ИСТИНА |
Войти в систему Регистрация |
|
ИПМех РАН |
||
IMC chooses a special thematic strand which - for 2015 - is 'Reform and Renewal'. The theme has been chosen for the crucial importance of both phenomena in social and intellectual discourse, both medieval and modern, as well as their impact on many aspects of the human experience. The changes brought about by deliberate individual and collective interventions demonstrate the impact of reform and renewal on the development of spirituality, ideologies, institutional and socio-economic realities, literary and artistic expression, and a sense of shared identity amongst communities. Change could be justified by referring rhetorically to a 'restoration' or 'renewal' of a perceived former reality. Monastic and ecclesiastical groups regarded spiritual and institutional reform as closely interconnected. Secular rulers invoked divine will and natural order to validate interventions in political and socio-economic structures. Innovators in literary and artistic spheres referred to a desire to return to a more 'authentic' or 'original' intellectual, spiritual, or aesthetic experience. In reality, reform and renewal could be profoundly radical but could also be more ambigiuous, remaining virtually unnoticed by contemporaries. Medieval commentators' tendency to append positive and negative connotations to accounts of reform and renewal continues to impact upon modern discussions of both phenomena and their rhetorical uses.