My research has focused on religion and power in medieval western and central Europe. I currently work comparatively, bringing in Japan, and focusing on religion and armed violence. I believe in good mentoring of students (to teach as I was taught in the USA).

More information about Philippe Buc

My research has focused on religion and power in medieval western and central Europe. I currently work comparatively, bringing in Japan, and focusing on religion and armed violence. I believe in good mentoring of students (to teach as I was taught in the USA).

Fields of interest

• Biblical exegesis
• War and religion
• History and the Social Sciences

Research

I am currently working in close contact with some historians of medieval Japan on comparing the conduct, experience, and commemoration of warfare in Japan and in Europe (to 1600)

Curriculum vitae

• BA Swarthmore College 1981
• Maitrise es arts Paris I 1982
• MA U.C. Berkeley 1987
• Doctorat EHESS Paris 1989
• Assistant, Associate, then Full Prof. Stanford University 1990-2011
• Professor für Geschichte des Hoch- und Spätmittelalter, Universität Wien, 2011-

Key publications

• Holy War, Martyrdom, and Terror: Christianity, Violence, and the West  (Philadelphia: Pennsylvania University Press, 2015). German translation as Heiliger Krieg (Darmstadt: Wissenschaftliche Buchgesellschaft, 2015); French translation, La Guerre Sainte,  in the "Bibliothèque des Histoires" (Paris: Gallimard, 2017), with a special postface; Arabic translation الحرب المقدسة، الاستشهاد والإرهاب   أشكال العنف المسيحية في الغرب (al-ḥarb al-muqaddasa. Al-istišhād wa-l-irhāb - Achkal al-onf al-Massihiya fil Gharb) with the Arab Network for Research and Publishing (Beirut, 2020), with a special preface
• The Dangers of Ritual. Between Early Medieval Texts and Social Scientific Theory (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2001); French translation as Dangereux rituel (Paris, Presses Universitaires de France: 2003); Polish translation (Warsaw: 2011),  with a special postface.
• L'ambiguïté du Livre: Prince, pouvoir, et peuple dans les commentaires de la Bible au Moyen Age, with an introduction by Jacques Le Goff (Collection Théologie historique 95), Paris: Beauchesne, 1994.