The paper critically engages with contemporary sociological enquiries into the idea of heresy from the medieval scholastic perspective, thereby seeking the contemporary relevance of medieval conceptions. From the medieval vantage point, the paper argues that the contemporary sociological accounts by Peter Berger, George Zito and Lester Kurtz, even those that view heresy as a normatively negative phenomenon in the modern context, could be enriched considerably by medieval theories. More specifically, contemporary sociological accounts of heresy ought to take into account two important aspects of the medieval concept: first, heresy captures the subjective dimension of the agent whose heresy is suspected or condemned. Second, pertinacity as a defining feature of heresy in the medieval sense shows that heresy is the observed failure of recognizing the obligatory nature, not the truth, of what the authority asserts. Heresy thus constitutes what Emile Durkheim called “religious phenomena,” which are prevalent in modern “secular” society.

• Date & Time:  December  1 (Sat.), 2018, 15:00-16:30
• Venue: Room 705, Bldg.#3, Waseda Campus, Waseda University
• Lecturer: Professor Takashi Shogimen (Univ. of Otago)
• Title: Medieval Theories of Heresy and Their Contemporary Relevance
• Organizer: Kazutaka Inamura ([email protected])
• Language: English
• Open to: Students, faculty, staff and the general public
• Admission: Free