Teaching Professor
College of Letters & Science | Department of History
Hometown: Södertälje, Sweden
Eric Carlsson is a historian of early modern Europe, with an emphasis on intellectual and religious history in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. His teaching and research focus on the Enlightenment, early modern Christianity, the supernatural, theology and biblical scholarship, and belief and unbelief. He is currently writing on the emergence of “liberal theology” in the context of the German Enlightenment’s debates over the nature and viability of religion in the modern world.
Talks:
Enlightened Religion: An Oxymoron?
The Enlightenment has long been considered a secular movement. But was it really so? This talk challenges that assumption by exploring some ways in which Enlightenment and religion were deeply intertwined. Religion, it argues, was as central as the secular to visions of modernity.
The Historian and the Supernatural
The past is replete with accounts of the supernatural. How should contemporary historians make sense of these claims? Focusing on early modern Europe, this talk explores how historians are debating and rethinking long-held assumptions about experiences that were claimed to transcend the ordinary.
Does the Enlightenment Still Matter?
Both lauded and lambasted, the Enlightenment continues to shape cultural debates today. Why does it retain such power? This talk considers how and why we invoke the past for present purposes, and suggests a fresh way of understanding why studying the Enlightenment still matters.