Sacred Politics in a Secular Age - International Workshop
23-24 June 2025 | Bologna, via S. Vitale 114
On Monday, June 23 and Tuesday, June 24, 2025, starting at 9:00 a.m., the international workshop Sacred Politics in a Secular Age. Jewish Political Theology Through History will take place at the G. dossetti Library, in Via S. Vitale 114 (Bologna).
Organized by the University of Modena and Reggio Emilia and the Muriel Berman Center for Jewish Studies at Lehigh University, in collaboration with FSCIRE, the workshop will bring together scholars from European, Israeli, and American universities to discuss the evolution of Jewish political theology from Late Antiquity to the present day.
The trajectory of Jewish political theology from antiquity to modernity presents us with a profound paradox: how does a tradition rooted in divine revelation and sacred text navigate an increasingly secular world while maintaining its essential character?
The two-day program will feature six thematic sessions, with presentations dedicated to rabbinic thought (Krista Dalton, Kenyon College; Gregg Gardner, University of British Columbia), the theosophical and kabbalistic dimensions of political thinking (Clemence Boulouque, Columbia University; Hartley Lachter, Lehigh University), and Jewish intellectual production from the Renaissance to the modern era (Fabrizio Lelli, University of Rome La Sapienza; Cristiana Facchini, University of Bologna).
The workshop will also explore issues related to the modern and postmodern reception of the Talmud (Federico Dal Bo, University of Modena and Reggio Emilia; Elad Lapidot, University of Lille), German Jewish thought (Nitzan Lebovic, Lehigh University; Galili Shahar, Tel Aviv University), and the relationship between theopolitics and academic Jewish studies in the United States and Israel (Michael Bar-Asher Siegal, Ben-Gurion University; Steven Weitzman, University of Pennsylvania).
The workshop will open with an introductory session led by Jodi Eichler-Levine (Lehigh University), Federico Dal Bo, and Hartley Lachter, and will conclude with a roundtable discussion for summary and exchange.
For further information or to join the workshop, please contact us at segreteria@fscire.it
