Interreligious Founding, Humboldt University via Zoom, April 8–9, 2021
This workshop will constitute a continuation of the dialogue on charitable foundations held between experts of various academic disciplines in Tokyo (2019) and Singapore (2020). As a result of discussions begun at these venues, it has become apparent that the scholarship on endowments, which has unfolded to the greatest extent within Medieval Studies and therefore the landscape of the medieval Latin West, has not adequately addressed the phenomenon of interreligious patronage, that is the participation in foundation activities by persons of different religious traditions. This results from the fact that in the Western Church the sphere of foundations constituted a jealously-guarded prerogative of the majoritarian Latin Christian culture. While the Jews of Ashkenaz were allowed to a very limited extent to create and run their own foundations, the endowment of churches, monasteries and philanthropic institutions by non-Catholic Christians was not tolerated by the church and secular authorities, nor were pagans and Muslims allowed to patronize their own endowments under Christian rule. This restrictive approach was, however, by the standards of other medieval religious traditions rather exceptional. In Byzantium, though the founding of churches and monasteries by non-Orthodox was forbidden already in Late Antiquity, this prohibition was not followed in the breach. In the Islamicate world not only Muslims used waqf extensively, but also Christians and Jews. On the Indian subcontinent rulers often patronized the religious establishments of multiple faiths. The religious syncretism of Japan and China was reflected in the foundation practices of these two lands. By focusing on the interreligious dynamic of founding, the conference participants will fundamentally change current scholarship’s understanding of foundations.
Advance registration required.