Ghosts of the past? Trust and friendship in historical perspective

Can you imagine a life without trust and friendship? People throughout the ages have pondered this question, and most of them have answered with a resounding ‘no’. No, you cannot live without friends, and no, you cannot live without trust. More importantly, it is hard to live together without them, because they are important social bonds. Yet it is not easy to make friends, to trust others, or to earn their trust. We often feel alone, misunderstood, betrayed, or excluded. In our time, we face new challenges to trust and friendship. Social media allows us to connect and befriend everyone, but we also experience bullying and online hate. In addition, the COVID pandemic has confined us to our homes and dramatically reduced social contact. Societies are divided into groups that do not trust each other’s words. And still, this is not the first time we have faced such difficulties. In the past, people have experienced similar moments of doubt and despair, and they have sought to find solutions to their problems.

We invite students to follow us back into the seventeenth century, a time when religious strife tore societies apart and war devastated much of Europe, but also a time when people first began to think about tolerance and new ways of trusting each other and making friends. Together, we will look at a range of interesting sources that will show us how people imagined trust and friendship, how they thought about these issues, and the stories they told each other to create a new and better society.

Spotkanie odbędzie się w jęz. angielskim, z obecnym tłumaczem symultanicznym.