Rachel Fulton
Department of History
The University of Chicago
Autumn 2006
RELIGIOUS THOUGHT IN THE HIGH MIDDLE AGES:
THE TWELFTH CENTURY
What
does theology have to do with religion?
What shape should it take?
Where should it lead? What
is the practical (liturgical, spiritual, contemplative) purpose of thinking
about God? These were questions
taken up with particular urgency in the monasteries and schools of the High
Middle Ages as European Christians struggled to reconcile the application of
intellectual structure to the experiences and practices of worship and
faith. Using Peter LombardÕs Sentences as
a guide, this course seeks to situate the twelfth- and early-thirteenth-century
theological discussions about God, creation, incarnation, the sacraments, and
last things within the devotional and liturgical developments of their day.
REQUIRED
READINGS
The Prayers and Meditations of Saint Anselm with
the Proslogion, trans. Benedicta
Ward (Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1973).
ISBN 0-14-044278-2
Hildegard of Bingen, Scivias, trans. Mother Columba Hart and
Jane Bishop (New York: Paulist Press, 1990). ISBN 0-8091-3130-7
Alan of Lille, Anticlaudianus or
the Good and Perfect Man, trans. James J. Sheridan (Toronto: Pontifical
Institute of Mediaeval Studies, 1973). ISBN 0-8884-4263-7
Richard of St. Victor, The Twelve Patriarchs, The Mystical Ark,
Book Three of the Trinity, trans. Grover A. Zinn (New York: Paulist Press,
1979). ISBN 0-8091-2122-0
Philipp W. Rosemann, Peter Lombard, Great Medieval Thinkers
(Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2004).
ISBN 0-19-515545-9
M.-D. Chenu, Nature, Man, and Society in the Twelfth
Century. Essays
on New Theological Perspectives in the Latin West,
ed. and trans. Jerome Taylor and Lester K. Little (Chicago: University of
Chicago Press, 1968).
ISBN 0-226-10256-4
Aidan Nichols, The Shape of Catholic Theology (Collegeville,
Minn.: Liturgical Press, 1991).
ISBN 0-8146-1909-6
Alan W. Watts, Myth and Ritual in Christianity (Boston: Beacon Press, 1968). ISBN 0-8070-1375-7
COURSE REQUIREMENTS
This
is a research and discussion colloquium, intended to help students explore some
of the fundamental theoretical and practical problems in the historical study
of theology and religious belief in European Christianity of the High Middle
Ages. The principal requirement is
reading and participation in class.
For the purposes of assessment, there will be a number of in-class
presentations and a final paper, the topic and format of which will be
discussed in the first week. Class
participation and presentations will constitute 50% of the grade; the final
paper will constitute the remaining 50%.
READING
AND DISCUSSION ASSIGNMENTS
September 26 Introduction: The Structure of
Faith
September 28 The Shape of the Question
Chenu, ÒThe Masters of the Theological ÔScienceÕ,Ó
in Nature,
pp. 270-309
Rosemann, Peter Lombard, pp. 3-33
Nichols, Shape of Catholic Theology, pp. 7-38
Watts, Myth and Ritual, pp. 1-26
October 3 Options
Chenu, ÒMonks, Canons, and Laymen in Search of the
Apostolic Life,Ó and ÒTradition and Progress,Ó in Nature, pp. 202-38, 310-30
Rosemann, Peter Lombard, pp. 34-70
Nichols, Shape, pp. 263-348
October 5
ÒThat than which nothing greaterÓ
Anselm, Prayer to God and Proslogion, in Prayers and Meditations, pp. 91-92,
238-67
Watts, Myth and Ritual, pp. 57-84
Nichols, Shape, pp. 41-65
October 10 Three in One
Richard, On the Trinity, bk. 3, pp. 373-97
Rosemann, Peter Lombard, pp. 71-92
Chenu,
ÒNature and Man—The Renaissance of the Twelfth Century,Ó in Nature, pp.
1-48
October 12 A Vision of God
Hildegard, Scivias, pp. 59-61
Nichols, Shape, pp. 74-95, 165-99, 235-47
Chenu, ÒThe Symbolist Mentality,Ó in Nature, pp.
99-145
October 17 Creator and Creature
Hildegard, Scivias, bk. 1, pp. 65-143
Rosemann, Peter Lombard, pp. 93-117
Watts, Myth and Ritual, pp. 27-56
October 19 Redeemer and Redemption
Hildegard, Scivias, bk. 2, pp. 147-303
Rosemann,
Peter Lombard,
pp. 118-43
Nichols,
Shape, pp.
66-73
October 24 The History of Salvation
Hildegard, Scivias, bk. 3, pp. 307-536
Rosemann, Peter Lombard, pp. 144-93
Chenu, ÒTheology and the New Awareness of
History,Ó in Nature,
pp. 162-201
October 26 NO CLASS [Conference at the University
of Notre Dame: ÒEuropean Transformations, 950-1200Ó]
October 31 The Shape of the Soul I
Richard, Twelve Patriarchs, pp. 53-147
Chenu, ÒThe Old Testament in Twelfth-Century
Theology,Ó in Nature,
pp. 146-161
Nichols, Shape, pp. 99-162
November 2 The Shape of the Soul II
Richard, Mystical Ark, bks. 1-3, pp. 151-258
Chenu, ÒThe Evangelical Awakening,Ó in Nature, pp.
239-69
November 7 The Shape of the Soul III
Richard, Mystical Ark, bks. 4-5, and Appendix, pp.
259-370
November
9 Mythhistory I
Alan,
Anticlaudianus,
bks. 1-6, pp. 39-172
Chenu, ÒThe Platonisms of the Twelfth Century,Ó in
Nature,
pp. 49-98
November 14 Mythhistory II
Alan, Anticlaudianus, bks. 7-9, pp. 173-217
Watts, Myth and Ritual, pp. 85-236
November 16 Theology and Prayer
Anselm, Prayers and Meditations, pp. 89-235
November 21 Decisions
Rosemann, Peter Lombard, pp. 194-211
Nichols, Shape, pp. 200-31, 248-60, 349-55
November 23 NO CLASS—THANKSGIVING
November 28 Options: Reports
November 30 Options: Reports