This research project aims at inquiring one of the major features of modern and contemporary Chinese Buddhism, i.e. the vinaya revival (jielü fuxing 戒律復興). In the Chinese Buddhist tradition the term ...read more
This research project examines the textual history and literary characteristics of the Zǔtáng jí 祖堂集 (Collection of the Patriarchal Hall , K.1503), i.e., the earliest extant Chán history (chánshǐ 禪史), or "lamp ...read more
This project aims to re-evaluate education in monastic contexts of 11th and 12th century Western Europe by relying on the concept of "communities of practice", a notion borrowed from the social sciences. ...read more
From the late twelfth and early thirteenth century onwards, against the backdrop of demographic growth and urbanization, a growing number of laypeople started to pursue a religious life without actually ...read more
This project examines the communicative decisions of a high medieval institution under pressure. For centuries, Benedictine monks had enjoyed a virtual monopoly over institutionalized religious life in Europe. From the twelfth century ...read more
This project studies early modern urban discourses on sodomy in the Southern Netherlands. Sodomy was considered as a crime against nature whose origins could be traced to the biblical cities ...read more
The project aims to contribute to the changing perspective on the history of Christian ethics by investigating the way in which economic, political and social developments influenced vernacular renditions of ...read more
Historical evidence suggests that the medieval landscape was intensively exploited during the High medieval periodThis was especially true in the county of Flanders due to the development of cities and ...read more
This research aims to study how marvelous and miraculous anecdotes were used in a variety of medieval biographical texts of the three Mamluk sultans Baybars (r. 1260-1277), Qalawun (r. 1279-1290) ...read more