Apocalyptic languages in the political imaginary of early modernity, 1530-1700

• Grant number: 14/18183-7
• Support Opportunities: Regular Research Grants
• Start date: January 01, 2015
• End date: December 31, 2016
• Field of knowledge: Humanities - History - Modern and Contemporary History
• Principal Investigator: Rui Luis Rodrigues
• Grantee: Rui Luis Rodrigues
• Host Institution: Instituto de Filosofia e Ciências Humanas (IFCH). Universidade Estadual de Campinas (UNICAMP). Campinas , SP, Brazil

Abstract

This research project will seek to investigate how religious languages of apocalyptic bias, disseminated not only in specifically religious publications, but also in texts of political propaganda and diplomatic reports, were used to interpret events of great significance to the early modern European societies, like the wars of religion in France and the Thirty Years War itself. The choice of these languages has been attributed to the deep insecurity environment, introduced by confessional conflicts and by the breakup of western religious unity itself. At the same time, its use was always stigmatized by opponents as a characteristic of "marginal" groups only; even historiography not infrequently allowed itself to carry out this label. Our hypothesis sees a much deeper relationship between such languages (and the mental constructs linked to them) and the notion of respublica Christiana, who dominated the social and political imaginary of the West throughout the medieval period. In this apocalyptic imaginary we will find not a refusal to covenants and typical commitents of respublica Christiana, but efforts to recreate this ancient structure within the new social and political relations posed by early modernity. Our investigation will seek to probe how, in the clash between the old mental structures and new configurations of social and political order, such yearnings of apocalyptic nature played a key role in the articulation of the modern political imaginary. (AU)

Scientific publications

(References retrieved automatically from Web of Science and SciELO through information on FAPESP grants and their corresponding numbers as mentioned in the publications by the authors)

RODRIGUES, RUI LUIS. Os processos de confessionalização e sua importância para a compreensão da história do Ocidente na primeira modernidade (1530-1650). TEMPO-NITEROI, v. 23, n. 1, JAN-APR 2017. (14/18183-7)