About
Jonathan Seiling is a Fellow of the Pontifical Institute of Mediaeval Studies and has studied the suppression of radical Reformation leaders and groups, particularly Anabaptists in the 1520-1530s. The Catholic controversialist Johann Fabri von Leutkirch (1478-1541) who played a key role in proscribing Anabaptism in the 1520s in the Holy Roman Empire, has been the focus of his postdoctoral research.
Seiling has also been preparing volumes of early modern texts in English translation related to religious dissidence in during the early Reformation. Currently press is a collection of Anabaptist texts concerning violence and nonresistance. Two additional volumes near completion include the apocalyptic writings of Melchior Hoffman in Strasbourg (1529-1530), and a large collection of texts from a range of Reformation writers concerning violence from the years 1510-1540. Stemming from the latter project Seiling has been developing theoretical framework for classifying and comparing early modern texts concerning violence.
In addition to early modern studies Seiling wrote a dissertation on religious dissent in pre-Soviet Russia, focusing on the motif of the Divine Sophia, especially as developed by Sergei N. Bulgakov and the concomitant Spinozist controversies.
Most recently he was named executive editor of a major source edition project, Trials of the Venetian Inquisition against Anabaptists, which is expected to publish ca. 2,000 of materials primarily from the Archivio di Stato di Venezia, Sant’Uffizio. The project was initiated by Dr. Dr. Martin Rothkegel (Berlin) and the editorial board also includes Giovanna Paolin (Trieste), Federica Ambrosini (Padua) and Lothar Vogel (Rome). In connection with this project and others, Seiling is also a Fellow of the Institut für Baptismusstudien des Theologischen Seminars Elstal (Berlin).
Publications
Books:
- Being in the World: The Quotable Jacques Maritain, University of Notre Dame Press, at press.
- Anabaptist Nonresistance and God’s Vengeance: Adler (1529), Burda (1530/31), Haffner (1532), manuscript currently under external review (submitted October 2013).
Articles:
- 'Scruples of Conscience' and the Historic Peace Churches in the War of 1812, in War Resistance in Canada,eds., Lara Campbell (Simon Fraser University); Michael Dawson and Catherine Gidney (St. Thomas University), Between the Lines Books, forthcoming 2015.
- 'Der Eid' [The Oath] in Die Kirchen der Welt: Mennoniten. Fernando Enns, ed. Konfessionskundliches Institut Bensheim [Ecumenical Institute for Confessional Studies Bensheim, Germany], forthcoming 2014.
- “Sophiology” in Religion and the Secular Age, Darrol Bryant, ed.
- Research articles in Mennonitisches Lexikon, Hans-Jürgen Goertz, ed.: Reimer, A. James, Absonderung, Apokryphen, Verfolgung.
- Hans Schlaffer and Leonhard Frick, A Simple Prayer, Confession of Sin and Open Confession of Faith, with John D. Rempel and C.J. Dyck. In Jörg Maler’s Kunstbuch. ed., John Rempel. Classics of the Radical Reformation. (Kitchener: Herald Press, 2010), pp. 269-301.
- Vladimir Solov’ev and the Birth of Sophia, in Culture and Identity in Eastern Christian History: Papers of the First Biennial Conference of the Association for the Study of Eastern Christian History and Culture, Ohio Slavic Studies. Vol. 7, edited by Russell E. Martin and Jennifer Spock. (Ohio State University, 2010), pp. 263-297.
- Johann Fabri’s JUSTIFICATION Concerning the Execution of Balthasar Hubmaier, «Mennonite Quarterly Review», 84.1 (Jan 2010), pp. 117-39.
- Assessments of the Recent Russian Sophiological Tradition, «Landshaft» 2 (Summer).
- Introduction to ‘Spinoza as Religious Philosopher: Between Jewishness and Radical Protestantism', «Conrad Grebel Review» 25(3), pp. 4-8.
- The Political and Polemical Motives of Johann Fabri’s Moscouitarum Religio (1525), «Catholic Historical Review» 94.4 (Oct 2008), pp. 653-670.
- Christoph Freisleben’s On the Genuine Baptism of John, Christ and the Apostles. «Mennonite Quarterly Review», 81.4 (Oct 2007), pp. 623-654.
- The ‘Radical’ Revisions of the Commentary on the Seven Penitential Psalms: Luther and his ‘Enemies’ (1517-1525), «Reformation and Renaissance Review» 8.1 (Jan 2006): 26-44.
- Solae (Quae?) Scripturae: Anabaptists and the Apocrypha, «Mennonite Quarterly Review», 80.1 (Jan 2006), pp. 5–34.
- Ludwig Hätzer’s ‘Preface’ to Baruch, Susanna and Bel and the Dragon, «Mennonite Quarterly Review» 80.1 (Jan 2006), pp. 35–42.
- ‘Tret’ia antinomiia’ Kanta i ‘Substantsiia’ Spinozy v sofiologii Florenskogo i Bulgakova [Kant’s “Third Antinomy” and Spinoza’s “Substance” in the Sophiology of Florenskii and Bulgakov].” In Na Puti k Sinteticheskomy Edinstvy Evropeiskoi Kul’tury: filosofskbogoslovskoe Nasledie P. A. Florenskogo i Sovremennost’. Vladimir Porus, ed. (Moscow: Bibleisko-Bogoslovii Institut sv. Apostola Andreia, 2006), pp. 40-50.
- Exiled Russian Orthodox Leaders in Paris and the Struggle to Establish a Home Away From Home (1925–1944), in Historical Papers 2005: Canadian Society of Church History, Annual Conference: University of Western Ontario 29–31 May 2005, edited by Brian Gobbett, Bruce L. Guenther, and Robynne Rogers Healey, pp. 69–82.
Translation (German to English):
- Fernando Enns, Peace and Ecumenism (Ökumene und Frieden: Bewährungsfelder ökumenischer Theologie, 2012) submission target November 2014.
- Fernando Enns, Healing of Memories (Heilung der Erinnerungen – befreit zur gemeinsamen Zukunft: Mennoniten im Dialog: Berichte und Texte ökumenischer Gespräche auf nationaler und internationaler Ebene, 2008) submission target January 2015.
