Marriage in Early Modern Political Thought (forum)

1 December 2017

Folger Board Room

This free, public forum sponsored by the Folger Institute Center for the History of British Political Thought welcomes experts in gender, literature, and political thought (Mary Nyquist, University of Toronto); Hebraism and Natural Law theory (Jason Rosenblatt, Georgetown University ); and Milton and radicalism (Nigel Smith, Princeton University ), speakers bringing key frameworks needed to approach the question of marriage in early modern political thought. They will discuss the question: "How does thinking about marriage contribute to the history of political thought?" These participants will consider marriage in relation to topics such as jurisdiction, divine law, natural law, civil law, international relations, jurisprudence, theology, social history, ideologies and practices of gender, the regulation of sexuality, the public and the private. This range of approaches and methodologies will contribute to refreshing important questions in the history of political thought.

The associated fall-semester seminar, Conjugality and Early Modern Political Thought,explores marriage thinking in a range of early modern writers, considering how thought on marriage contributed to political ideas, drawing upon the Hebraic, Natural Law, and humanist traditions. The seminar participants have considered writers including Erasmus, Luther, More, Bodin, Grotius, Selden, Hobbes, Milton, Cavendish, Astell, Locke, and Pufendorf, and engaged with theology, jurisprudence, and politics.

Please contact institute@folger.edu to reserve a seat and ask any questions.

Program

1:00-3:15 p.m. (Folger Board Room)

Husbands, Fathers, and Masters in Analogical Discourse

Mary Nyquist (University of Toronto)

John Selden and Family Law

Jason Rosenblatt (Georgetown University)

Milton's Divorce Writings between England and the Dutch Republic: Sexual Power and the Rights of Women

Nigel Smith (Princeton University)

3:15-3:30 Tea (Folger Tea Room)

3:30-4:30 Summary Discussion (Folger Board Room)

Sharon Achinstein to initiate