Rachel Fulton
Department of History
The University of Chicago
RELIGIOUS THOUGHT IN THE LATER
MIDDLE AGES
Autumn 2009
It is perhaps appropriate given the
secular bent of much modern thinking that it is easier to define the subject of
this course by what it is not than by what it is. First and foremost, it is not the study of religious ideas
as they affected society nor of religious ideas as
they affected the development of scientific thinking or political theory. But neither is it simply the study of
theology as an intellectual discipline nor of religious ideas as they were put
into practice. It is perhaps best
defined as a study of the intersection between theology, exegesis,
contemplation, devotion and prayer, with the understanding that all of the
above were underpinned by the observance of the liturgy and yet were also
assumed to have an effect on the experience of everyday life. It involves questions of aesthetics as
well as psychology, of communal, sensory and imaginative engagement with the
world as well as ascetic withdrawal therefrom. It is interesting that we at this point
have no single word for this engagement but in the period with which we will be
concerned it was what being ÒreligiousÓ meant: bound to God. One of the principal challenges of this
course will be coming to some appreciation of why it is so difficult for us now
to see the world in this way.
BOOKS AVAILABLE
FOR PURCHASE FROM THE SEMINARY CO-OP BOOKSTORE
The Cloud of Unknowing and Other Works, trans. A.C. Spearing (Harmondsworth: Penguin Books, 2001).
Walter Hilton, The Scale of Perfection, trans. John P.H. Clark and Rosemary Dorward (New York: Paulist Press, 1991).
William Langland, Piers Plowman: A New Translation of the B-Text, trans. A.V.C. Schmidt (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1992).
Henry Suso, WisdomÕs Watch Upon the Hours, trans. Edmund Colledge, The Fathers of the Church: Mediaeval Continuation 4 (Washington, D.C.: The Catholic University of America Press, 1994).
Denis the Carthusian, Spiritual Writings, trans. êde M. N’ Riain (Dublin: Four Courts Press, 2005).
COURSE REQUIREMENTS
Discussions and class participation 30%
Textual analyses x 3 (5 pages each) 30%
Final paper (12-15 pages) 40%
READING AND
DISCUSSION ASSIGNMENTS
Weeks 1-2: Doctrine
September 29
St. Thomas Aquinas, Summa theologica, trans. by the Fathers of the English
Dominican Province (New York: Benziger Brothers,
1947-1948), first part, quaestio 1 (ÒTreatise on
Sacred Doctrine). [Online at http://www.ccel.org/ccel/aquinas/summa.toc.html] [BX1750.T544 v. 1-3]
October 1
St. Bonaventure, The Breviloquium, trans. JosŽ de Vinck (Paterson, N.J.: St. Anthony Guild Press, 1963), parts I & II. [BX890.B673123 v. 2]
St. Thomas Aquinas, Summa theologica [selections TBA]
October 6
St. Bonaventure, Breviloquium, trans. de Vinck, parts III & IV
St. Thomas Aquinas, Summa theological
[selections TBA]
October 8
St.
Bonaventure, Breviloquium, trans. de Vinck, pp. V, VI & VII
St. Thomas Aquinas, Summa theological
[selections TBA]
Week 3: Preaching
October 13
Humbert
of Romans, De eruditione praedicatorum (On the
formation of preachers), trans. Simon Tugwell, in
Early
Dominicans: Selected Writings (New York: Paulist
Press, 1982), pp. 181-370. [BX3503.E230 1982]
October 15
Assignment: students should
pick a preacher to report on; analysis should give overview of collection and
focus on one or two particular sermons as examples of his thinking.
Week 4: Meditation & Liturgy
October 20
John of Caulibus,
Meditationes vitae Christi (Meditations on the Life of Christ), trans. and ed.
Francis X. Taney, Anne Miller and C. Mary Stallings-Taney (Asheville, NC:
Pegasus Press, 2000).
October 22
Gertrude of Helfta, Legatus divinae pietatis (The Herald of Divine Love), book 2, trans.
and ed. Margaret Winkworth (New York: Paulist Press, 1993), pp. 94-155. [BX4700.G6A30 1993]
Week 5: Contemplation & Prayer
October 27
The Cloud of Unknowing, trans. A.C.
Spearing (Harmondsworth: Penguin Books, 2001), pp.
11-101. [BV5080.C56 2001]
October 29
Walter
Hilton, Scala perfectionis (The Scale of Perfection),
trans. John P.H. Clark and Rosemary Dorward (New
York: Paulist Press, 1991). [BX2349.H540 1991]
Week 6: Vision & Criticism
November 3
William Langland, Piers Plowman: A
New Translation of the B-Text, trans. A.V.C. Schmidt (Oxford: Oxford
University Press, 1992). [PR2013.S3 2000]
November 5
Birgitta
of Sweden, Life
and Selected Revelations, trans. Albert Ryle Kezel
(New York: Paulist Press, 1990), pp. 101-218. [BX4700.B62E50 1990]
Week 7: Wisdom & Love
November 10
Henry Suso,
Horologium Sapientiae (WisdomÕs Watch Upon the Hours),
trans. Edmund Colledge, The
Fathers of the Church: Mediaeval Continuation 4 (Washington, D.C.: The Catholic
University of America Press, 1994).
[BV5080.S48130 1994]
November 12
John Ruusbroec,
The Spiritual
Espousals, trans. James A. Wiseman (New York: Paulist
Press, 1985), pp. 41-152.
[BV5080.R8822130 1985]
Week 8: Imitation & Devotion
November 17
Geert
Grote, ÒResolutions and Intentions, But Not Vows,Ó and ÒNoteworthy Sayings of
Master Geert,Ó in Devotio Moderna, trans. John Van Engen
(New York: Paulist Press, 1988), pp. 65-77.
[BR270.D480 1988]
ÒEdifying Points of the Older Sisters,Ó
in Devotio Moderna, trans. Van Engen,
pp. 121-36.
ÒThe Devotion,Ó in Devotio Moderna, trans. Van Engen,
pp. 155-215.
November 19
Thomas of Kempen, The Imitation of Christ, trans. Leo Sherley-Price
(Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1952). [BV4821.S547 2005 or BV4828.K4213 1952]
Week 9: Scripture
November 24
John Wycliffe, De veritate Sacrae Scripturae (On the Truth of Holy Scripture), trans. Ian
Christopher Levy (Kalamazoo, MI: TEAMS, 2001), pp. 41-53, 72-86, 97-130,
148-55, 285-92, 300-6, 352-59.
[BS480.W9313 2001]
The Bible of the Poor (Biblia
Pauperum): A Facsimile and Edition of the British
Library Blockbook C.9 d.2, trans. and commentary
by Albert C. Labriola and John W. Smeltz
(Pittsburgh, PA: Duquesne University Press, 1990). [Z241.B6B5130 1990]
November 26 THANKSGIVING
Week 10: Summa religionis
December 1
Denis the Carthusian, Contemplation, trans. êde
M. N’ Riain, in Spiritual
Writings (Dublin: Four Courts Press, 2005), pp. 3-196. [BR75.D46 2005]
December 3
Denis the Carthusian,
Prayer,
trans. Riaian, pp. 199-272.
FINAL PAPER DUE THURSDAY, DECEMBER 10 AT 12 NOON IN HM-E 686