Fate, Longevity, and Immortality: Europe – Islam – Asia
February 23-25, 2016
Organisation Committee
Danielle Jacquart, École Pratique des Hautes Études, Paris
Agostino Paravicini Bagliani, Président honoraire de l’UAI, SISMEL
Fabrizio Pregadio, FAU Erlangen-Nürnberg
Klaus Herbers, IKGF, FAU Erlangen-Nürnberg
The aim of this conference is to develop as far as possible a comparative perspective on traditions and practices concerning Fate, Longevity, and Immortality, which together constitute a fundamental subject in the fields of cultural, social, and anthropological studies. This will be done across a vast range of civilizations, regions, and periods that span Asia (China, Tibet, Japan), the Islamic World, and Western Europe (Middle Ages, Renaissance).
In particular, the conference will focus on the following issues: the philosophical and medical background of longevity metaphors; occurrences of extraordinary longevity and limits of life; astrology and prediction of life span; elixirs and immortality; literary and spatial myths of longevity; natural death, its prognostics and predispositions; prediction in contemporary genetics; resurrection or regeneration of the body and immortality; animals and prolongevity.
Scholars coming from various disciplines and research fields – from alchemy to astrology, from history of the body and medicine to hagiography – shall enter an academic dialogue on how theories and practices concerning the prolongation of life have been influenced or restricted at different times by the beliefs of antiquity; by Christianity, Buddhism, Daoism, and Islam; and by the respective cultural traditions. How has longevity been predicted, theorized, and calculated within those civilizations and traditions? Which ways towards immortality or avoidance of death have been elaborated? What was the social diffusion of such theories and practices? What are the commonalities and differences regarding these interactions between traditions and humans seeking to extend their life? Is there a general human need to make death predictable and knowable?
Programme
Tuesday, February 23, 2016
Morning
| 9:30 - 9:40 | Welcome Address
Klaus Herbers (IKGF, Erlangen) |
Chair: Michael Lackner, IKGF |
|
| 9:40 - 10:00 | Introduction Danielle Jacquart, Agostino Paravicini Bagliani, Fabrizio Pregadio |
| 10:00 - 10:30 | Est-il possible et légitime pour un médecin médiéval de prévoir la longévité d’un patient ? Danielle Jacquart (EPHE, Paris) |
| 10:30 - 10:45 | Discussion |
| 10:45 - 11:15 | Coffee Break |
| 11:15 - 11:45 | Prolongevity and Elites of Power in Medieval Europe Agostino Paravicini Bagliani (University of Lausanne, SISMEL) |
| 11:45 - 12:15 | Longévité et immortalités animales dans les bestiaires médiévaux Michel Pastoureau, EPHE (Paris) |
| 12:15 - 12:45 | Discussion |
| 12:45 - 14:00 | Lunch |
Afternoon
Chair: Klaus Herbers, IKGF |
|
| 14:00 - 14:30 | Time and Mortality in the Koran Georges Tamer (University of Erlangen-Nuremberg) |
| 14:30 - 15:00 | The Demises of the Ardent Lovers Basma Dajani (University of Jordan, Amman) |
| 15:00 - 15:30 | Coffee Break |
| 15:30 - 16:00 | Discussion |
Wednesday, February 24, 2016
Morning
Chair: Lisa Walleit, IKGF |
|
| 9:30 - 10:00 | The Postponement of Death and the
Alleviation of Old Age in the Middle Ages Charles Burnett (Warburg Institute, London) |
| 10:00 - 10:30 | Calculating the Length of Life with Latin Astrologers (12th-17th Century) David Juste (Bavarian Academy of Sciences and Humanities, Munich) |
| 10:30 - 11:00 | Discussion |
| 11:00 - 11:30 | Coffee Break |
| 11:30 - 12:00 | Theorizing and Predicting Longevity around 1300 Joseph Ziegler(University of Haifa) |
| 12:00 - 12:15 | Discussion |
| 12:15 - 14:00 | Lunch |
Afternoon
Chair : Zhao Lu, IKGF |
|
| 14:00 - 14:30 | Faith or Fate? The Path towards Immortality according to the Tantric Traditions of Tibet Donatella Rossi (Sapienza University of Rome) |
| 14:30 - 15:00 | “You Will Die Soon!” – Predictions of
Death in Tibetan Divination Manuals Rolf Scheuermann (IKGF, Erlangen) |
| 15:00 - 15:30 | Discussion |
| 15:30 - 16:00 | Coffee Break |
| 16:00 - 16:30 | Modes of Avoiding Death in the Taiping jing Barbara Hendrischke (University of Sydney) |
| 16:30 - 17:00 | Fate and Astrology: Longevity in (Medieval) Daoist and Buddhist Traditions Christine Mollier (CNRS, Paris) |
| 17:00 - 17:30 | Discussion |
Thursday, February 25, 2016
Morning
Chair: Hans-Christian Lehner, IKGF |
|
| 9:00 - 9:30 | La quintessence dans les œuvres authentiques et apocryphes de Paracelse Didier Kahn (CNRS, Paris) |
| 9:30 - 10:00 | La “mort de vieillesse”: une cause de décès incontournable? (XVIIe siècle - XXIe siècle) Joël Coste (EPHE, Paris) |
| 10:00 - 10:30 | Discussion |
| 10:30 - 11:00 | Coffee Break |
| 11:00 - 11:30 | The Centaur’s Death: The Myth of Chiron and the Transfer of Immortality Manuel Förg (Technical University of Munich) |
| 11:30 - 12:00 | Longevity and the Emergence of Alchemy in the Latin West Matthias Heiduk (IKGF, Erlangen) |
| 12:00 - 12:30 | Discussion |
| 12:30 - 14:00 | Lunch |
Afternoon
Chair: Song Xiaokun (IKGF, Erlangen) |
|
| 14:00 - 14:30 | Man and Mountain: Daoist Immortals in Chinese Art Lennert Gesterkamp (University of Amsterdam) |
| 14:30 - 15:00 | Did Immortality Change? Historicising Daoist Hagiography Benjamin Penny (Australian National University, Canberra) |
| 15:00 - 15:30 | Discussion |
| 15:30 - 16:00 | Coffee Break |
| 16:00 - 16:30 | “The Secret of Divine Immortals”: On Generating
and Consuming Longevity Mushrooms Dominic Steavu (University of California, Santa Barbara) |
| 16:30 - 17:00 | Which is the Daoist Immortal Body? Fabrizio Pregadio (IKGF and University of Erlangen-Nuremberg) |
| 17:00 - 17:30 | Discussion |
| 17:30 - 18:00 | Final Round Table Chairs: Moneef R. Zou’bi (Académie des Sciences Islamiques, Amman), Danielle Jacquart, Agostino Paravicini Bagliani, Fabrizio Pregadio |
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International Consortium for Research in the Humanities
"Fate, Freedom and Prognostication. Strategies for Coping with the Future in East Asia and Europe."
Friedrich-Alexander-Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg
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