Past and Future
Humanity is on the brink of a shared and challenging future that will be very different to our past.
However, without a clear historical sense of the values embedded within different cultures and traditions, there can be no effective global debate about the ways in which humankind can secure more just and
sustainable societies.
For example, one of the defining issues in modern society is the impact of multi-culturalism. If we are not aware of how different ethnic and religious identities emerge from history, we will be unable to construct effective dialogue between cultures in the future.
Mary Carruthers demonstrated how historical scholarship can inform such contemporary debates. Carruthers is renowned for her work on medieval memory and her studies of how the everyday world related to the religious domain in medieval art and literature. However, during her time at the IAS, she presented a seminar and wrote an Insights paper about the complex narratives associated with modern concerns surrounding the World Trade Center memorial site and a proposed mosque to be built nearby. These contemporary acts of remembering have proved to be highly controversial. The results of her thinking will be presented to a teaching seminar at New York University’s Abu Dhabi campus, to an international group of students, who will learn how history can inform the debates of the present.
Although Britain seems to be an increasingly secular society, religious ceremonies and spiritual attitudes remain a fundamental part of the nation’s self-definition. It is vital to reflect on the ways in which religious attitudes have changed over the previous centuries, so as better to understand the role religion will continue to play. Stephen Taylor’s research into early-modern religion is creating the foundations for a major book project that will look back upon British religious practice across four centuries: ‘British State Prayers, Fasts and Thanksgivings, 1540s to 1940s.’ Written in collaboration with two colleagues from Durham, Taylor’s IAS Fellowship allowed the team to bring the project closer to fruition.
Whilst different cultural groups may possess different ethics and values based on their particular religious heritages, a universal feature of every culture in every period seems to be the need to imagine futures through artistic and literary narratives. Understanding the shape that prophecy has assumed in the past may help us to conceptualise our own radical future.
Kathryn Banks has begun to prepare a book that will explore the implications of Reformation literature and its use of prophecy. Banks will look in particular at literary prophecy and apocalypse. She argues that research into the literary history of prophecy is significant, because the ways in which early writers developed this theme influenced the subsequent advent of fictional forms such as the novel – forms which today perform the function of prophecy that was once primarily reserved
The British State Prayers project, on which Stephen Taylor is collaborating with Durham colleagues, can be found at:
www.durham.ac.uk/history/research/research_projects/british_state_prayers/
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