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REL 621 Historical Theology: The Medieval Period: Spring Semester, 2016
REL 621 Historical Theology: The Medieval Period: Spring Semester, 2016
REL 621 Historical Theology: The Medieval Period: Spring Semester, 2016
Norwich, Theologian, Yale University Press, 2011, but whether it is worth reading or not is hardly
for me to say (is it).
Basis for Evaluation
A single end-of-semester paper of between 15 and 20 pages. At the mid-point of the semester I
will arrange to meet each student to discuss their brief proposals for that final paper, which
should indicate topic, structure and bibliography. This proposal will not form any part of the
evaluation. Students should note that I take a strict view of page limits. There is a discipline in
writing to a particular length, and the ability to match topic and scope to page limits is one of the
skills being evaluated, just as is my ability to match topic and scope to time in lectures.
Outline
Please note that the reading indications assigned to each week of the syllabus below contain
references to primary texts only. I will give indications of useful secondary material from time to
time in class, and otherwise will place further, often unpublished, material on the Classes V2
website.
Week 1 Three styles of medieval theology
The monastic style: Denys the Carthusian (texts relevant will be posted on the Classes v2
website). The academic style: Thomas Aquinas, see vol 1 of the 61 volume edition of the Summa
Theologiae, the so-called Blackfriars edition, originally published in hardback by Eyre and
Spottiswoode (though this edition is now republished in paperback format by Cambridge
University Press, 2007). The vernacular style: Julian of Norwich, Revelations of Divine Love,
(Long Text only) trans. AC Spearing, London: Penguin Classics, 1999 (or: Julian of Norwich:
Showings, Edmund Colledge, James Walsh and Jean Leclerq, New Jersey: Classics of Western
Spirituality, 1977, which includes both the Short and Long texts) chapters 1-9.
Week 2 Common Sources
Augustine: Confessions, especially books 1, 7, 9 and 10. The best edition, containing Latin text
and English translation, is in Augustine, Confessions: Introduction and Text, with Introduction
and Commentary by James J ODonnell, Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1994. More practical,
however, is the translation of Maria Boulding, New City Press, 2002; The Trinity, especially
books 8-10, and 15, trans., introd. and commentary, Edmund Hill OP, New York: New City Press,
1994. The Pseudo-Denys: The Divine Names, especially chapters 1, 4 and 8, in The PseudoDionysius: the Complete Works, trans. Colm Luibheid, New Jersey: Paulist Press, 1987; The
Mystical Theology, in Luibheid, as above.
Monastic styles
Week 3 Monks and the Bible
Gregory the Great: see Eros and Allegory, pp. 215-255; Bernard of Clairvaux : Sermons on the
Song of Songs, trans. Killian Walsh and Irene Edmonds, Kalamazoo: Cistercian Fathers Series,
vol. I, 1977, sermons 1-9; Thomas Gallus (Vercellensis): see Eros and Allegory, pp. 317-339.
Week 4 The Ladder of Monks: Prayer and Contemplation in the Monastic Traditions
William of St Thierry: The Golden Epistle, trans. T. Berkeley OCSO, Cistercian Publications:
Kalamazoo, 1980; Guigo II: The Ladder of Monks, A letter on the Contemplative Life and Twelve
Meditations, trans. and introd. Edmund Colledge and James Walsh, Kalamazoo: Cistercian
Publications, 1981; Anselm: Monologion and Proslogion, in Anselm of Conterbury, The Major
Works, ed. and introd. Brian Davies and GR Evans, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1998.
Academic styles
Week 5 The Bible in the University
Hugh of St Victor: see Eros and Allegory, pp. 265-274; Thomas Aquinas: Eros and Allegory,pp.
341-355, and Summa Theologiae 1a q1 aa 9-10; Nicholas of Lyra: Eros and Allegory, pp. 381397.
Week 6 Thomas Aquinas on God
Summa Theologiae, 1a, qq 2, 3, qq44-45, in vols 2 and 8 of the Blackfriars edition.
Week 7 Thomas Aquinas on Prayer, Contemplation and the Active Life
See Texts on the Contemplative Life in Albert and Thomas, Selected Writings, trans., ed. and
introd. Simon Tugwell OP, New Jersey: Paulist Press, 1988, pp. 527-585.
Week 8 Bonaventure and Franciscan Theology
The Journey of the Soul into God, ed. and trans., Philotheus Boehner OFM and Sr M. Frances
Laughlin SMIC, New York: The Franciscan Institute, 1990.
Vernacular styles
Week 9 Dante on poetry and theology
Inferno, cantos 26 end; Paradiso, cantos 32-33; de Vulgari Eloquentia, I, 1-8 in Dante: De
Vulgari Eloquentia, ed. Steven Botterill, Cambridge Medieval Classics, Cambridge, 2004.
Week 10 Marguerite Porete and Meister Eckhart: Negative Theology and Negative
Anthropology
Marguerite Porete: Mirror of Simple Souls, ed and trans., Amy Hollywood, New Jersey: Paulist
Press, 1993; Meister Eckhart: Sermons 5b, 48, 52 and 83; On Detachment, in Meister Eckhart,
The Essential Sermons, Commentaries, Treatises and Defense, trans. and ed. Edmund Colledge
and Bernard McGinn, New Jersey: Paulist Press, 1981.
Week 11 Julian of Norwich and the Cloud of Unknowing
Julian of Norwich, Revelations of Divine Love; Cloud of Unknowing: trans. AC Spearing,
London: Penguin Classics, 2002.
Week 12 The end of the middle ages: dead-end or unfinished business?
Denys Turner
January, 2016