Syllabus Fall 1996
Lectures are Tuesdays and Thursdays at 1:30-2:50 p.m.
Weekly sections to be arranged.
Course Instructor: Katherine J. Gill
Office: Sterling Divinity Quadrangle, Chapel 130
Office Telephone: 432-5023; email: katherine.gill@yale.edu
Office Hours: Thursdays, 3:00-5:00; other hours by appointment.
This survey introduces students to the major intellectual, institutional,
and popular developments within Christian culture in Europe and the Mediterranean
from the first to the fourteenth century. Primary texts will include martyrdom
accounts, saints lives, the literature of monasticism, records of miracles
and pilgrimage, documents of major ecclesiastical councils and controversies,
liturgical poetry and drama, Crusade accounts, Jewish-Christian theological
debate, heresy trials, and the theological writings of monastic and scholastic
figures.
A central course goal is the close observation of the ways in which different
historical societies and individuals have received, expressed and defined
a complex and not always (or obviously) consistent nexus of beliefs, ideas
and practices. Relatedly, the course focuses on the reciprocal ways social
values and a religious values have shaped each other. Relatedly,
the course focuses on the reciprocal ways social values and a religious
values have shaped each other. Other organizing concepts and emphases of
the course are: the dynamism of historical Christianity, the almost perpetual
presence of movements, reforms and revivals in its long history, and the
diversity of perspectives that characterize Christianity at any given time.
Hopefully this encounter with ancient and medieval Christianity will keep
participants poised between an increasingly informed sense of identity and
disjunction. If those who regard themselves as part of one of the many Christian
traditions gain a palpable sense of the otherness of historical Christianity
which may, in turn, serve them amid the diversity of religious positions
which face them nationally and globally today, then an additional objective
will have been achieved.
Reading and writing assignments emphasize primary sources and aim to promote
close reading, textual analysis and evidence based cultivation of a historical
the imagination. The course also attempts to make the past more vivid through
the use of images and music as sources.
In addition, lectures and readings have been coordinated with some of the
quickly expanding resources for teaching and learning on the World Wide
Web. The Ad Hoc Website consists of resources for the Teaching and Research
of the History of Christianity. This Website, the 700a History of Christianity
Web Site, includes the syllabus, course outline,
handouts as well as extra weekly reading materials, images, bibliography
and links to others resources.
It will be important for students to acquire a Yale email account in order
to access the course website and other materials linked to it. An account
is free for full time Yale Divinity School students. You may access the
website from any computer in the Yale Divinity School Library or the YDS
Computer Cluster. If you have a computer and modem, you will be able to
access the site from your home.
The web address for Ad Hoc is: http:\\ www.yale.edu\adhoc
The web address for this site is: http:\\www.yale.edu\adhoc\700index.html.
Questions? Email Ann Martino at webassist.yale.edu.
Sections
Sections will meet once a week for 50 minutes. Section assignments and discussion
questions will be given in class and/or posted on the 700A website.
A sourcebook in two volumes and 3 books include all the required readings.
The textbooks for the course will be available through the YDS Student Book
Supply. Here too is an atlas, which is highly recommended, especially if
participants do not have a similar tool. The course packets will be available
through RIS, 155 Whitney Ave (call 432-6560 to order packets and check availability).
The primary readings for this course are also available through course website.
- Sourcebook I: Weeks I-VI*
- Sourcebook II: Weeks VII-XIII*
- J. Lynch. The Medieval Church. New York: Longman, 1992.
- H. Grundmann. Religious Movements in the Middle Ages. Trans.
By S. Rowans. Notre Dame: University of Notre dame press, 1995.
- J. Vitry. Life of Marie D'Oignes. Trans. By Margot King. Toronto:
Peregrina Publishing Co., 1993.
- Charles S. Anderson, Augsburg Historical Atlas of Christianity in
the Middle Ages and Reformation. Augsburg Publishing House: Minneapolis,
1967.
* Note: The abbreviation OR stands for Online
Resources. The version of the syllabus available online through
the Ad Hoc website contains a section for each class listing Online Resources
that are thematically or chronologically related to lectures and readings.
The designation OMS indicates that the source is The Online Medieval
Sourcebook. Most of the readings for this course are available electronically.
Lecture, attendance, section preparation and participation. Two questions
suggested by reading assignment due in section each week. Two short papers
(3-5 page) papers. A one page biographical article on one figure who lived
withing the time frame covered by the course using at least two of the following
sources: Oxford Dictionary of the Christian Church, Dictionary of the Middle
Ages, Encyclopedia of Early Christianity, New Catholic Encyclopedia. Midterm.
Final.
Midterm and final will exams will consist of short answers, identification
questions, multiple choice questions, and short essay questions. The final
will also have a take-home segment which will be distributed on the last
day of class and due at the time of the final. Students will receive study
questions for both the midterm and the final.
Lecture and section attendance and participation; a one page biographical
article: 20%
Section written exercises: 10%
Midterm: 20%
Two short papers: 30%
Final: 30%
Schedule of Lectures and Readings
Thurs. 9/5. Introduction.
What is our subject? Historical approaches and methods. The goals and purposes
of this course. Overview of the syllabus and requirements.
Philosophical Schools. Mystery Cults. Judaism: Religious and Political Movements
in Late Antiquity. The Hellenized Jew. Imperial Cult. The Christians as
the Roman's Saw Them. Conversion. Religion and Identity. Religion and Society.
Required Readings: Sourcebook: Ferguson, Everett, Backgrounds
of Early Christianity (Grand Rapids, Michigan, 1992): "Ancient
Roman Religion," 154-165; "Hellenistic-Roman Philosophies,"
pp. 304-371. If you have time read the Fergusson selection for next class.
Sourcebook 1: Selections from Marcus Aurelius's Meditations Sourcebook
1: Pliny /Trajan Correspondence. (See also pp. 557-558 in Ferguson readings
for next class).
Size, geographical distribution and character of early Christian communities.
Gnosticism and Rival Versions of Christianity. Jewish Christianity. What
was normative Christianity in the first three centuries? Forms and elements
of early liturgy: creeds, prayers, readings, song. Baptism and Eucharist.
Discipline and charity. Development toward a canon. What are our sources
for early Christianity? Literate spokespersons: the Apologists. Who were
the "Fathers"? What is Patrology or Patristics?
Required Readings: Sourcebook: Ferguson, Everett, Backgrounds
of Early Christianity (Grand Rapids, Michigan, 1992): "Gnosticism,
Hermetic Literature, Chaldean Oracles," 282-293; "Christianity
in the Ancient World," 547-583. Sourcebook 1: Selections from Books
1 & 5 of Irenaeus, Against All the Heresies Sourcebook 1: "Thunder
Perfect Mind." Sourcebook 1: Letter to Diognetus (c. 130-180),
selections illustrating Christian ideals in second century. Sourcebook 1:
Justin Martyr, "Christian Baptism and Worship," from Apology,
I, 61-7. Note links to Gnositics and entire text of Irenaeus on Ad hoc.
Class handout: Selections from Egeria, Itinerarium (381-4) and Justin
Martyr on conversion, from Dialogue with Trypho, 110, 3-4.
Section 1. Discuss: Sourcebook 1: Selections from Books 1 & 5
of Irenaeus, Against All the Heresies Sourcebook: Pagels, E., The
Gnostic Gospels (New York: Vintage Books, 1989): xiii-xxiii, xxxii-27,
142-151.
Martyrdom and Persecution. The Blood of the Martyrs. Beginnings of Cult
of the Saints. Some late antique martyrs and their communities: Justin,
Cyprian, Perpetua and Felicity. Relics and commemoration of the dead. Patterns
of leadership and worship. Early institutional structures. The social presence
of early communities. Poverty, wealth and the importance of charity. The
end of state sponsored persecutions. Constantine and his conversion. Edict
of Toleration. Assessing the impact and import of Constantine.
Required Readings: Sourcebook 1: Ignatius of Antioch (d. c. 107):
Letter to Romans. Sourcebook 1: The Passion of SS. Perpetua and
Felicity (203). Sourcebook 1: The martyrdom of Cyprian, from the
official records. Sourcebook 1: Cyprian (d. 258), On the Unity of
the Church (selection). Sourcebook 1: Conversion of Constantine,
from Eusebius (d. c.339), Ecclesiastical History. Lynch, Chapter
1, "Ancient Christianity," pp. 1-18.
Handout: Selections from Martyrdom of Polycarp (d.
155 or 156).
Highly recommended to read over next 2-3 weeks: Sourcebook 1: P.
Brown, "The Saint as Exemplar in Late Antiquity." Representations
1 / 2 (Spring 1983): 1-26
The Patronage of Constantine and his family. Old St. Peters in Rome. The
Holy Sepulcher in Jerusalem. The New Rome of Constantinople. Christianization
of the aristocracy. Christianity and intellectual culture. Philosophers.
Orators. Bishops. Essence, substance, nature and likeness: the Council of
Nicaea (325) and the Arian Controversy. The Cappadocian Fathers. Ascetical
movements of the third and fourth centuries. Athanasius and Anthony. Gregory
of Nyssa and Macrina. Martyrdom and asceticism. Social dimensions of asceticism.
Theological debates and the late antique body. Theology and hagiography.
Handout: Eusebius's In Praise of Constantine (336); and Constantine's
Gifts to the Lateran and St. Peter's basilicas in Rome (313-337) as recorded
by The Book of the Popes.
Required Readings: Sourcebook 1: Athanasius, On Incarnation (selections;
copywrited). Sourcebook 1: Athanasius, Life of Anthony (selections).
Sourcebook 1: The Sayings of the Desert Fathers (selections). Section
2 Read in Sourcebook 1: Gregory of Nyssa's Life of Macrina
and On the Soul and the Resurrection (selections). Compare and
discuss the relationship between theology and hagiography in the following
works of Athanasius and Gregory of Nyssa: Athanasius's Life of Anthony
and On the Incarnation; and Gregory of Nyssa's Life of Macrina
and On the Soul and the Resurrection (selections). What do we
learn about the theologians Athanasius and Gregory from their hagiographical
writings that we could not know from their more formally "theological"
works? 
Desert virtuosi. Renunciation and self-denial: some social consequences
of living the "angelic life." Varieties of early monasticism in
the East. Monasticism travels West: Paladius's biographies of early monks.
Rural and urban monasticism. House monasteries. Jerome, Paula and Eustochium.
Melania. Monasticism and Pilgrimage. Holy women in the Holy Land. Monastic
life and the scriptures. Scripture and learning. Augustine's De doctrina
christiana. The art of holy reading. Cassian and his Conferences. The
quest for perfection and the challenge of Pelagius. Free will and Grace.
The Benedictine Rule in the light of early ascetical movements and communities.
Benedict as Exemplar.
Handout: Selections from writings of Augustine on Grace and Free
Will.
Required Readings: Lynch, chapter 2, "The Beginnings of the
Medieval Church," pp. 19-34 Sourcebook 1: Palladius (c.363-c.424).
The Lausiac History. (selections from W. K. Lowther Clarke translation)
Sourcebook 1: Selections from correspondence of Paula, Eustochium, and Jerome
(d. 420); and from Jerome's letters to Marcella. Sourcebook 1: Cassian,
Conferences, Book 2, Conference 14, "The First Conference of Abbot
Nesteros: On Spiritual Knowledge." (especially chapters 8, 9 &
10). Sourcebook 1: Rule of St. Benedict (selection; a different selection
at Ad hoc site)
Highly reccomended for this week and the next: Peter Brown, The
Cult of the Saints, chapters 1 and 2, with notes.
Recommended: Augustine's De doctrina christiana (selection
in sourcebook; whole text in Ad hoc).
How Rome "Fell." Who were the "barbarians." Emperors
and officers; popes and bishops. Shift from urban to rural recruitment.
Augustine's life, work, audiences and impact. The City of God. Gregory
the Great: bishop, pope and exegete. The world and worldviews of Augustine
& Gregory compared. Post-Roman Christianity.
Required Readings: Sourcebook 1 (closed reserve): Robert Markus,
"The Sacred and the Secular: From Augustine to Gregory the Great."
Sourcebook 1. Augustine (a) selections from the City of God as found
in *OMS and the Confessions (=Augustine's account of his own conversion
as found in Book Three, Chapter I, IV; Book Five, Chapter 13 and Book Eight,
Book 6-12.) Sourcebook 1. Gregory the Great (b), selections from Pastoral
Care and Moralia on the Book of Job.
Recommended: Selections from Ambrose's sermons on the meaning of
baptism preached during Easter week (c. 391) to catechumens about to be
baptised (from De Sacramentis, or Sermons on the Sacraments).
Augustine's De doctrina christiana (selection in sourcebook; whole
text in Ad hoc). Sourcebook 1. Gregory the Great (a) selections from Dialogues:
the beginning of Book I and Book II, on the Life of St. Benedict.
Section 3: Discuss the conceptions and representations of individual
and community in the writings of Augustine of Hippo and Gregory the Great
(as listed under Readings for Thursday and Section 3). How would you characterize
each writer's views of human nature. Discuss the ideals for a religious
society and a religious life implicit in these texts. How do Markus's ideas
relate to the class readings? Compare and contrast the way each author uses
Scripture in his writings. How is Gregory's approach to Scripture reflect
his views of God and of persons? If you had to liken the Confessions to
one Book or part of the Bible, what would it be? How is life like a text
for each author? What kind of an audience or for whom do you surmise each
author is writing? Sourcebook 1. Augustine (b): More selections from the
Confessions (on his mother Monica, from Book Nine and on memory, from
Book 10). Sourcebook 1. Gregory the Great (b), selections from Pastoral
Care and Moralia on the Book of Job.
Fifth through Eight Centuries. Byzantium. Rise of Islam. Rome and the Papacy.
Ravenna. Overview of Christianity in Italy, the Iberian Penninsula, Gaul,
and northeastern Europe. Missionaries and Roman Models. The Life of St.
Martin. Christianity in Britain and Ireland. The role of monasticism
in the spread and reception of Christianity. Bede and his Ecclesiastical
History of the English People. Exporting Roman commodities: relics,
monks, liturgy and manuscripts. Opus dei: the Divine Office. Liturgy and
Gregorian Chant in early medieval Europe.
Required Readings: Lynch, chapter 3, "The Conversion of the
West (350-700)," pp. 35-53. [Note:Byzantium and Islam briefly treated
on p. 61-62]. Sourcebook 1: Sulpicius Severus, Life of St Martin
(selections). Sourcebook 1: "The Ruin." In The Earliest English
Poems. Trans. Michael Alexander. 2nd ed., pp. 28-29. Harmondsworth:
Penguin, 1977. Sourcebook 1: Irish Hermit Poems. Selections from Jackson,
Kenneth. Early Celtic Nature Poetry, pp. 3-5. Cambridge: Cambridge
University Press, 1935. Sourcebook 1: Bede, selections from Ecclesiastical
History of the English People. .
Conversion, coersion, persuasion. Preaching, poetry and holy lives/sanctity.
What is Hagiography? Holy places, images and objects. Orthopraxis and orthodoxy.
Penitentials. Synod of Whitby. Holy reading: the Bible in the early Middle
Ages. Liturgy, time and cosmos. Rituals and power in early medieval Europe.
The Ruthwell Cross and early medieval spirituality.
Handout: Selection from a sermon of Columbanus. "The Dream of
the Rood." "The Ascension" by Cynewulf.
Required Readings: Lynch, chapter 4, "The Papal-Frankish Alliance,"
pp. 54-64. Sourcebook 1: Boniface. Selections from The Letters of Saint
Boniface. Trans. Ephraim Emerton. New York: Columbia University Press,
1940. Sourcebook 1: Boniface (alias Wynfrith). Letter to Eadburga, 716-717
from Anglo Saxon Prose, trans. Michael Swanton (London: Everyman,
revised ed. 1993): 36-42. . Sourcebook 1: Texts relating to church building,
ritual practice and holy objects in Ireland and England, from Early Medieval
Art. 300-1150, ed. Cecilia Davis-Weyer (Toronto: University of Toronto
Press, 1971): 70-79.
Recommended: Eckenstein. Women Under Monasticism. Ch. IV,
"Anglo-Saxon Nuns in Connection with Boniface." 118-142. Available
at Ad Hoc website. Review from last class: Bede, Book I, ch 23; Book
II ch 33 (pp 65-91 acount of Roman mission to Kent); Book III, (pp138-197)
Irish missions and synod of Whitby.
Section 4: Early Medieval Saints' Lives: St Martin and St. Brigit.
Sourcebook 1: Introduction to Soldiers of Christ: Saints and Saints'
Lives from Late Antiquity and the Early Middle Ages, by Thomas F.X.
Noble and Thomas Head (Univeristy Park, Pennysylvania: Pennsylvania State
Press, 1995): xxiii-xliv. Sourcebook 1. Cogitosus. "Life of St. Brigit"
.
MIDTERM STUDY QUESTIONS AVAILABLE IN SECTION.
SHORT PAPER DUE IN CLASS 9 ON EARLY MEDIEVAL "LIFE WRITINGS"
(3-5 pages). Assess, analyse and compare the representations the human subject
in two or three of the saints lives we have read. As evidence for the practice
and prevailing values of Early Christianity what do these sources tell you?
You may want to orgainize your short paper around one or two recurrent themes
or tensions that you find in these life writings. Finally, compare the holy
lives you have selected to the Life of Charlemagne (see 10-page selection
in Sourcebook 1). The life of Charlemagne is frequently identified as the
first secular biography in the middle ages. What is "secular"
about it? You might want to use the article by Robert Markus to organize
your concluding thoughts on secular vs. sacred life writings in Early Christianity.
Read: Sourcebook 1. "Einhard's Charlemagne: The Practical Hero."
In The Early Middle Ages. 500-1000. Ed. Robert Brentano.
Kingdoms and Communities in Carolingian Europe. Europe, Byzantium and Islam.
Schism between the Eastern and Western Churches. The "Pirenne Thesis."
The rise of Charlemagne. The Carolingian reforms. The contexts of learning.
Texts, transmission and manuscripts. Likeness and presence: mediating the
divine through image, word and ritual. John of Damascus and the Iconoclastic
Controversy.
Handout 1: Theodulf of Orleans. "Hymn for Palm Sunday."
Required Readings: Lynch, Chapters 5 & 6, "The Church in
the Carolingian Empire" & "The Carolingian Renaissance,"
pp. 65-96. Sourcebook 1. The Donation of Constantine. Sourcebook 1: John
of Damascus: In Defence of Icons, c 730, extracts from On the Holy Icons
and the Fount of Wisdom. Sourcebook: Selections on Carolingian art,
iconoclasm and post-Carolingian discussions of religious imagery. From Caecilia
Weyer Davis, Early Medieval Art.
Section 5: Relics, Images and Idols. Discuss the relationships
between the Carolingian debates about images and about the Eucharist. How
do you understand the relationships between the writings of theologians
such as John of Damascus, Radbertus and Ratramnus and the cult of the saints?
Read: Selections from Paschasius Radbertus of Corbie: The Lord's
Body and Blood and Ratramnus of Corbie: Christ's Body and Blood
(read enough of each selection to be able to articulate the author's position
and strategy of argumentation).
Recommended: One of the following articles from Patrick Geary's
Living with the Dead in the Middle Ages, Cornell, 1994: "The Saint
and the Shrine: The Pilgrim's Goal in the Middle Ages" pp. 163-176.
"The Ninth-Century Relic Trade - A Response to Popular Piety? Pp. 177-193.
Economies and Societies. The Gift Economy: its mechanism and values. The
ritual ordering of human and divine relationships. Feudal society. The three
orders. Those who fought: Taming warrior society. Peace of God movements
(Lynch , p. 120). The Christian Warrior. Travel and pilgrimage in the central
middle ages. Liturgy, song and poetry.
Required Readings: Lynch, Chapters 7 & 8, "The Collapse
of the Carolingian World" & "The Church in the Year 1000,"
pp. 97-135.
Section 6: Discuss the attitude toward art, relics and sanctity revealed
by the Miracles of St. Foy, written by an initially skeptical monk. Sourcebook
2: "Miracles of Saint Foy." From Readings in Medieval History.
Ed. Patrick Geary. 2nd ed. Peterborough, Ontario and Lewiston, NY: Broadview
Press, 1991. Sourcebook 2: Dahl, Ellert. "Heavenly images: The statue
of St. Foy of Conques and the signification of the Medieval `Cult-Image'
in the West." Acta ad Archaeologiam (1978): 175-190.
The new model monastery: Cluny. Cluny and Benedictine Monasticism in the
10th & 11th Centuries. Liturgical culture of central Middle Ages. The
Old Testament and the Biblically shaped imagination. Other religious movements:
wandering preachers, hermits, experimental women's houses. Investiture Controversy.
Pope Gregory VII. The papacy defines its powers. The new model priesthood.
Simony, concubinage, homosexuality and the life of the average priest. The
price of purity. The birth of a persecuting society?
Required Readings: Lynch, Chapters 9 & 10, "The Eleventh-Century
Reforms" & "The Rise of Christendom," pp. 136-164 Sourcebook
2: Readings on monastic culture, spiritual friendship, and the "invesiture
crisis."
Western and Eastern Christians. Christians and Non-Christians. The Muslim
world in the 9th-11th centuries. Jews in Muslim and Christian Culture. The
Crusaders' Set Off. Domestic enemies. Crusade against the Jews. Beyond the
Sea: Jews, Muslims and Christians appraised each other. Cultural encounter,
perception and conflict.
Required Readings: Lynch, chapter 10 "The Rise of Christendom,"
revisit pp. 159-167. Sourcebook 2: Documents on the crusades.
Section 7: Discuss: Accounts of the First Crusade.
Defining belief and practice. Canon law. Heresy and dissent. Intellectual
and popular heresies. The position of the laity in Christian society. Institutional
structures from the Investiture Crisis to the Fourth Lateran Council. Slides:
Romanesque architechture and sculpture. Art of Rome and the papacy.
Required Readings: Lynch, Chapters 11, 17 and 18 "the Age of
the Papacy," "The Framework of the Christian Life," and "The
Sacramental Life," pp. 168-182, 256-302. L. Eckenstein, Women Under
Monasticism., Ch. VI, "The Monastic Revival of the Middle Ages."
184-221.
Apostolic Life and Evangelical Awakening. Religious texts and manuscript
culture. Feudal and courtly culture. The Life and Writings of St. Anselm.
Required Readings: Lynch, Chapter 12 "The New Testament Revival,"
pp. 183-196; Chapter 16 "The Schools," pp.239-255; (Chapter 17
"The Framework of the Christian Life," also relevant here.) Sourcebook
2: Reading from Anselm.
Section 8: Readings from Anselm.
Monastic experiments. Cistercians. Carthusians. Canons Regular. The Victorines.
Women in religious life. New types of religious texts. The "Twelfth
Century Renaissance." Art. Music.
Required Readings: Sourcebook: Bernard of Clairvaux, Hugh of St.
Victor and Hildegard of Bingen. L. Eckenstein, Women Under Monasticism.,
Ch. IX, "Early Mystic Literature," pp. 305-353. [NB. Part I: Mysticism
for Women in England (305-325) and Part II: The convent of Helfta and its
Literary Nuns." (328-353). Lynch, Chapter 13 "Monastic Life: the
Twelfth Century," pp. 197-216.
Urban learning. Cathedral Schools. Wandering Scholars. Intellectual Encounters
with Arab and Jewish intellectual culture. New Learning. New audiences.
Professionalization of religious learning and clerical culture. Vocies of
opposition. Lovers and courtiers. Abelard. Heloise.
Required Readings: Sourcebook 2: Lettters of Abelard and Heloise.
Sourcebook 2: Sources for intellectual history of 12-13th centuries.
Lynch, Chapter 16, "The Schools," pp. 239-255
Section 9: Writings of Bernard of Clairvaux on Song of Songs
and On Loving God.
Wandering preachers. Waldensians. Cathars. Albigensian Crusade. Inquisition.
Apostolic life and voluntary poverty.
Required Readings: Lynch, Chapter 14 "The Heretics." Grundmann,
Chapter 1, "The Religious Movement in the Twelfth Century: 'Apostolic
Life' and 'Christian Poverty,'" pp. 7-30 and Chapter 2 "The Religious
Movement under Innocent III: The Rise of New Types of Orders," pp.
31-68, 216-227 (pages 209-239 optional). (check the pages).
The Rise of the Mendicant Orders. Preaching. Heresy. Beguines. Francis and
Dominic.
Required Readings: Sourcebook: Franciscan and Dominican Texts. Lynch,
Ch. 15 & 16 "The Friars" & "The Schools, (revisited)"
pp. 228-255. Grundmann, Chapters 3, "The Social Orgins of Humiliati,
Waldensians, and Franciscans" pp. Xx.
Section 10: Discuss Franciscan and Dominican texts and article by
Little and Rosenwein: Sourcebook 2: Lester Little and Barbara Rosenwein
article, with supporting texts on poverty, "Monastic and Mendicant
Spiritualities" Past and Present (1974).
Note: If you want to get ahead of the game, anytime from now on would
be a good time to view the film on reserve at YDS library: The Anchoress"
with a folder of useful texts.
Role of women in religious movements and institutions. The other Monasticism.
Levels of culture and modes of piety. Varieties of literacy and illiteracy.
Texts and their audiences. Courts, courtly love and religious quest. Urban
religious institutions and genres of literature. Liturgical and paraliturgical
forms of religious expression. Religious theatre. Collaboration, inspiration
and conflict between religious men and women. The problem with men's models
of religious life for men.
Required Readings: Grundmann, Chapter 4, "The Orgins of Women's
Religious Movements," pp. 69-88 and Chapter 5, "The Incorporation
of the Women's Religious Movement into the Mendicant Order," pp. 89-134.
Life of Maire D'Oignies by Jacques de Vitry.
Required Readings: Grundmann, Chapter 6, "The Beguines in the Thirteenth
Century," and Chapter 7, " The Heresy of the 'Free Spirit' in
the Religious Movements of the Thirteenth Century," pp.
xx (pages 237-245 optional). Sourcebook 2: Selections from writings of Hadewijch,
Mechtild of Magdeburg and Marguerite Porete.
Section 11: Marguerite Porete, The Mirror of Simple Souls
and the Sermons of Meister Eckhart. Sourcebook: Marguerite Porete. The
Mirror of the Simple Soul. Trans. By Ellen Babinsky. New York: Paulist
Press, 1993.
11/26 & 11/28 . FALL BREAK/THANKSGIVING:
View film "The Anchoress."
Recommended: Article by John Coakely on clerical authors of lives of
holy women.
Jews of Europe. Video: Debate Between a Christian and a Jew.
Due in class: SHORT PAPER DUE ON THE ANCRENE RULE AND THE FILM THE ANCHORESS
Required Readings: Sourcebook 2: Short text reporting the Barcelona
debate on which the film is based.
Intellectual trends. Universities. Political Developments. Theology and
Theologians in the Later Middle Ages. Devotional forms. Religious Writers
in the Later Middle Ages. Latin and Vernacular Theology. S. Maria Novella.
Spanish Chapel Frescoes. Assisi, S. Francesco Assisi, frescoes of upper
church and Bonaventura's life of Francis. The Arena Chapel.
Required Readings: Sourcebook: Short selections from Late Medieval
Latin and Vernacular Theology; summas, sermons and spiritual quest. Recommended:
Grundmann, Chapter 8 "The Origins of Religious Literature in the Vernacular,"
pp. 187-202.
Section 12: Meister Eckhart and "Devotions of a Devout and Literate
Layman." Sourcebook (closed reserve): Meister Eckhart. From Essential
Sermons, ed. E. Colledge. And short pseudo-Eckhardian texts
Last class. The church and the cycles of life. The Festival Year. Religious
Theater: Theology, devotion, dissent. Points of tension in the administration
of Christianity. Marsilius of Padua. William Ockham. Fiscal woes: Gospel
of the marks of Silver. The cost of Purgatory. Indulgences. Vernacular Christianity:
democratic or destabilizing? conventional or innovative?. Conclusion: Consensus
and dissonance in Christian culture at the end of the Middle Ages.
STUDY QUESTIONS FOR THE FINAL WILL BE HANDED OUT.
Required Readings: Lynch, Chapters 19 & 20 "The Late Medieval
Background" & "The Late Medieval Church," pp. 303-335.Sourcebook:
Short Selection from Life of Margery Kemp; short selections of Wyclif and
Lollards.
Recommended (if you didn't read it last week): Grundmann, Chapter
8 "The Origins of Religious Literature in the Vernacular," pp.
187-202. Sourcebook selection from Mystery Play. Video: The Mysteries: Creation
Ad Hoc Homepage | Top
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700a The History of Western Christianity: 70 - 1400 AD
Ad Hoc--Teaching and Research Resources
for the History of Christianity
Yale Divinity School, 409 Prospect Street
New Haven, CT 06511
Contact: Anne Martino, Yale Divinity
School Faculty Web Assistant
All contents copyright (C) 1996
Yale University Divinity School
All rights reserved
Academic year 1996-1997
URL: http://www.yale.edu/adhoc/
