Elena Lampp and Lukas Bickel gave talks in Chur

On 28 May, Elena Lampp and Lukas Bickel travelled to Chur to attend the international conference “Mystik und Reformation im helvetischen Kontext” (28–30 May 2026), organized by the Theologische Hochschule Chur.

Set against the backdrop of the episcopal castle, they had the opportunity to present their current research and engage with leading scholars working on mysticism from the Late Middle Ages through the Reformation period.

A brief look at their contributions, both of which will appear in the forthcoming conference proceedings:

Elena Lampp, “Humility, Observance and Reform: Tracing Humility in the Swiss Sister-Books”: The talk revealed that Sister-books were highly sought after pedagogical tools that cultivate virtue from within the convent walls through their own history. These books subtly addressed a central concern that reformers saw: the need to reform from within. At the same time the Swiss convents are a prime example that reforms did not work in binary opposition, rather a grey line in between has existed, where nuns could adopt ideas of reforms, while not fully adopting all the reforms.

Lukas Bickel, “Zur «wahren Andacht»: Disziplinierung des Körpergebets in Dominikanerinnenkonventen des 15. Jahrhunderts vor dem Hintergrund der Mystikkritik der Observanzreform”: This talk contrasted the “Sendbrief von wahrer Andacht”, a work critical of mysticism, written by the Nuremberg Dominican Eberhard von Mardach in 1422, with female prayer instructions. Through their analysis the talk aimed to re-evaluate Thomas Lentes’s thesis, that bodily prayers are to be regarded as typical of late medieval piety, and to elucidate the understanding of mysticism within the Dominican Order's reform on the basis of individual sources.

More information about the conference can be found here: Mystik und Reformation im helvetischen Kontext