Religious Melancholy – conference

This conference, the first of its kind, takes place at King’s College London on 19 and 20 May 2011. The term ‘religious melancholy’ was coined by Robert Burton in 1621 in Anatomy of Melancholy, but acute sadness had long been recognised as a common, even necessary, component of profound spiritual experience.

The conference will consider melancholy from its classical origins to the modern period, with speakers drawn from theology and religious studies, history and the history of medicine (including speakers on medieval Islamic medicine), philosophy, sociology and European and English literature. The conference will ask questions about whether religious melancholy in the sense of spiritual or emotional despair has a place in our contemporary understanding of depressive illness.

For more information see www.kcl.ac.uk/schools/humanities/news/conferences/relmel/

Posted on 12 May 2011