Prof. Lackner, director of the IKGF, envisions in this interview research trajectories of the IKGF. He elaborates on the Chinese reception of Western academia in the 19th and 20th centuries on the one hand, and on the other the significance and role of prognostic techniques in the history of Europe, the USA and China.

In this short film, Lionel Jensen reports on his early academic career, his research focus on the “intellectual history of China” and his time as a Visiting Fellow at the IKGF in 2011. In his research on the oeuvre and heritage of the Confucian scholar Zhu Xi (1130-1200) – one of the most popular Chinese philosophers besides Confucius - he investigates how intellectuals were involved in divination and mythology. Through this relecture, the classification of a “Chinese intellectual” acquires fresh dimensions beyond those classically ascribed to philosophers and intellectuals.

The participants in the workshop discussed inter alia the correlation between politics and prophecies, notational diminutives of prognostications and the Pseudo-Methodius. Klaus Herbers reviews the day and the results of the discussion panel in conversation with Hannes Möhring.

In his research on Millennialism, Richard Landes distinguishes between active and passive sabbatical millennialism in Christian traditions. With Erik Niblaeus, he further discusses the competitive late antique and early medieval concepts of this tradition. As an example of active, bottom-up Millennialism, the historian explains the Peace-of-God movement.