Despite their paramount significance, the religious sensibilities of Schubert’s age remain understudied, though they provide a fascinating insight into the historical layers shaping both his works and the Habsburg Monarchy. Schubert’s compositions devoted to religious themes – such as the Ave Maria (after Walter Scott), his psalm settings for Salomon Sulzer’s synagogue and his often liturgically un-conventional masses – reveal a composer deeply engaged with the multiconfessional and multi-lingual world around him. His satirical remarks about the dim-witted clergy recall the anticlerical spirit of Joseph II’s era. At the same time, his art reflects an intimate knowledge of European Romanticism, Weimar Classicism, and the Jewish Haskalah movement, each of which offers distinct perspectives on faith and religious sentiment.

In a Monarchy that celebrated its pluralism as a safeguard against revolution, religion continued to shape identity and art. This call for papers is not limited to contributions offering new perspectives on Schubert’s works through the lens of religious culture and feeling. Interdisciplinary contributions from literary studies, history, theology and the arts are also welcome, addressing topics such as the shift from Baroque ritual to inward devotion, re-evangelisation movements, gendered worship, the practices of and discontent with religious toleration, the gradual substitution of revelation for  individual transcendence in the new mythologies of nineteenth-century Kunstreligion as well as mediations of heaven, earth (and hell) both in literature and the fine arts.

Applications should include a short CV and an abstract of ca. 300 words. These materials should be sent to schubert@oeaw.ac.at no later than 12 April 2026.
Most of the costs for travel and accommodation will be covered by the Schubert Research Center.
The conference language is English.

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