03/07/2026 15:00 - 17:10

HALL: Pola - A104

Contact: Panzeca I.

Chair: D'Avenia F., Spanò I.

This panel aims to explore how Eastern religious traditions were observed, described, and interpreted by Europeans in the Early Modern period. Through the analysis of travel accounts, missionary works, translations, and manuscript sources, etc…, the participants will focus on:
- the Asian religious practices, doctrines, and institutions observed, interpreted, and translated within European conceptual categories;
- the theological and cultural controversies generated by the encounter with different religious traditions, as well as the processes of translation and hermeneutic strategies;
- the role of travellers as mediators of knowledge and as producers of discourses that oscillate between curiosity, moral judgement, and legitimisation of European domination;
- the historical and critical reflection about the construction of the European imagery of the East, showing how these texts contributed to the formation of a European discourse on Eastern religions and influenced both theological debate and the nascent comparative reflection on religions.