Accordion
Date & Venue: 2-3 July 2015, Shakespeare Institute, Stratford-upon-Avon
Organisers: Tara Hamling and Jonathan Willis
In 1985, Patrick Collinson delivered the Sternton lecture on the topic 'From Iconoclasm to Iconophobia: the Cultural Impact of the Second English Reformation.' Thiry years on, this essay (published in 1986) has gone on to shape a generation of scholarly enquiry into the impact of religion on culture, and of culture on religion, in post-reformation England. Scholars have accepted, rejected, and modified Collinson's arguments, but one way or another they continue to exert a powerful influence over reformation studies.
The thirtieth anniversary therefore seems a timely point to take stock and re-examine Collinson's initial thesis, as well as flagging up some of the new directions that study of the areas explored in his lecture (religious drama, songs and ballads, and pictorial art) is taking. What is the current consensus regarding 'iconoclasm', 'iconophobia', 'the second English reformation', and the relationship between them? This two-day workshop will consider the legacy of this seminal article, as well as exploring the most exciting present and future trends in this field.