DOCSLIB.ORG

This Electronic Thesis Or Dissertation Has Been Downloaded from Explore Bristol Research

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
This Electronic Thesis Or Dissertation Has Been Downloaded from Explore Bristol Research This electronic thesis or dissertation has been downloaded from Explore Bristol Research, http://research-information.bristol.ac.uk Author: Jenkins, Clare Helen Elizabeth Title: Jansenism as literature : a study into the influence of Augustinian theology on seventeenth-century French literature General rights Access to the thesis is subject to the Creative Commons Attribution - NonCommercial-No Derivatives 4.0 International Public License. A copy of this may be found at https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/legalcode This license sets out your rights and the restrictions that apply to your access to the thesis so it is important you read this before proceeding. Take down policy Some pages of this thesis may have been removed for copyright restrictions prior to having it been deposited in Explore Bristol Research. However, if you have discovered material within the thesis that you consider to be unlawful e.g. breaches of copyright (either yours or that of a third party) or any other law, including but not limited to those relating to patent, trademark, confidentiality, data protection, obscenity, defamation, libel, then please contact [email protected] and include the following information in your message: •Your contact details •Bibliographic details for the item, including a URL •An outline nature of the complaint Your claim will be investigated and, where appropriate, the item in question will be removed from public view as soon as possible. Jansenism as Literature: A Study into the Influence of Augustinian Theology on Seventeenth-Century French Literature Clare Helen Elizabeth Jenkins A Dissertation submitted to the University of Bristol in accordance with the requirements of the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in the Faculty of Arts. Department of French February 2006 Abstract This study investigates the effects of Jansenist theology on seventeenth-century French literature. After an initial explanation of the history of the Jansenist movement and its specific beliefs, there then follows a study into some of the works produced by members of this group. These citations have also been used in order to trace the development of the movement over the seventeenth century. For the purpose of this research, the term J ansenism has been taken to refer to the movement in the seventeenth century and has not been extended into the following century. Once this description has been given, the following four chapters each deal with an individual author and their connection to the Jansenist movement. Their principle works are then studied in order to ascertain the level of influence exerted by this form of religious piety on their literary output. Chapter Two deals with Pascal and concentrates on his Lettres Provinciales and Pensees. Chapter Three studies La Rochefoucauld's Maximes, which are a prime example of the pessimistic view of mankind that was so prevalent during this century. Chapter Four looks into two of Madame de Lafayette's novels, La Princesse de Cleves and La Comtesse de Tende. Chapter Five then studies Racine, a figure whose personal connections with the Jansenist movement, and subsequent estrangement from it, have been well studied. Finally the Conclusion draws together the findings from these chapters and demonstrates how the movement's own development led to changes in how Jansenist doctrine affected the literature of the seventeenth century. I declare that the work in this dissertation was carried out in accordance with the Regulations ofthe University ofBristol. The work is original, except where indicated by special reference in the text, and no part of the dissertation has been submitted for any other academic award Any views expressed in the dissertation are those ofthe author. 2 SIGNED: ..~ ..J.~... ... DATE: .~.o.~ ... N.~ ..1.QJt 3 To my mum, dad and Gareth 'For in much wisdom is much grief: and he that increaseth knowledge increaseth sorrow' , Ecclesiastes 1: 18 4 Acknowledgements I would like to thank my parents, without whom I would not have been able to fund this research project. Their help and support over the years has been fantastic. I would also like to thank my Supervisor, Dr Edward Forman. I would like to acknowledge the assistance of the members of staff in the Arts and Social Sciences Library at the University of Bristol, not only for their help with my academic work, but also for their kind understanding during my employment there. A big thanks should go to Natalie Coles, and her friend Stan, who have helped to keep me sane; just remember, Hac He )J.oroH}lT! Finally I would like to thank Gareth Martin for his help and love. Without him I would not have begun this research project and I certainly would not have managed to finish it. You are my everything. CqaCTbe - :no cHrapa KOTOPaH: Ha3bIBaerCJI X3MJI3T 5 Contents Abstract 2 Acknowledgements 5 Notes 7 Introduction 8 Chapter One Jansenist Writers 34 Chapter Two Pascal 75 Chapter Three La Rochefoucauld 125 Chapter Four Madame de Lafayette 163 Chapter Pi ve Racine 191 Conclusion 239 Bibliography 247 6 When a work is quoted from frequently, the full bibliographical details are provided in an initial footnote. Subsequent references are then only referred to by page number; this has been done to save repetition. Individual works will normally be found in the bibliography under the heading that refers to the chapter in which they are cited, unless they are of a more general nature. 7 Introduction INTRODUCTION The influence of Augustinian thought on both religion and philosophy has been immense throughout the history of ideas. The saint's beliefs also took on a vital role in the French Church; after the Council of Trent the Augustinian tradition "remained strong in the Catholic Church", I despite continued fierce religious debate which threatened to weaken religious unity. The publication of Augustine's works in ten volumes by Erasmus in 1529 no doubt aided the dissemination of the saint's beliefs and ideas around Europe. However it was in the seventeenth century that these beliefs came to the fore in France. The importance of these doctrines is most evident in the religious group which came to be known as the Jansenists. This group has been well studied since its conception,2 yet it remains difficult to find an authoritative definition of Jansenism itself, a fact that has added to these debates. As Benichou states, "it n'est pas facile ... d'attribuer une signification precise au courant de pensee qu'on nomme ...jansenisme".3 It is not immediately obvious whether the movement should be explained through the Augustinus; the five propositions; the numerous theological works produced by its supporters; by the religious practices undertaken at the convent of Port-Royal; by the beliefs of certain personalities, such as Jansenius, Saint-Cyran, Antoine Arnauld, or Nicole. Taveneaux has rightly stated that "il existe donc non pas un jansenisme mais des jansenismes".4 The difficulty in producing a precise definition is rendered even greater by the relative lack of study of contemporary documents. 5 It is interesting that the century which produced some of the most important religious debates of the period has also "been celebrated for its many towering literary figures". 6 The literature which originates from this time is considered as some of the best. It has also been suggested that Jansenism "influenced some of the outstanding literary figures I Richard Bonney, The European Dynastic States 1494-1660, Oxford, 1991, p.9 2 Perhaps the two best known, and most exhaustive, works are Orcibal's Les Origines du Jansenisme and Sainte-Beuve's Port-Royal 3 Paul Benichou, Morales du grand siecle, Paris, c 1948, p.77 4 Rene Taveneaux, La vie quotidienne des jansenistes aux XVlIe et XVIIIe siecles, Paris, 1973, p.13 S Lucien Ceyssens, Sources relatives aux debuts dujansenisme et de I'antijansenisme, 1640-1643, Louvain, 1957, p.v 6 Nicholas Hammond, Creative Tensions: An Introduction to Seventeenth-Century French Literature, London, ]977, p.9 8 Introduction of the seventeenth century, including Racine, Pascal. .. La Rochefoucauld and Madame de Lafayette".7 The movement, and its connections with the convent of Port-Royal, have also fascinated individual authors over the centuries. In the twentieth century, the novelist Mauriac is said to have portrayed a level of Jansenist belief within his work, whilst Henry de Montherlant produced his own play depicting the events at Port-Royal. Despite the many studies which have already been made into the Jansenist movement, it remains an important area of research. One reason for this is the fact that it played such a vital role in the development of church doctrine: Biyidi has explained that religious debate occupied "la premiere place" in seventeenth-century France.8 This is hardly surprising; during the previous century the country had been ravaged by the Wars of Religion, and the effects of this conflict lasted into the following century. Religious discussions permeated this period of French history, the nature of grace often being at the centre. Many different groups and individuals debated this question and it is considered to be "probablement la clef de la litterature du XVIIe siecle".9 The rise in importance of Augustinian theology during this period can have only contributed to this. The aim of this research is to determine the importance of the impact of Jansenism on French literature of the period. In order to do this, it will be necessary to produce a detailed explanation of the different forms which Jansenism took, since the influence of a movement cannot be measured easily unless the true nature of that movement is known. Therefore before any proper study of seventeenth-century French literature is undertaken, a brief explanation of the many facets of Jansenism, and its popularity as a whole, would be helpful.
Load more

Recommended publications
  • LIVRES ET BIBLIOPHILIE Jeudi 26 & VENDREDI 27 Octobre 2017 VENTE AUX ENCHÈRES PUBLIQUES
    LIVRES ET BIBLIOPHILIE JEUDI 26 & VENDREDI 27 OCtobre 2017 VENTE AUX ENCHÈRES PUBLIQUES Provenances : 1ère Vente Jeudi 26 octobre à 10h00 et 14h30 Bibliothèque Janséniste du Professeur Jean Mesnard (1921-2016). 2ème Vente Vendredi 27 octobre à 10h00 et 14h30 Bibliothèque d'un château en Armagnac. Diverses successions et collections de Bordeaux et d'Aquitaine. Lot 951 Photo de couverture lot 705 3 HÔTEL DES VENTES BORDEAUX SAINTE - CROIX 12-14, rue Peyronnet - 33800 Bordeaux S.A.S. BRISCADIEU BORDEAUX (Agrément 2002 304) ContaCT Photos SUPPLÉMentaires EXPERT DE LA VENTE T : 33 (0)5 56 31 32 33 www.briscadieu-bordeaux.com M. Michel CONVERT F : 33 (0)5 56 31 32 00 www.interencheres.com 06 30 36 96 13 M : [email protected] www.auction.fr [email protected] assisté de Jean Luc BOISSEAU RENSEIGNEMents partiCIPER À LA VENTE EN LIVE pour la bibliothèque du Professeur Mesnard. Antoine Briscadieu www.interencheres-live.com Thomas Nicolet ORDRES D'ACHAT ET TÉLÉPHONES Exposition DE LA VENTE Anne Courtois Briscadieu Mercredi 25 octobre : [email protected] de 10h à 12h00 et de 14h30 à 19h00 SOMMAIRE 1ère Vente : 2ème Vente : Jeudi 26 octobre à 10h et 14h30 Vendredi 27 octobre à 10h et 14h30 Une trentaine de lots intégrés tardivement dans la vente figureront en Bis de numéros mais ne figurent pas dans le catalogue. L'ensemble du catalogue (avec les bis) est consultable sur le site interencheres (ou interencheres Live). Détail lot 945 4 5 1ère VENTE : JEUDI 26 OCtobre 2017 À 10H & 14H30 6 - AMELOT DE LA HOUSSAYE (Abraham-Nicolas) ANCIENS Histoire du gouvernement de Venise.
    [Show full text]
  • HISTORICAL ANTECEDENTS of ST. PIUS X's DECREE on FREQUENT COMMUNION JOHN A
    HISTORICAL ANTECEDENTS OF ST. PIUS X's DECREE ON FREQUENT COMMUNION JOHN A. HARDON, SJ. West Baden College HPHE highest tribute to the apostolic genius of St. Pius X was paid by * his successor on the day he raised him to the honors of the altar: "in the profound vision which he had of the Church as a society, Pius X recognized that it was the Blessed Sacrament which had the power to nourish its intimate life substantially, and to elevate it high above all other human societies." To this end "he overcame the prejudices springing from an erroneous practice and resolutely promoted frequent, even daily, Communion among the faithful," thereby leading "the spouse of Christ into a new era of Euchari^tic life."1 In order to appreciate the benefits which Pius X conferred on the Church by his decree on frequent Communion, we might profitably examine the past half-century to see how the practice which he advo­ cated has revitalized the spiritual life of millions of the faithful. Another way is to go back in history over the centuries preceding St. Pius and show that the discipline which he promulgated in 1905 is at once a vindication of the Church's fidelity to her ancient traditions and a proof of her vitality to be rid of whatever threatens to destroy her divine mission as the sanctifier of souls. The present study will follow the latter method, with an effort to cover all the principal factors in this Eucharistic development which had its roots in the apostolic age but was not destined to bear full fruit until the present time.
    [Show full text]
  • The Magisterium of the Faculty of Theology of Paris in the Seventeenth Century
    Theological Studies 53 (1992) THE MAGISTERIUM OF THE FACULTY OF THEOLOGY OF PARIS IN THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY JACQUES M. GRES-GAYER Catholic University of America S THEOLOGIANS know well, the term "magisterium" denotes the ex­ A ercise of teaching authority in the Catholic Church.1 The transfer of this teaching authority from those who had acquired knowledge to those who received power2 was a long, gradual, and complicated pro­ cess, the history of which has only partially been written. Some sig­ nificant elements of this history have been overlooked, impairing a full appreciation of one of the most significant semantic shifts in Catholic ecclesiology. One might well ascribe this mutation to the impetus of the Triden­ tine renewal and the "second Roman centralization" it fostered.3 It would be simplistic, however, to assume that this desire by the hier­ archy to control better the exposition of doctrine4 was never chal­ lenged. There were serious resistances that reveal the complexity of the issue, as the case of the Faculty of Theology of Paris during the seventeenth century abundantly shows. 1 F. A. Sullivan, Magisterium (New York: Paulist, 1983) 181-83. 2 Y. Congar, 'Tour une histoire sémantique du terme Magisterium/ Revue des Sci­ ences philosophiques et théologiques 60 (1976) 85-98; "Bref historique des formes du 'Magistère' et de ses relations avec les docteurs," RSPhTh 60 (1976) 99-112 (also in Droit ancien et structures ecclésiales [London: Variorum Reprints, 1982]; English trans, in Readings in Moral Theology 3: The Magisterium and Morality [New York: Paulist, 1982] 314-31). In Magisterium and Theologians: Historical Perspectives (Chicago Stud­ ies 17 [1978]), see the remarks of Y.
    [Show full text]
  • The Unigenitus of Clement XI
    Theological Studies 49 (1988) THE UNIGÉNITOS OF CLEMENT XI: A FRESH LOOK AT THE ISSUES JACQUES M. GRES-GAYER The Catholic University of America HERE is an enigma about Unigenitus, the ill-fated bull issued by Pope TClement XI (1713) against the resurgence of Jansenism. If the Jansenist movement in general has continued to attract scholars, whose recent contributions are changing perspectives,1 the constitution that condemned 101 "Jansenist propositions" extracted from the Réflexions morales was until recently left scrupulously untouched. It seemed taken for granted as an inevitable pivot—either a terminus ad quern, the logical conclusion of a century of theological and political disputes, or a terminus a quo, the origin of a movement of rebellion that eventually developed into a revolution.2 In other words, it was considered more a catalyst or an excuse for a latent social and political conflict than its real cause; hence the interest manifested in its prolegomena or later development rather than in the document itself. It was the document itself, however, the solemn exercise of the papal magisterium, that stimulated what was then perceived as the major crisis in Catholic history. The animosities, the political schemes, and the negotiations which accompanied its preparation, the uproar, the renewed negotiations, and the conflicts which followed its publication, suggest that there was more to this document than a collection of 101 condemned extracts from a spiritual book. But what was Unigenitus all about? In what appears to be a healthy reaction to a quasi-exclusive emphasis on the social and political elements of the conflicts surrounding the bull, major scholars of Jansenism have lately advocated an approach that 1 See the review article by William H.
    [Show full text]
  • Malebranche's Augustinianism and the Mind's Perfection
    University of Pennsylvania ScholarlyCommons Publicly Accessible Penn Dissertations Spring 2010 Malebranche's Augustinianism and the Mind's Perfection Jason Skirry University of Pennsylvania, [email protected] Follow this and additional works at: https://repository.upenn.edu/edissertations Part of the History of Philosophy Commons Recommended Citation Skirry, Jason, "Malebranche's Augustinianism and the Mind's Perfection" (2010). Publicly Accessible Penn Dissertations. 179. https://repository.upenn.edu/edissertations/179 This paper is posted at ScholarlyCommons. https://repository.upenn.edu/edissertations/179 For more information, please contact [email protected]. Malebranche's Augustinianism and the Mind's Perfection Abstract This dissertation presents a unified interpretation of Malebranche’s philosophical system that is based on his Augustinian theory of the mind’s perfection, which consists in maximizing the mind’s ability to successfully access, comprehend, and follow God’s Order through practices that purify and cognitively enhance the mind’s attention. I argue that the mind’s perfection figures centrally in Malebranche’s philosophy and is the main hub that connects and reconciles the three fundamental principles of his system, namely, his occasionalism, divine illumination, and freedom. To demonstrate this, I first present, in chapter one, Malebranche’s philosophy within the historical and intellectual context of his membership in the French Oratory, arguing that the Oratory’s particular brand of Augustinianism, initiated by Cardinal Bérulle and propagated by Oratorians such as Andre Martin, is at the core of his philosophy and informs his theory of perfection. Next, in chapter two, I explicate Augustine’s own theory of perfection in order to provide an outline, and a basis of comparison, for Malebranche’s own theory of perfection.
    [Show full text]
  • Les Épreuves De L'incertain 30 Et 31 Mai 2017
    Danna Kostroun, histoire, Indiana University, Purdue University-Indianapolis, Etats- Unis et résidente 2016-2017 à l’IEA de Nantes Action against Uncertainty : The Case of Port-Royal This paper examines the relationship between action and uncertainty at Port Royal. The Cistercian convent of Port-Royal-des-Champs became famous in the 17th century as the center of a Catholic reform movement known as Jansenism. The community at Port-Royal was made up of the nuns who lived in the convent and a group of lay men and women who lived on the convent farm in pious retreat. The community is famous not only for its role in religious reform, but for the intellectual work of its members, who published philosophical and polemical treatises on a number of subjects. Port-Royal was an institution designed to confront uncertainty. Its members recognized many forms of uncertainty and developed different responses to them. The first form of uncertainty dealt with the relationship between humans and God. To confront this uncertainty, Port-Royal adhered to tradition (St. Augustine’s writings on grace) and performed acts of routine, ritual, and repetition (i.e. Blaise Pascal’s human “machine” behavior). The next source of uncertainty dealt with the natural universe and human institutions. To confront this uncertainty, they produced treatises on logic, education, grammar, medicine, and other fields, through which they sought to establish a normative order through reason. A third source of uncertainty was that created by human passions. Humans generated uncertainty when they allowed passions (such as a desire for wealth, domination, or power) to obscure, blind, or otherwise obstruct reason.
    [Show full text]
  • Antoine Arnauld | Encyclopedia.Com
    encyclopedia.com Antoine Arnauld | Encyclopedia.com Complete Dictionary of Scientific Biography COPYRIGHT 2008 Charles Scribner's Sons 4-5 minutes (b. Paris, France, 1612; d. Brussels, Belgium, 6 August 1694) mathematics, linguistics. Arnauld was the youngest of the twenty children of Antoine Arnauld, a lawyer who defended the University of Paris against the Jesuits in 1594. He was ordained a priest and received the doctorate in theology in 1641, and entered the Sorbonne in 1643, after the death of Richelieu. In 1656 he was expelled from the Sorbonne for his Jansenist views, and spent a good part of the rest of his life in more or less violent theological dispute. He died in self-imposed exile. Although in many of his nontheological writings Arnauld is identified with the Port-Royal school, his voluminous correspondence—with Descartes and Leibniz, among others—bears witness to his own influence and acumen. His philosophical contributions are to be found in his objections to Descartes’s Méditations, in his dispute with Malebranche, and in the Port-Royal Logic, which he wrote with Pierre Nicole. The latter, a text developed from Descartes’s Regulae, elaborates the theory of “clear and distinct” ideas and gives the first account of Pascal’s Méthode. It had an enormous influence as a textbook until comparatively recent times. The profound influence of the Regulae is shown in both the Logic and the Port-Royal Grammar, where it is assumed that linguistic and mental processes are virtually identical, that language is thus to be studied in its “inner” and “outer” aspects. This point of view underlies the project for a universal grammar and the notion of the “transparency” of language: mental processes are common to all human beings, although there are many languages.
    [Show full text]
  • Blaise Pascal: from Birth to Rebirth to Apologist
    Blaise Pascal: From Birth to Rebirth to Apologist A Thesis Presented To Dr. Stephen Strehle Liberty University Graduate School In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Course THEO 690 Thesis by Lew A. Weider May 9, 1990 TABLE OF CONTENTS INTRODUCTION 4 Chapter I. JANSENISM AND ITS INFLUENCE ON BLAISE PASCAL 12 The Origin of Jansenism . 12 Jansenism and Its Influence on the Pascals . 14 Blaise Pascal and his Experiments with Science and Technology . 16 The Pascal's Move Back to Paris . 19 The Pain of Loneliness for Blaise Pascal . 21 The Worldly Period . 23 Blaise Pascal's Second Conversion 26 Pascal and the Provincial Lettres . 28 The Origin of the Pensees . 32 II. PASCAL AND HIS MEANS OF BELIEF 35 The Influence on Pascal's Means of Belief 36 Pascal and His View of Reason . 42 Pascal and His View of Faith . 45 III. THE PENSEES: PASCAL'S APOLOGETIC FOR THE CHRISTIAN FAITH 50 The Wager Argument . 51 The Miracles of Holy Scripture 56 The Prophecies . 60 CONCLUSION . 63 BIBLIOGRAPHY . 65 INTRODUCTION Blaise Pascal was a genius. He was revered as a great mathematician and physicist, an inventor, and the greatest prose stylist in the French language. He was a defender of religious freedom and an apologist of the Christian faith. He was born June 19, 1623, at Clermont, the capital of Auvergne, which was a small town of about nine thousand inhabitants. He was born to Etienne and Antoinette Pascal. Blaise had two sisters, Gilberte, born in 1620, and Jacqueline, born in 1625. Blaise was born into a very influential family.
    [Show full text]
  • Aquinas's Account of Double Effect Thomas A
    The University of San Francisco USF Scholarship: a digital repository @ Gleeson Library | Geschke Center Philosophy College of Arts and Sciences 1997 Aquinas's Account of Double Effect Thomas A. Cavanaugh University of San Francisco, [email protected] Follow this and additional works at: http://repository.usfca.edu/phil Part of the Philosophy Commons Recommended Citation Cavanaugh, Thomas A., "Aquinas's Account of Double Effect" (1997). Philosophy. Paper 33. http://repository.usfca.edu/phil/33 This Article is brought to you for free and open access by the College of Arts and Sciences at USF Scholarship: a digital repository @ Gleeson Library | Geschke Center. It has been accepted for inclusion in Philosophy by an authorized administrator of USF Scholarship: a digital repository @ Gleeson Library | Geschke Center. For more information, please contact [email protected]. T. A. Cavanaugh, Philosophy, University of San Francisco Penultimate Draft of: Aquinas's Account of Double Effect, The Thomist, Vol. 61, No.1, January 1997, pp. 107-121. AQUINAS'S ACCOUNT OF DOUBLE EFFECT THOMAS A. CAVANAUGH UNIVERSITY OF SAN FRANCISCO In this paper, I present Aquinas's account of double-effect reasoning (DER) -- often called the "principle," "rule," or "doctrine" of double effect. Often, if not always, DER is attributed to Thomas Aquinas tout court.i Yet, I will argue, Thomas's account substantially differs from contemporary double-effect reasoning (DER) insofar as Thomas considers the ethical status of risking an assailant's life while contemporary accounts of DER focus on actions causing harm foreseen as inevitable.ii Of course, if DER applies to cases in which harm is foreseen as an inevitable result of an otherwise good action, it will apply to cases in which harm is foreseen as being a possible consequence.
    [Show full text]
  • A Survey of the Relationship Between Rhetoric and Music
    Western Michigan University ScholarWorks at WMU Master's Theses Graduate College 8-1977 A Survey of the Relationship between Rhetoric and Music Robert Stephen Brown Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarworks.wmich.edu/masters_theses Part of the Music Commons Recommended Citation Brown, Robert Stephen, "A Survey of the Relationship between Rhetoric and Music" (1977). Master's Theses. 2253. https://scholarworks.wmich.edu/masters_theses/2253 This Masters Thesis-Open Access is brought to you for free and open access by the Graduate College at ScholarWorks at WMU. It has been accepted for inclusion in Master's Theses by an authorized administrator of ScholarWorks at WMU. For more information, please contact [email protected]. A SURVEY OF THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN RHETORIC AND MUSIC by Robert Stephen Brown A Thesis Submitted to the Faculty of the Graduate College in partial fulfillment of the Dsgree of Master of Music Western Michigan University Kalamazoo, Michigan August 1977 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. PREFACE This thesis is the result of a two-year study of the literary- rhetorical tradition and its relationship to music, a relationship which ultimately- led to the Baroque doctrine of the affections. Rhetoric, in the ancient and non-pe jorativs sense, is a subject about which most per­ sons in this country know very little ; in modern times it appears to be reserved for classical scholars. A wealth of information is available, however, and in the first two chapters of this study an attempt is made to capsulize this history of rhetoric for the non-rhetorician and especial­ ly the musician.
    [Show full text]
  • Lecture Notes
    “Modern, Anti- and Post- Modern Augustines” for “In Dialogue with Augustine” Villanova University July 23-27, 2001. An intensive seminar (three hours, Monday through Friday). Fifteen Hours Taking Descartes’ use and reworking of Augustine as defining his modern reception, the course will examine this modern Augustine, its developments, the alternatives to it and reactions against it. Topics and figures considered will include Early Modern Augustinian predecessors of Descartes like Jean Calvin, Richard Hooker and the Cardinal de Bérulle; fellows in the Cartesian project to employ an Augustinian logic for a revolution in the Christian relation to the cosmos like Galileo; the continuation of Augustinian scholasticism; the modern Augustinian reactions against modern secularity like those of Pascal, his Jansenist friends, and Kierkegaard; continuations of Augustinian Christian Platonism in the Cambridge Platonists, Ontologism, German Idealism, and in the retrieval of the Fathers of the Church. Other Twentieth-century interpretations will include the reassertion of a modern Augustinianism with Phenomenology, Charles Taylor and Stephen Menn and its opposite in the Protestant Orthodoxy of Karl Barth and his postmodern heirs, Jean-Luc Marion and Radical Orthodoxy. Finally, connections of these with the Jewish Augustine of Jacques Derrida and the revival of theurgic Neoplatonism will be considered. The aim will be to demonstrate the mutual dependence of the modern and anti-modern, the philosophical and religious forms of our following of Augustine. A Note on the Reading List It is not intended that every item on the list be required for each participant, although it will be clear that some of the readings are necessary for everyone.
    [Show full text]
  • Proper and Improper Partiality and the Preferential Option for the Poor
    Theological Studies 54 (1993) PROPER AND IMPROPER PARTIALITY AND THE PREFERENTIAL OPTION FOR THE POOR STEPHEN J. POPE Boston College ΓΤΊΗΕ PREFERENTIAL ΟΡΠΟΝ for the poor has become a major theme in X contemporary Catholic ethics,1 and, like many significant theo­ logical innovations, it is highly contested.2 In this essay I would like to address the complaint that the preferential option constitutes a form of unjust partiality. I argue that it does indeed constitute a form of par­ tiality but that, far from being morally pernicious, this partiality is morally justified and, indeed, required. My argument is that the pref­ erential option, properly understood, appeals to an expansion rather than contraction of love and wisdom, and that this form of partiality must not be associated with those forms which encourage a disregard for fairness, a distortion of truth seeking, and a narrowing of the uni­ versal love of God. The argument is directed both to advocates of the 1 The phrase itself was first officially endorsed at the Second General Conference of Latin American Bishops (CELAM) in Puebla, Mexico, in 1979, but most scholars trace its proximate origin, at least in substance, to the previous episcopal conference in Medel- lin, Colombia, in 1968 (see Liberation Theology: A Documentary History, ed. Alfred T. Hennelly [Maryknoll, N.Y.: Orbis, 1990] chaps. 10 and 12). John Paul Π traces its proximate source in the life of the recent Church not to Medellin but to Lumen gentium no. 8, which observes that the Church "recognizes in the poor and the suffering the likeness of her poor and suffering Founder.
    [Show full text]