Uni-Tübingen

Sub-Project B02: Famine as a Threat to Religious and Social Order: Threat Discourse and Coping in Christian Societies (1570-1980)

Abstract

Sub-Project B02 examines how famines led to religious and religiously inspired efforts within a society to eliminate threats stemming from famine and to re-stabilize social order in three distinct time periods (1570-1715, 1870-1929, and 1960-1980). The focus is on the gradual and phased globalization of the general accountability for natural disasters that was accompanied in European societies by significant alterations in the perception of God, the world, and mankind, as well as by processes of institutionalisation.

Project Team

Project Leader:

Prof. Dr. Andreas Holzem

Post-docs and Ph.D. Students:

Dr. Jürgen Michael Schmidt

Christina Riese, Dipl. theol.

Johannes Stollhof

Academic Disciplines and Orientation

Theology, Medieval and Early Modern Ecclesiastical History

Project Description

1. Summary

European societies reacted to and tried to overcome the threat presented by famine over the centuries on two levels:

a) theological interpretations and corresponding religious praxis

b) the (further) development of communal protection and prevention systems

These two levels are also interconnected thanks to the indissoluble link between the Christian worldview and social responsibility in general. The profound changes that occurred within this reciprocal relationship will be examined in three separate studies, each focusing on a specific time period:

All three studies analyse long-term dynamics in the link between famine-related threats and religious/religiously inspired efforts within a society to overcome the threat and re-stabilize social order. Over the long run, this process can be described as a gradual and phased globalisation of the general accountability for natural disasters associated with hunger. As such, this process was accompanied by significant alterations in notions of God, the world, and mankind, but it by no means followed a linear path of “secularisation” or “modernisation”.

The inclusion of the four key dimensions outlined for the CRC as a whole across all three studies guarantees the analytical coherence of the project. In terms of the subject matter, perceptions of famine as a phenomenon underwent significant changes between the 16th/17th centuries and the 20th century; it was first seen as an agonizing hunger, then as a blatant shortage of food, and lastly as an indirect global perception of crisis. Perceptions of time related to famine as a threat also shifted accordingly; famine was seen as an unstoppable conditio humana and an urgent indication that the end of the world was near, as indicative of the immediate need for Christian-based social politics and policies, and lastly these perceptions manifested in an “eschatologising” fear of the collapse of the global ecosystem and mankind’s source of food. The social dimension related to the threat of famine and its elimination was characterized by a conflict-ridden dynamic. Not only did social disputes regarding the distribution of resources feed into these conflicts, but also communication with transcendental powers was an elementary component of the threat scenario. The emotional dimension of the threat was also subject to intense changes. Perceptions of the subject itself, as well as time, and social experiences had an impact on the emotional level, but there was not a simple correlation between these aspects.

Within this framework, the project looks at how the perceptions of the subject matter and aspects of time related to the experience of the threat were linked to the changing interpretations of the relationship between immanence and transcendence (level a). It also examines the significantly different social and emotional ways of dealing with the situation and overcoming the threat emerged in the 16th and 17th centuries as compared to the 19th or 20th centuries (level b).

2. Goals and Framework of the Project

On two different analytical levels, the project looks at the link between a) institutional efforts to ensure order and b) theological interpretations and corresponding religious praxis related to the threat of famine. In order to trace long-term changes in threat discourses and coping strategies, the project is divided into three time periods: the Early Modern era, the era of high industrialisation, and finally the global famines in the 1960s and 1970s. Each of the four dimensions that shape the analytical constellation of the CRC as whole will be applied in the individual studies to trace correlations between them: the perception and medialisation of the subject itself, the related experiences of time and expectations of the future, the social dynamics that were thereby unleashed, and the fundamental emotional potential of the threat. These structural axes ensure for the coherency of the project as a whole and link the individual studies to each other.

Project-related Lectures and Publications

Riese, Christina, Schmidt, Jürgen Michael, Stollhof, Johannes

Riese, Christina

Schmidt, Jürgen Michael

Stollhof, Johannes

Congresses, Workshops, and Conferences

Children's University