Communal Identity at Borders of Faith, session at 27th International Medieval Congress, University of Leeds, July 6–9, 2020

This session invites participants to consider the unique challenges and opportunities faced by faith communities at borderlands, areas of contact between religious groups. Asking, how did such communities respond to and manage their contact with religious others?

'Borders of faith' is understood broadly to mean any zone of contact-literal or metaphorical-between different religious groups. Thus, 'communities at the borders of faith' refers to any group living in proximity to religious others. Examples from Western Europe might include Muslims, Christians and Jews inhabiting the Iberian frontier, Christians living in proximity to non-Christians in Lithuania, parishioners in the perceived heretical zones of Languedoc and Bohemia, groups of recent converts, or Jews serving in the courts of Christian or Muslim rulers. This session seeks a comparative approach and invites papers which examine border communities of Latin or Greek Christians, Muslims, Jews, Armenians, or any other medieval religious tradition.

Topics to consider may include:

• Challenges to communities living on the borders of religious traditions, or in proximity to other religious traditions, and how those challenges were addressed.
• Interaction, exchange, or syncretism across faith borders.
• Mechanisms those communities used to differentiate themselves from religious others.
• Arrangements made by religious authorities to accommodate border communities in order to guard their orthodoxy and prevent error.
• How the proximity to religious others shaped the worship and religious instruction of these border communities.
• Advice on intercultural contact, separation, and coexistence.

Session organizer
Bert Carlstrom, Queen Mary University of London