Divine property: Solutions from Late Antiquity and the Middle Ages
Outline
The project explores various historical and conceptual foundations underlying the structural change of and through property. It is based on the hypothesis that ancient practices such as sacrificial offerings, prayer and pilgrimage, and theories attributing property rights to gods had far-reaching consequences:
They provided a context in which to experiment with the concept of property, encouraged reflection on ownership structures, and turned ownership and the renunciation thereof into key aspects of religious practice. By analysing diachronic sources, the project explores the internal dynamism of that hypothesis and its contribution to the development of property as a concept.
