Subproject C03

Metaphors of Everyday Life

The project explores religious metaphors from the semantic field of ordinary, everyday life. These metaphors revolve around a semantic gap: the discrepancy between the common, lowly character of the source domain and the high, sublime qualities of an evoked divine sphere. Metaphors of everyday thus respond to a challenge of religious discourse: the difference between immanence and transcendence which they seek to bridge in a bold advance. We will retrace this imagery in the works of Cusanus and Melanchthon, whose religious language develops in dialogue with ancient and biblical sources as well as the discourses of their time.

Cooperation with the Cusanus Institute at the University of Trier

Subproject C03 will cooperate with the Institute for Cusanus Research at the University and Faculty of Theology of Trier in the coming years.

Publications

• Stünkel, Knut Martin. 2022. "Sermo est panis animae - Prolegomena zur Untersuchung von Metaphern des Alltäglichen im religiösen Sprechen des Nikolaus von Kues." Komparatistik Online, 73–89. https://www.komparatistik-online.de/index.php/komparatistik_online/article/view/226.
• Krüger, Patrick F. and Knut Martin Stünkel. 2023. "Works of Art as Model Forms in the Contact of Religions. Glimpses from Japan, China, and India." Art of the Orient 12: 72–109. https://doi.org/10.15804/aoto202305.
• Stünkel, Knut Martin. 2025. "Metaphern der Religionskritik. Beispiele religionskritischer Sinnbildung bei Karl Marx und Christopher Hitchens." Psychosozial 48: 77–87.
• Krüger, Patrick F. and Knut Martin Stünkel. 2025. "Metaphern machen Märtyrer. Die franziskanischen Narrative über den Tod von P. Silvester Padberg OFM (1906–1938)." Wissenschaft und Weisheit 87 (2024): 161–179.
• Stünkel, Knut Martin. 2025. "Unsheathing the Blades of Mind: Ulrich von Hutten’s Activist Metaphors." Medievalia & Humanistica 50: 89–118.
• Simonis, Linda and Knut Martin Stünkel. 2023. "Report on the Workshop “Exploring the Cosmos: Unraveling Cusanus’ Metaphors” (15–16 June 2023, Ruhr University Bochum, Center for Religious Studies)." Comparatio 15: 165–170. ISSN 1867-7762.
• Stünkel, Knut Martin. 2023. On Aggressive and Self-Aggressive Metaphors in Religious Language: The Cases of Martin Luther and Nicholas Cusanus. Metaphor Papers 3. https://doi.org/10.46586/mp.281.
• Simonis, Linda. 2024. Nektar und Stachel. Bienenmetaphern in Wittenberg: Philipp Melanchthon, Lucas Cranach und Johann Stigel. Metaphor Papers 6. https://doi.org/10.46586/mp.293.
• Klöckner, Chris. 2024. Tote Bienlein. Eine Betrachtung der Bienenmetapher bei Philipp Melanchthon im Briefwechsel mit Paul Eber und im Kommentar zu Vergils „Georgica“. Metaphor Papers 10. https://doi.org/10.46586/mp.315.
• Stünkel, Knut Martin. 2025. Metapher und Formular. Überlegungen zu einer allgemeinen Theorie der Erfahrung und der religiösen Sinnbildung durch Metaphern im Anschluss an Jürgen Frese und Wilhelm Schapp. Metaphor Papers 14. https://doi.org/10.46586/mp.353.
• Simonis, Linda, Knut Martin Stünkel, eds. 2025. Exploring the Cosmos. Unraveling Cusanus’ Metaphors. Metaphor Papers 17. https://doi.org/10.46586/mp.389.
• Simonis, Linda, and Knut Martin Stünkel. 2025. “Exploring the Cosmos. Unraveling Cusanus’ Metaphors.” In Exploring the Cosmos: Unraveling Cusanus’ Metaphors, edited by Linda Simonis and Knut Martin Stünkel. Metaphor Papers 17. https://doi.org/10.46586/mp.389.458.
• Stünkel, Knut Martin. 2025. “Light, Brooms, and Drops of Oil on Thick Paper. Cusanus’ Everyday Metaphors. A Suggestion for Their Typology.” In Exploring the Cosmos: Unraveling Cusanus’ Metaphors, edited by Linda Simonis and Knut Martin Stünkel. Metaphor Papers 17. https://doi.org/10.46586/mp.389.462.
• Savapakarn, Phoenix. 2025. “‘Metabolism’ as Metaphor of Appropriation in Nicholas of Cusa’s Sermones.” In Exploring the Cosmos: Unraveling Cusanus’ Metaphors, edited by Linda Simonis and Knut Martin Stünkel. Metaphor Papers 17. https://doi.org/10.46586/mp.389.463.
• Artemov, Nikita, Linda Simonis, and Jan-Ulrich Sobisch, eds. 2025. Sealing, Molding, Imprinting, and Inscribing as Religious Metaphors. Metaphor Papers 22. https://doi.org/10.46586/mp.422.
• Simonis, Linda. 2025. “‘Written in the Mind’: Genealogies and Affiliations of a Melanchthonian Metaphor.” In Sealing, Molding, Imprinting, and Inscribing as Religious Metaphors, edited by Nikita Artemov, Linda Simonis, and Jan-Ulrich Sobisch. Metaphor Papers 22. https://doi.org/10.46586/mp.422.492.
• Simonis, Linda. 2025. “Professions as Religious Metaphors: Introduction.” In Professions as Religious Metaphors, edited by Frederik Elwert. Metaphor Papers 25. https://doi.org/10.46586/mp.434.508.
• Simonis, Linda. 2025. “Steering Through the Storms of the Reformation: Christ as Helmsman in Melanchthon’s Poem Pro Argonautis.” In Professions as Religious Metaphors, edited by Frederik Elwert. Metaphor Papers 25. https://doi.org/10.46586/mp.434.514.
• Stünkel, Knut Martin. 2025. “Proto-Metaphors and Flawed Metaphors from Everyday-Life: Glassblowing and the Process of Transubstantiation: Nicholas of Cusa, Sermo III (1431).” In Professions as Religious Metaphors, edited by Frederik Elwert. Metaphor Papers 25. https://doi.org/10.46586/mp.434.512.
• Savapakarn, Phoenix. 2025. “‘A preacher is like a baker’—Nicholas of Cusa’s Allegory of Making Bread: Nicholas of Cusa, Sermo XLI (1444).” In Professions as Religious Metaphors, edited by Frederik Elwert. Metaphor Papers 25. https://doi.org/10.46586/mp.434.513.
• Stünkel, Knut Martin. 2025. "Review of: Marius Kraus: Ulrich von Hutten und seine Gegner. Humanistische Invektiven am Vorabend der Reformation (Transalpines Mittelalter 1), Baden-Baden: Ergon 2022." Medievalia et Humanistica 50: 171–173.
• Krüger, Patrick F. and Knut Martin Stünkel. 2025. "Subvertierte Formulare und erläuternde Metaphern. Über die chinesische Umdeutung europäischer Vorgaben in Kunstwerken am Beispiel der Ars Sacra Pekinensis." In Produktion, Transfer, Agency! Koloniales Sammeln und indigene Akteur:innen, herausgegeben von Stella Barsch, Lars Frühsorge und Olaf Günther, Potsdam: edition tethys, 148–166.
• Stünkel, Knut Martin. 2025. “The Senses and Their Sentinel: The Ways to the Fortress of the Soul Occupied by the Devil (Cusanus’ Sermo CXLIX, 1454).” In Conceptualizing CONDUCT OF LIFE through WAY Metaphors, edited by Kianoosh Rezania, Neda Mohtashami, and Roman Seidel. Metaphor Papers 19. https://doi.org/10.46586/mp.430.505.
• Stünkel, Knut Martin. 2025 “Towards a Refined Everyday Metaphorics of Light. On Cusanus’ Sermons CXXVIII, CXXIX, and CXXX.” In More Light on the Metaphors of Light, edited by Carmen Meinert and Vivien Staps. Metaphor Papers 26. https://doi.org/10.46586/mp.448.528.