Middle Eastern and European Christianity, 16th-20th Century

Collects Bernard Heyberger's ground-breaking studies on the connected history of Middle Eastern Christianity Reframes the relationship between Ottoman Christian subjects and the surrounding societies based on unexplored archival data Shows the connections between the historical processes and cultural developments of Western Europe and of the Ottoman Near East Offers nuanced contextual study of Christian population agency in the Middle East during the Ottoman period Integrate Eastern Catholicism in the history of Early Modern Roman Catholic Church Uncovers the diversity of Arab Christian religious and cultural identification processes Adopts an interdisciplinary approach: renews the approach to the study of religious minorities in the Islamic world, combining social history, cultural history, anthropology, art history Relies on a 'global micro-historical approach', linking together case studies and general reflections that enlightens the interactions and cultural circulation between Western and Eastern Mediterranean Bernard Heyberger carved new paths in the study of Middle Eastern Christianity, helping to shed fresh light on aspects of the connected history of the Near East that had previously been neglected. His ground-breaking work has spanned many disciplines, his approach to 'global microhistory' has focused on questions of space and circulation (people, texts and objects). In addition, he has made important contributions to the social and cultural history of Early Modern Catholicism. In order to allow the international public to access his work, this volume presents a collection of Heyberger's studies for the first time in English, accompanied by an essay discussing the importance and legacy of his work and a comprehensive bibliography of his writings.

Aurélien Girard is Senior Lecturer at Université de Reims Champagne-Ardenne, member of CERHIC. He specialised in the multifaceted history of Eastern Christians (16th-19th c.) and the history of European orientalism. His last publications include ‘Was an Eastern scholar necessarily a cultural broker in early-modern academic Europe? Faustus Naironus (1628-1711), the Christian East, and Oriental studies,’ in Nick Hardy and Dmitri Levitin (eds), Faith and History: Confessionalisation and Erudition in Early Modern Europe (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2019). Cesare Santus is Senior (Tenure Track) Assistant Professor at the University of Trieste. His research focuses on the doctrinal and judicial control exercised by the Roman Inquisition over Eastern Christianity, both in the Ottoman Empire and Italy. His last publications include Trasgressioni necessarie. (Rome: EFR, 2019) and "Wandering Lives: Eastern Christian Pilgrims, Alms-collectors and ‘Refugees’ in Early Modern Rome”, in E. Michelson, M. Coneys Wainwright (eds), A Companion to Religious Minorities in Early Modern Rome (Leiden: Brill, 2020), pp. 237-271. Vassa Kontouma is the Dean of the Religious Sciences Section, EPHE Paris. Her most recent research focuses on the circulation of Orthodox books, ecclesiastical scholarly networks and the theology of the sacraments (15th-17th c.), as well as the phenomenon of popular theology in its late expressions (18th-19th c.). Her last publications include ‘Eighteenth and Nineteenth Century Greek Reception of Aquinas,’ in M. Levering, M. Plested (eds), The Oxford Handbook of the Reception of Aquinas (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2021), pp. 313-328. Karène Sanchez Summerer is Professor and Chair of Middle Eastern Studies at Groningen University. Her research considers the interactions between European linguistic and cultural policies and the Arab communities (1860-1948) in the Levant, missionaries' modalities and impact and Arab Catholic communities in Palestine. She recently published with K. Papastathis, Contemporary Levant, special issue, ‘Eastern Christianity in Syria and Palestine and European Cultural Diplomacy (1860-1948). A Connected History,’ vol. 6, issue 1, 2021.