International Conference – The Enlightenment Pope: Benedict XIV (1675-1758)

An international conference hosted by Washington University in St. Louis, St. Louis University, and the Missouri History Museum.

line drawing of a person in a chair talking, audience members, and a person with a microphone

Monday, April 30, 2012

Wednesday, May 2, 2012

Various

St. Louis, MO

International Conference Hosted by Washington University in St. Louis, Saint Louis University, and the Missouri History Museum April 30- May 2, 2012.

The John C. Danforth Center on Religion & Politics supported this event.  To find official conference information, please visit: http://rll.wustl.edu/enlightenmentpope

About the Conference

The conference The Enlightenment Pope: Benedict XIV (1675-1758), hosted by Saint Louis University, Washington University, and the Missouri History Museum, brought together for the first time in the United States eminent international scholars expert in Pope Benedict XIV’s lifework and papacy.

During a pontificate of eighteen years, Benedict advanced experimental and medical science, women’s authority in academic institutions, urbanism, museology, and the arts and culture to a remarkable degree.

One of the symposium’s chief goals is to help integrate ecclesiastical issues in general and the accomplishments of Benedict XIV in particular into the broader stream of research on the European Enlightenment.

General themes of the conference include: the question of the compatibility of faith and science, women’s place in the realm of sanctity and the public sphere, the mission of the Church in the New World, church doctrine and liturgical reforms, and papal patronage of the arts.