Rachel Fulton
Department of History
The University of Chicago
Autumn 2006
RELIGION AND SOCIETY IN THE MEDIEVAL WEST
What did it mean to be religious in medieval Europe? This course will consider this question from two main perspectives. On the one hand, we will study certain fundamental beliefs and practices of medieval Christians, including devotion to Christ and the saints, participation in the liturgy, the study of the Bible, and concern for the afterlife. On the other hand, we will examine the way in which these beliefs and practices were articulated and, often, challenged within European society, both institutionally and experientially. Our goal will be to come to an appreciation of the way in which beliefs, practices, institutions and experience interrelate in shaping both the self-perceptions of the members of a society and the structures of society itself.
John Shinners, ed., Medieval Popular Religion 1000-1500: A Reader (Peterborough, Ontario: Broadview, 1997). [BR252.M42 1997]
Elizabeth Spearing, ed., Medieval Writings on Female Spirituality (Harmondsworth: Penguin Books, 2002). [BX2353.M43 2002]
Vernon J. Bourke, ed., The Essential Augustine (Indianapolis: Hackett Publishing, 1964-1974). [BR65.A52E8 1974]
Hugh of Poitiers, The Vézelay Chronicle, ed. and trans. John Scott and John O. Ward (Binghamton, N.Y.: Pegasus Paperbacks, 1992). [BX2615.V49 H840 1992]
Bernard Hamilton, Religion in the Medieval West, 2nd ed. (London: Edward Arnold, 2003). [first edition BR252.H340 1986]
Eamon Duffy, The Stripping of the Altars: Traditional Religion in England 1400-1580, 2nd ed. (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2005). [BR742.D840 1992]
R.W. Southern, Western Society and the Church in the Middle Ages (Harmondsworth: Penguin Books, 1970). [BR244.S727]
Herbert L. Kessler, Seeing Medieval Art (Peterborough, Ontario: Broadview Press, 2004). [N5970 .K47 2004]
Course
Requirements
1. Participation in class discussion (attendance counts: you can’t discuss if you’re not in class!) 10%
2. “Scavenger Hunt” (part one: due October 24; part two: due November 28) 30%
3. Mid-term essay (6-7 pages, due October 31) 30%
4. Final essay (7-9 pages, due December 5) 30%
Reading
and Discussion Assignments
*John Van Engen, “The Christian Middle Ages as an Historiographical Problem,” The American Historical Review 91.3 (June 1986): 519-552 `[http://search.epnet.com/direct.asp?an=5602037&db=aph] or [JSTOR]
*John Van Engen, “The Future of Medieval Church History,” Church History 71.3 (September 2002): 492-522 [http://search.epnet.com/direct.asp?an=7411741&db=aph]
Duffy, Stripping of the Altars, pp. 1-8 (Introduction)
Southern, Western Society and the Church, pp. 15-23
*Shinners, Medieval Popular Religion, pp. 1-63, 321-25, 332-34
Hamilton, Religion in the Medieval West, pp. 1-11
Duffy, Stripping of the Altars, pp. 53-87 (chap. 2)
October 5
In the beginning, God created…
*Bourke, Essential Augustine, pp. 43-46, 58-66, 98-120
*Shinners, Medieval Popular Religion, pp. 67-72, 471-90
Hamilton, Religion in the Medieval West, pp. 15-23
Kessler, Seeing Medieval Art, pp. 1-64
October 10
Adam and Eve (Body and Soul)
*Bourke, Essential Augustine, pp. 46-57, 67-97
*Spearing, Medieval Writings on Female Spirituality, pp. 9-26 (Hildegard), 75-106 (Christina the Astonishing and Mary of Oignies)
*Shinners, Medieval Popular Religion, pp. 175-77, 195-200, 229-37
Kessler, Seeing Medieval Art, pp. 131-50
October 12
God (Divine)
*Bourke, Essential Augustine, pp. 121-48
*Spearing, Medieval Writings on Female Spirituality, pp. 46-74 (Hadewijch), 120-44 (Marguerite Porete)
*Henry Suso, The Exemplar, with Two German Sermons, trans. Frank Tobin (New York: Paulist Press, 1989), pp. 63-77, 190-200, 207-238 [BV5080.S8362130 1989]
Kessler, Seeing Medieval Art, pp. 165-79
October 17
God (Incarnate)
*Shinners, Medieval Popular Religion, pp. 73-88
*Spearing, Medieval Writings on Female Spirituality, pp. 107-19 (Elizabeth of Spaalbeek), 149-157 (Bridget of Sweden), 175-82 and 192-201 (Julian of Norwich), 226-41 (Margery Kempe)
*Henry Suso, The Exemplar, pp. 83-86, 87-97, 124-31, 168-74 [BV5080.S8362130 1989]
Duffy, Stripping of the Altars, pp. 233-56 (chap. 7, up to “Devotions to the Virgin”)
*Shinners, Medieval Popular Religion, pp. 89-108, 250-56
*John Harper, The Forms and Orders of Western Liturgy from the Tenth to the Eighteenth Century: A Historical Introduction and Guide for Students and Musicians (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1991), pp. 109-26 [BV186.5.H370 1991, Reading Room Floor 3]
Duffy, Stripping of the Altars, pp. 91-130 (chap. 3)
*Bourke, Essential Augustine, pp. 220-228, 242-45
*Shinners, Medieval Popular Religion, pp. 257-58, 265-78
*Harper, Forms and Orders of Western Liturgy, pp. 45-57
*Stephan Borgehammar, “A Monastic Conception of the Liturgical Year,” in The Liturgy of the Medieval Church, eds. Heffernan and Matter, pp. 13-44 [BX1973 .L58 2001]
Hamilton, Religion in the Medieval West, pp. 51-61
Duffy, Stripping of the Altars, pp. 11-52 (chap. 1)
Kessler, Seeing Medieval Art, pp. 107-129, 151-64
“Scavenger Hunt” Part One, Due in class October 24
Mid-term essay assignment handed out, due in class October 31
October 26 NO CLASS [Conference at Notre Dame: “European
Transformations 950-1200”]
October 31 Christianizing Life (and Death)
*Shinners, Medieval Popular Religion, pp. 259-64, 279-90, 501-38
Hamilton, Religion in the Medieval West, pp. 87-98
Duffy, Stripping of the Altars, pp. 299-376 (chaps. 9-10)
*Shinners, Medieval Popular Religion, pp. 156-74, 178-94, 201-10, 304-5
Hamilton, Religion in the Medieval West, pp. 99-109
Duffy, Stripping of the Altars, pp. 155-205 (chap. 5)
*Shinners, Medieval Popular Religion, pp. 115-48, 300-3
Duffy, Stripping of the Altars, pp. 256-65 (chap. 7, “Devotions to the Virgin”)
*Gregory the Great, “Exposition of the Song of Songs,” in Denys Turner, Eros and Allegory: Medieval Exegesis of the Song of Songs, Cistercian Studies Series 156 (Kalamazoo, Mich.: Cistercian Publications, 1995), pp. 215-55 [BS1485.T876 1995]
*Hugh of St. Victor, “A Short Preface on the Scriptures and on the Scriptural Writers,” in Turner, Eros and Allegory, pp. 265-74
*William of St. Thierry, “A Brief Commentary on the First Two Chapters of the Song of Songs,” in Turner, Eros and Allegory, pp. 275-90
*Bernard of Clairvaux, On the Song of Songs I, trans. Kilian Walsh, Cistercian Fathers Series 4 (Kalamazoo, Mich.: Cistercian Publications, 1981), pp. 1-20 [BS1485.B5 1971 v.1]
Hamilton,
Religion in the Medieval West, pp.
24-32
Kessler, Seeing Medieval Art, pp. 65-105
November 14
The Church (on earth)
*Bourke, Essential Augustine, pp. 200-12
*Eudes of Rouen, Register, trans. Sydney M. Brown, ed. Jeremiah F. O’Sullivan, Records of Civilization, Sources and Studies 72 (New York: Columbia University Press, 1964), pp. 1-4, 13-15, 18-35, 218-21, 322-28, 390-93, 548-51, 590-92, 628-34, 688-96, 737-46 [BX1532.R8R505]
*Spearing, Medieval Writings on Female Spirituality, pp. 157-64 (Bridget of Sweden)
Hamilton, Religion in the Medieval West, pp. 33-40, 110-17
Southern, Western Society and the Church, pp. 24-52, 170-213
*Hugh of Poitiers, The Vézelay Chronicle, pp. 1-14, 72-73, 97-106, 110-13, 118-21, 130-226, 251-52, 284-95, 319-27, 334-41
Hamilton, Religion in the Medieval West, pp. 41-50
Southern, Western Church and Society, pp. 214-99
November 21 “Foul
superstitions”
*Shinners, Medieval Popular Religion, pp. 213-28, 238-45, 441-62, 491-98
Hamilton, Religion in the Medieval West, pp. 148-59
Duffy, Stripping of the Altars, pp. 266-98 (chap. 8)
*Shinners, Medieval Popular Religion, pp. 312-19, 335-79
*Bourke, Essential Augustine, pp. 19-42
Duffy, Stripping of the Altars, pp. 209-32 (chap. 6)
Hamilton, Religion in the Medieval West, pp. 118-26
“Scavenger Hunt” Part two, Due in class November 28
Final Essay Assignment handed out, Due December 5 by 3 pm in Harper
East 686