Theologian and Scholastic philosopher Henry of Ghent (d. 1293) could arguable be considered the most significant thinker of the last quarter of the 13th century. His works remained influential well into the Renaissance.

The critical edition of articles 63–67 of Henry’s Quaestiones ordinariae (Summa) *is dedicated to the subjects discussed in his lectures held at the University of Paris, namely the common relations within the Trinity. These articles were composed around 1290. In them, Henr...

In 2022, the Belgian parliament made a landmark decision by approving the decriminalisation of sex work. This move positioned the small nation as the first country in Europe – and the second globally – to abandon the hypocrisy of tolerance. Yet this was not the first time paid sex in Belgium gained international notoriety. The bathhouses of the fifteenth-century ‘frows of Flanders’ were well-known throughout Europe. In the nineteenth century, Belgium faced international outrage as the...

Boredom and melancholy in the experience of reading.

Contemporary graphic novels show an interesting shift from the extraordinary to the ordinary in slice-of-life stories in which nothing happens. Present-day graphic accounts are inhabited by melancholic characters whining about the lack of meaning in life. This book examines this intriguing transition and brings a historical, aesthetical and narratological approach to comics in which boredom is not only a topic, but also awakens a deliberate...

How churches in Northern Europe reinvented their role as providers of social relief.

Charity is a word that fits well in the history of religion and churches, whereas the concept of social reform seems to belong more to the vocabulary of the modern welfare states. Christian charity found itself, during the long nineteenth century, within the maelstrom of social turmoil. In this context of social unrest, although charity managed to confirm its relevance, it was also subjected to fierce critici...

'European Muslims and New Media' offers perspectives on the various ways in which Muslims use new media to form and reform Muslim consciousness, identities, and national and transnational belongings, and contest and negotiate tensions and hegemonic narratives in Western European societies. The authors explore how online discussion groups, social media communities, and other online sites act as a 'new public sphere' for Muslim youth to voice their opinions, seek new sources of knowledge, estab...

The present book reveals the riches of the earliest known astrological autobiography, authored by Henry Bate of Mechelen (1246–after 1310). Exploiting all resources of contemporary astrological science, Bate conducts in his 'Nativitas' a profound self-analysis, revealing the peculiarities of his character and personality at a crucial moment of his life (1280). The result is an extraordinarily detailed and penetrating attempt to decode the fate of one’s own life and its idiosyncrasies. 'Th...

It is no coincidence that a historical figure such as Patrice Emery Lumumba, independent Congo’s first prime minister, who was killed in 1961, has lived in the realm of the cultural imaginary and occupied an afterlife in the arts. After all, his project remained unfinished and his corpse unburied. The figure of Lumumba has been imagined through painting, photography, cinema, poetry, literature, theatre, music, sculpture, fashion, cartoons and stamps, and also through historiography and in p...

« Splendide famille. Le père, un gars flamand, simple, robuste – la mère profondément religieuse. Les enfants tous débordants de vie. Ils ont un tel courage, pour braver les Français avec leur conviction religieuse. »

Ainsi parlait le père jésuite Frans Van den Brande, l’un des aumôniers des paysans flamands du Nord de la France dans l’entre-deux-guerres. Son activité avait un objectif simple: s’assurer que les émigrés belges restassent catholiques et flamands. L’initi...

The public sector in our society has over the past two decades undergone substantial changes, as has the academic field studying Public Administration (PA). In the next twenty years major shifts are further expected to occur in the way futures are anticipated and different cultures are integrated. Practice will be handled in a relevant way, and more disciplines will be engaging in the field of Public Administration.

The prominent scholars contributing to this book put forward research strateg...