Law, politics and religion: some early modern lessons for today's humanities

Abstract

In his lecture, Professor Saunders outlines two future projects, one on the history of anti-juridism, the other a biography of people in the mid-1600s. Both projects mark a return for the humanities from great abstractions to an institutional focus, from the excitement of theoretical explanations and critical reflection to the work of positive historical description and complicity with the institutions of law and state. This complicity is not complacency. The complacent are those who imagine themselves beyond the institutional circumstances that make them possible.