Divine (In)Justice in Antiquity and the Middle Ages, Medieval & Ancient Research Centre, University of Sheffield, November 4, 2016

Papers may consider all aspects of divine (in)justice during the period (roughly 8th century B.C.E. to 1500 C.E.), from a variety of disciplinary angles, including literary, historical, artistic, and theological. Medieval culture, its concept of justice, and its major religions were undeniably influenced by classical traditions, and this conference seeks to explore continuities and divergences between these two periods in order to shed further light on the various factors that determine the conceptualisation and representation of divine justice, and define its role in society.

We invite proposals for 20 minute papers on topics including (but not limited to):

• Literary and artistic portrayals of divine judgment
• Human versus divine concept of justice
• Monotheistic versus polytheistic notions of divine justice
• Divine (in)justice in Judaism and Islam
• Secular versus religious justice
• Signs of divine (dis)approbation in national and/or political and/or institutional
• Anxieties about divine justice
• Divine justice and natural disasters
• Postmortem justice