in Cosmopolitan Maritime Trading Centres, 1550-1950, Frank Cass, Portland - London, 2002

Week 4

• Cities and Cultural Exchange in Europe, 1400-1700, eds. Donatella Calabi and Stephen Turk Christiansen, 2, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 2007 (Part 2, chaps 5,8,9)
• Jay Kinsbruner, The Colonial Spanish-American City: Urban Life in the Age of Capitalism, University of Texas Press, Austin, 2005 (Chapters 1 and 8)
• Liam Matthew Brockey, ed., Portuguese Colonial Cities in the Early Modern World, Ashgate, Aldershot, 2009 (Chapter 2 and 8)
• R. Morse, “The Urban Development of Colonial Spanish America.” In The Cambridge History of Latin America. Vol. 2, Colonial Latin America. Edited by Leslie Bethell, 67–104. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 1984
• Sanjay Subranmanyam, “The Hidden Face of Surat: Reflection on a Cosmopolitan Indian Ocean Centre, 1540-1750, Journal of the Economic and Social History of the Orient61 (2018): 2015-255
• Space and conversion in Global Perspective, eds., Giuseppe Marcocci, Wietse De Boer, Brill
• Cristiana Facchini, Imaginary cities: utopias and religion, De Gruyter, Berlin 2020 (online publication)
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Week 5

• Barrington Moore Jr, “Ethnic and Religious Hostilities in Early Modern Port Cities” International Journal of Politics, Culture, and Society 14/4 (2001): 687-727
• Tullia Catalan,"The Ambivalence of a Port-City. The Jews of Trieste from the 19th to the 20th Century", in Modernity and the Cities of the Jews, eds. Cristiana Facchini, Quest. Issues in Contemporary Jewish History. Journal of Fondazione CDEC, n.2 October 2011
• Mark Mazower, Salonika, City of Ghosts: Christians, Muslims, and Jews, 1430-1950, Vintage Books, New York, 2004 (part III)
• Charles King, Odessa: Genius and Death in a City of Dreams, Norton & Company, 2011 (anche in italiano)
• Simon Goldhill, Jerusalem City of Longing, Cambridge – London, The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 2008
• Simon Sebag Montefiore, Jerusalem: the Biography, London: Widenfeld & Nicholson, 2011
• Konstantin Akinsha, Grigorij Kozlov, Silvia Hochfield, The Holy Place: Architecture, Ideology, and History in Russia, Yale University Press, New Haven, 2007
• Sharon MacDonald, Difficult Heritage: Negotiating the Nazi Past in Nuremberg and Beyond, London – New York: Nuremberg, 2009
• Cristiana Facchini, Material diversity: erasing, devaluing, remembering religious diversity, working paper of the MWK (Erfurt)

Teaching methods

Lectures, and seminary method, based on discussions of texts and sources. Students are required to read the material which is listed in the Syllabus

Assessment methods

Students who attend classes will be asked to compose weekly short reports of their reading material and to write a paper at the end of the course, of about 20/25 pages. Stylesheet and instructions will be provided during class.

The mark assigned to the paper will be based on the selection of the topic, its critical analysis based on bibliography and sources, clarity in structuring the paper, language proficiency.

Students who do not attend class will select 3 books from the bibliography listed below, and will have to pass an oral examination. The questions will be aimed at testing the student's ability in exposing with an appropriate language some of the topics tackled by the books, as well as his/her skills in making connections between different texts in order to build an argument. Proper language and the ability to critically speak about the books' content will lead to a good/excellent final grade. Acceptable language and the ability to resume the books' content will lead to a sufficient/fair grade. Insufficient linguistic proficiency and fragmentary knowledge of the books' content will lead to a failure in passing the exam.

Bibliography

1 book between:

Richard Sennet, ed., Classic Essays on the Culture of the Cities, Meredith Corporation, New York 1969

Richard Sennet, Flesh and Stone: the Body and the City in Western Civilization, Norton, New York - London, 1996

Susanne Rau, History, space, and place, Routledge, London - New York, 2019

2 books among:

Dana Katz, The Jewish Ghetto and the Visual Imagination of Early Modern Venice, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 2017

Space and conversion in Global Perspective, eds., Giuseppe Marcocci, Wietse De Boer, Aliocha Maldawki, IlariaPavan, Brill, Leiden – Boston, 2015

Benjamin Kaplan, Divided by Faith: Religious Connflict and the Practice of Religious Toleration in Early Europe, Cambridge – London, The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 2007

Robert A. Orsi, Gods of the City: Religion and the American Urban Landscapei, Bloomington& Indianopolis, Indiana University Press, 1999

Liam Matthew Brockey, ed., Portuguese Colonial Cities in the Early Modern World, Ashgate, Aldershot, 2009

Simon Goldhill, Jerusalem City of Longing, Cambridge – London, The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 2008

Simon Sebag Montefiore, Jerusalem: the Biography, London: Widenfeld & Nicholson, 2011

Mark Mazower, Salonika, City of Ghosts: Christians, Muslims, and Jews, 1430-1950, Vintage Books, New York, 2004

Teaching tools

Visual Aid, Powerpoint, Documentaries

Office hours

See the website of Cristiana Facchini