On the basis of a comparison between two source genres, contemporary Protestant fictions set around the End of Times, and an Old French crusade epic, The Chanson d'Antioche, this seminar will address the "régime de croyance" (Paul Veyne's expression) present in the latter, and its sense of Sacred History.
Philippe Buc was trained in History both in the United States (BA Swarthmore, MA Berkeley) and in France (Maîtrise Paris I - Sorbonne, Doctorat EHESS). After 20 years at Stanford University (USA), he returned to Europe in 2011 to a Universität-Professur at the University of Vienna (Austria). His specialties include politics and exegesis, illustrated by his first book, L´ambiguïté du Livre. Prince, pouvoir et peuple dans les commentaires de la Bible (Paris: 1994), on models of power produced by Northern French exegesis between ca. 1100 and ca. 1350; History and Anthropology, discussed in The Dangers of Ritual. Between Early Medieval Texts and Social-Scientific Theory (Princeton: 2001); religion and violence, with Holy War, Martyrdom and Terror: Christianity, Violence, and the West (Philadelphia: 2015). A preview translated in Hungarian just came out in Világtörténet (2014).
