European Academy of Religion Annual Conference 2019

This panel addresses the embodied and performative dimension of the sacred, both in its dynamical engagement with the Christian heritage and as an expression of the emergence of new “experiences of the sacred”, not always historically related to Christianity. The investigation focuses on patterns of performative actions which involve the human body and are embedded in a sacred space, exploring how both the human body and the physical space undergo symbolical and historical transformations as a result of a religious experience (as in the case of pilgrimages, liturgies, medieval and contemporary Passion performances). Bibliography:Thurfjell D. – Jackson P. (edd.), Religion on the borders, Stockholm 2009; Droogers A. – van Harkshamp A. (edd.), Methods for the Study of Religions Change, Sheffield 2014; Aronson-Lehavi S., Street Scenes: Late Medieval Acting and Performance, Palgrave 2011; Bino C., Il dramma e l’immagine. Teorie cristiane della rappresentazione (II-XI sec.), Torino 2015.

Chair:
• Renata Salvarani (European University of Rome)

Panelists:
• Ernesto Borghi (Associazioni Biblica Svizzera) - The body in the Christian Biblical textual tradition 
• Giuseppe Cecere (Alma Mater-Università di Bologna) - Body, Space and Soul in Muslim Mystics: on physical and physiological dimensions of “Khalwa” (Spiritual Retreat) 
• Laura Carnevale (Università degli Studi di Bari) - Saints and relics, pilgrims and animals: performative religious experiences at the sanctuary of St. Matthew the Apostle, Gargano (Apulia) 
• Daniela Dumbrava (Istituto Toniolo / Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore) - Oesypus – materia medica for a magic healing of epilepsy revealed in some Macedo-Romanian texts
• Renata Salvarani (European University of Rome) - Sacred imagines and urban space shaping: the use of icons during the processional lituyrgies of Rome in the Middle Ages 
• Carla Bino (Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore) - Word made scene. Playing the memory of the Passion through images. An historical comparison 
• Laura Peja (Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore) - Word made scene. Playing the memory of the Passion through images. An historical comparison 
• Vincenzo Matera (Alma Mater-Università di Bologna) - From Religion to Politics: Remarks on The Religions of the Oppressed by Vittorio Lanternari 
• Paolo Calandruccio (European University of Rome) - Religion and crisis of presence in the perspective of Ernesto De Martino. A case study: the phenomenon of tarantism in the 1949 expedition to Lucania 
• Guido Traversa (European University of Rome) - The body in the philosophy of Antonin Artaud 
• Susy Zanardo (European University of Rome) - The body of the gift. A philosophical and anthropological point of view for an historical perspective 

Language: English / Italian