DOCSLIB.ORG

Adam S. Cohen Is Associate Professor in the Department of Art at the University of To­ Ronto

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
Adam S. Cohen Is Associate Professor in the Department of Art at the University of To­ Ronto Contributors Adam S. Cohen is Associate Professor in the Department of Art at the University of To­ ronto. After receiving a Ph.D. in medieval art from The johns Hopkins University in 1995, he worked for two years in the Department of Manu­ scripts at the j. Paul Getty Museum in Los Angeles. His publications, in­ cluding The Uta Codex: Art, Philosophy, and Reform in Eleventh-Century Germany (University Park, Pa., 2000), have focused mainly on under­ standing the production and function of manuscripts in their historical context and in particular on elucidating the relationships between im­ ages and texts in German and Anglo-Saxon manuscripts from around the year 1000. He has recently edited the collected essays on Anglo-Saxon and early medieval art by Robert Deshman (Kalamazoo, MI, 2010), and is completing a book on the phenomenon of facing page illuminations in medieval and renaissance manuscripts. Dr. Cohen's current research project is devoted to complex visual exegesis in central European manu­ scripts ofthe eleventh through thirteenth centuries. Dario Dei Puppo is Professor of Language and Culture Sturlies at Trinity College, Hartford, CT. His research deals primarily with the manuscripts and early printed books of Medieval and Renaissance ltalian literature. In particular he is a co-editor of Tommaso Rimbotti's Rime and has written articles on Pet­ rarca's Canzoniere, Boccaccio's Decameron, Goro Dati's Sfera, Burchiello's Rime, and other 14th and 15th century authors. Greti Dinkova-Bruun is Associate Fellow at the Pontifical Institute of Mediaeval Sturliesin To­ ronto. She has published widely on a range of topics within the field of Medieval Studies. A noted manuscript scholar, she is the author of a number of critical editions and translations of medieval texts including the poetry of Alexander of Ashby, Alexandri Essebiensis Opera Poetica (ONTRIBUTORS 271 (2004) and The Ancestry of jesus (2005). Recently, she has been elected Editor-in-Chief for the Catalogus Translationum et Commentariorum (CTC). Her main interests are in the fields of Latin biblical versification, mnemonics, and medieval education. Lucie Dolezalova received her PhD in Medieval Studies at the Central European University in Budapest in 2005 and her habilitation in 2012 at the Charles Univer­ sity in Prague where she works as Associate Professor of Medieval Latin. She has authored monographs on the medieval reception of the Cena Cyp riani (Trier, 2007), and on a biblical mnemonic aid Summarium biblie (Krems, 2012), and edited several collective volumes (e.g., The Making of Memory in the Midd/e Ages, Leiden, 2010, and Retel/ing the Bible: Histori­ cal, Literary, and Social Contexts, Frankfurt am Main, 2011). Her current research concentrates on the art of memory and obscurity in late medie­ val Latin manuscript culture, biblical mnemonics, and parody. Stephane Gioanni is a former student of the Ecole Normale Superieure (ENS-LSH). He re­ ceived his Ph.D. in Classical Studies in 2004 at the Lumiere-University in Lyon and was a "Mattre de conferences" at the Paris-! Pantheon­ Sorbonne University (2005-2010). He has published the Letters of En­ nodius of Pavia (Les Beiles Lettres, 2006 and 2010) and edited collective volumes, among them L'Antiquite tardive dans /es collections medievales (Ecole Fran�aise de Rome, 2008). He is currently director of Medieval Studies at the French School in Rome. Diana Müller is a PhD candidate at the Johann Wolfgang Goethe University of Frank­ furt, Germany. She wrote a dissertation on German miscellanies of the late Middle Ages. Her research is focused on medieval manuscript cul­ ture and book history. She is also generally interested in the written cultural heritage of the late Middle Ages such as block books, incunabula, early prints or rare books. She is currently working at the University Li­ brary in Marburg, Germany. Csaba Nemeth is a PhD candidate of Medieval Studies at the Central European University in Budapest, defending his dissertation on the theological anthropology of Hugh and Richard of Saint Victor and its scholastic 272 CONTRißUTORS reception in 2013. His research is fo cused on intellectual history and philology of the twelfth century. His most important international publications are: "The Victorines and the Areopagite," in L'ecole de Saint­ Victor de Paris. Influence et rayonnement du Moyen Age a J'Epoque moderne, ed. Dominique Poirel (Turnhout: Brepols, 2010) and "Paulus raptus to raptus Pauli. Paul's rapture (2 Cor 12:2-4) in the pre-scholastic and scholastic theologies," in A Campanion to St. Paul in the Midd/e Ages, ed. Steven R. Cartwright (Leiden: Brill, 2012). Eva Nyström is a Research Fellow at Uppsala University Library, Sweden, where she is currently in charge of the digitization and cataloguing project "Greek manuscripts in Sweden," financed by the Bank of Sweden Tercentenary Foundation. In recent years she has been a Cataloguer of Manuscripts at Skara Diocesan Library, and was involved in the development of ProBok, an online database for recording information about provenance and bookbindings in collections of prints from the handpress era (http:/ jprobok.alvin-portal.orgjalvin/). Her PhD thesis, Containing Multitudes: Codex Upsaliensis Graecus 8 in Perspective (Acta Universitatis Upsaliensis. Studia Byzantina Upsaliensia 11, Uppsala 2009), was awarded the Benzelius Prize from the The Royal Society of Seiences in Uppsala. Dr. Nyström's research interests include codicology and the positioning of medieval and early modern manuscripts within the wider histmy of the book. Kimberly Rivers received her PhD from the University of Toronto in 1995 and is currently a professor of history at the University of Wisconsin Oshkosh. She has published articles on the use of memory techniques in preaching and re­ ligious life and has recently published a monograph, Preaching the Memory of Virtue and Vice: Memory, Images and Mendicant Preaching in the Late Middle Ages (Sermo 4, Brepols, 2010). Kees Sehepers is an Assistant Professor at the Ruusbroec Institute of the University of Antwerp. He has published critical editions of the first Latin translation of john of Ruusbroec's Spiritual Espousa/s, of the Middle Dutch translation of a Latin commentary to the Song of Songs, and of an early fifteenth-century miscellany from the Southern Low Countries. He CONTRJBUTOI\5 273 currently works on the study and critical edition of a collection of unique 16th-century mystical sermons in Middle Dutch. Elizabeth Watkins is currently a Ph.D. candidate at the Centre for Medieval Studies at the University of Toronto. Her dissertation, entitled "French Romance and English Piety: Genre and Codex in Insular Romance," examines the rise of romance vis-a-vis its relationship with hagiography and what romances and their codicological contexts can reveal about the place of French lan­ guage, literature, and culture in the Iiterature of medieval England. Siegfried Wenzel Professor Emeritus, University of Pennsylvania, has specialized in medi­ eval literature and its religious backgrounds. A number of articles in this area have recently been republished as Elucidations: Medieval Poetry and Its Religious Backgrounds (Peeters, 2010). In addition, he has worked ex­ tensively on Medieval Latin works dealing with the vices and virtues and on Latin sermon literature. Representative books in this field are edi­ tions with translations of two medieval works: Summa virtutum de remediis anime (University of Georgia Press, 1984) and Fasciculus Morum. A Fourteenth-Century Preacher's Handbook (Pennsylvania State University Press, 1989). Other scholarly studies deal with medieval preaching: Verses in Sermons: "Fasciculus Morum" and /ts Midd/e English Poems (Medieval Academy of America, 1978); Preachers, Poets, and the Early English Ly ric (Princeton University Press, 1986); Latin Sermon Collections from Later Medieval Eng land: Orthodox Preaching in the Age of Wy clif (Cambridge University Press, 2005); and Preaching in the Age of Chaucer: Selected Sermons in Translation (Catholic University of America Press, 2008). His most recent work is The Art of Preaching: Five Medieval Texts and Translations (Catholic University of America Press, 2013). Alessandro Zironi (MA University of Verona, PhD University of Florence) is Associate Pro­ fe ssor of Germanie Philology at the Alma Mater Studiorum - University of Bologna. His research is focused on three main topics: Gothic language and literature, Middle High German Iiterature and rewriting of Teutonic cultural tradition in modern and contemporary eras. As far as Gothic and Middle High German are concerned, the core of Zironi's research is the codicological analysis of manuscripts together with a philological inves­ tigation oftexts in order to restore the cultural milieu in which a text was 274 CONTRIBUTORS copied. Recently, he published L'eredita dei Goti. Testi barbarici in eta carolingia, Spoleto 2009, in which he studied the survival of both Gothic language and cultural memory du ring the Carolingian age, and an article on "Elaborazione del mito nibelungico e creazione dell'identita tedesca nel cinema di Fritz Lang: Die Nibelungen (1924)," in Metamorfo si del mito classico nel cinema, ed. G. P. Brunetta (Bologna, 2011). Index librorum manuscriptorum Admont, Stiftsbibliothek 142 -155 203 - 155 433 - 155 592 - 155 Basel, Universitätsbibliothek B IX 34-212 Berlin, Staatsbibliothek germ. qu. 979 - 97, 98 Cambridge, Corpus Christi College 423 - 106, 110 441 -109 Pembroke College 9-197 275 - 109 Trinity
Load more

Recommended publications
  • Lesser Feasts and Fasts 2018
    Lesser Feasts and Fasts 2018 Conforming to General Convention 2018 1 Preface Christians have since ancient times honored men and women whose lives represent heroic commitment to Christ and who have borne witness to their faith even at the cost of their lives. Such witnesses, by the grace of God, live in every age. The criteria used in the selection of those to be commemorated in the Episcopal Church are set out below and represent a growing consensus among provinces of the Anglican Communion also engaged in enriching their calendars. What we celebrate in the lives of the saints is the presence of Christ expressing itself in and through particular lives lived in the midst of specific historical circumstances. In the saints we are not dealing primarily with absolutes of perfection but human lives, in all their diversity, open to the motions of the Holy Spirit. Many a holy life, when carefully examined, will reveal flaws or the bias of a particular moment in history or ecclesial perspective. It should encourage us to realize that the saints, like us, are first and foremost redeemed sinners in whom the risen Christ’s words to St. Paul come to fulfillment, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” The “lesser feasts” provide opportunities for optional observance. They are not intended to replace the fundamental celebration of Sunday and major Holy Days. As the Standing Liturgical Commission and the General Convention add or delete names from the calendar, successive editions of this volume will be published, each edition bearing in the title the date of the General Convention to which it is a response.
    [Show full text]
  • BOOK ESSAY Bernard Mcginn's Presence of God: the Project That
    Louvain Studies 41 (2018): 173-195 doi: 10.2143/LS.41.2.3284885 © 2018 by Louvain Studies, all rights reserved BOOK ESSAY Bernard McGinn’s Presence of God: The Project that Made Mystical Theology Respectable John Arblaster and Rob Faesen For the past several decades, Bernard McGinn,1 Emeritus Professor of the University of Chicago, has been working on a magisterial project on the history of Christian mysticism entitled The Presence of God: A History of Western Christian Mysticism.2 Part two of volume six of this series of books was published in late 2017. Despite the fact that seven books have thus far appeared, a review of the series may appear somewhat prema- ture, given that two more books are planned to complete the project. Nevertheless, we would like to take this opportunity to discuss McGinn’s contributions thus far, and especially from our own expertise, which is primarily in the history of mystical theology in the medieval and early modern Low Countries. Each of the volumes of The Presence of God has received almost universal praise. For example, Denys Turner, another famous scholar of medieval mysticism, commented on the fifth volume: 1. Bernard McGinn is the Naomi Shenstone Donnelley Professor Emeritus in the Divinity School at the University of Chicago, where he taught for thirty-four years (1969-2003). Trained in both theology and Medieval intellectual history, the author and/or editor of thirty-three books and well over three hundred articles; he was Editor- in-Chief of the Paulist Press Classics of Western Spirituality Series between 1988 and 2015, and has served on the editorial boards of many publications.
    [Show full text]
  • Modern Devotion the Northern Renaissance and Religious
    Turning Points:God’s Faithfulness in Christian History 4. Religious Awakening: Modern Devotion below: Begijnhof/ Beguinage, Bruges Context : Renaissance 1300-1500 “Renaissance”= re-birth / discovery of “Classical Ancient World”= Greece & Roman (600 BC--300 AD) “Humanism” = method to recover & study ancient texts. Discovery of ancient wisdom challenged existing authorities (church, kings): “Veritas, non auctoritas facit legem” (truth, not authority makes the law); truth in original texts & languages: Hebrew, Greek, Aramaic, Arabic, classical Latin. All Truth is God’s Truth Arthur F. Holmes, All Truth Is God’s Truth (Eerdmans, 1977). Long-time Wheaton College philosopher 2 Rise of Spirituality Problem of “Spirituality” for medieval laity & individual: (1) Few “religious” (nuns), monks, & priests w/some access to spirituality; (2) Laity mediated only through institutional Christendom (& rise of papacy). Lacked: access to Bible (esp. own language); God very distant (in heaven judging) & Jesus divinity, not humanity; no developed sense of individual/personal piety; almost no education about doctrine. CHANGE 1. Renaissance: 1300-1500 = re-birth of antiquity. 2. Christology: from almost solely divine Jesus to more human Jesus. 3. Mysticism allowed individual quest to know God & Self with heightened awareness of role of “conscience” & individual responsibility. Rise of Spirituality 4. “Devotio Moderna ” (modern devotion) movement northern Europe: Beguines, Brethren of the Common Life, & new Augustinian Order1256, education & publication. 5. Crises 14th c.: breakdown Christendom (2-3 popes);100 Yrs. War; Bubonic Plague; Peasant revolts. 6. Christian Humanism & spread of handbooks/manuals (scholarly base) & devotional materials. A balance b/w FAITH & REASON = goal. Crisis of Authority: Breakdown of Christendom Great Schism (1378-1417) SUPPORT Avignon: Kingdoms of France, Two popes: Avignon & Rome.
    [Show full text]
  • Why Does the History of Christian Spirituality Mattery
    WHY DOES THE HISTORY OF CHRISTIAN SPIRITUALITY MATTER? Rob Faesen PIRITUALITY, IN ALL ITS SHAPES and forms, is very much in vogue at S present. But for the history of Christian spirituality, this is much less the case. It appears that what happened in the past is regarded as of little relevance, and as something that, on the whole, can be disregarded. There are, however, a few fashionable exceptions—for example Meister Eckhart and the Beguines. I would like to raise the question of why the history of Christian spirituality might be very relevant, and what some important writers from the European spiritual tradition can teach us in the twenty-first century. Perhaps the first point to stress is that, in any case, the importance of spirituality is relative, and never normative. On this, the Bible could not be clearer: the only thing that really matters is to love God, with all one’s heart, all one’s soul and all one’s mind, and this can only be done by loving one’s neighbour as oneself (Matthew 22:36–39). Included in the command to love one’s neighbour as oneself are personal care for the neighbour, the effort to establish human, social and economic structures that are just, and to nurture and protect God’s creation. The human person is called to an actively good, just and responsible life. These things are normative and indispensable. Spirituality presupposes this; in no way are the two mutually exclusive. On the contrary, these are clearly foundational principles in the history of Christian spirituality.
    [Show full text]
  • John of Ruusbroec Mystic and Theologian in the Quiet of Groenendaal
    LIEVE UYTTENHOVE John of Ruusbroec Mystic and Theologian in the Quiet of Groenendaal A few years ago, I was asked to attend a colloquium on hermits and recluses in the Low Countries. On that occasion, I was due to give a lecture on the fourteenth-century Brabantine mystical writer John of Ruusbroec (1293-1381), of whom it has generally been said, left the city of Brussels in 1343 and moved into a hermit’s hut in the Sonian Forest, in a valley called Groenendaal. Unfor- tunately, the colloquium did not take place. It was then decided that I convert my presentation into an article. At that stage, I took for granted the generally accepted portrayal of Ruus- broec as a ‘hermit’, who lived in a hermitage or hermit’s hut. This depiction, however, may be less securely based than might at first sight appear. With regard to both Ruusbroec’s move into a hermitage and the seemingly general consensus that he lived there as a hermit, it is helpful to rehearse the relevant findings in two extant and well-known written testimonies about his life. The first of these is a Prologue to a manuscript collection of five of Ruusbroec’s works written circa 1360 by Brother Gerard of Saintes, a Carthusian at the ­priory in Herne;1 the second is a biography of Ruusbroec contained in De ­origine monasterii Viridisvallis – a history of the foundation of the priory at Groenendaal – written circa 1414-1420 by canon of Groenendaal, Hendrik Utenbogaerde (better known by his Latinised name Henricus Pomerius).2 ¶ I wish to thank Ursula Lawler for assistance in language editing and proofreading the manuscript.
    [Show full text]
  • Traces of a Thomistic De Musica in the Compositions of Olivier Messiaen
    Siglind Bruhn Traces of a Thomistic De musica in the Compositions of Olivier Messiaen In the year of his centennial, Olivier Messiaen (1908–92) is widely acknowledged as not only one of the leading French com­ posers of the twentieth century, but as a voice of timeless signifi­ cance within Western music. In addition to his love for music with its “colors” and rhythms, he felt passionately about two other areas in which he became an erudite scholar: theology and ornithology. A devout Catholic, he owned and diligently read a large collection of theologi cal books; an avid bird lover, he studied their song so thoroughly that his contri butions to the field are now considered invalua ble even to specialists. A third field to which Messiaen de­ voted a cluster of com positions is that of idealized human love. As he knew, all love derives from God’s love for humankind. The hu­ man love of God may be but an awkward and flawed response to the divine gift, but even the love of one human for another, provided it is true and strong, must be regarded as a reflection—albeit a pale reflection—of God’s love.1 Messiaen began reading books on theology already as a teen­ ager. Mystics like John of Ruusbroec, Thomas à Kempis, and Thomas Merton as well as saints like Francis of Assisi, Teresa of Ávila, John logos 11:4 fall 2008 thomistic de musica in the compositions of messiaen 17 of the Cross, Catherine of Siena, and Thérèse de Lisieux were of crucial impor tance for his devotion.
    [Show full text]
  • How Ruusbroec Tastes, Sounds, and Smells Henry of Coesfeld and the Gerson–Groenendaal Controversy
    TOM GAENS How Ruusbroec Tastes, Sounds, and Smells Henry of Coesfeld and the Gerson–Groenendaal Controversy Around 1406, the chancellor of the University of Paris Jean Gerson († 1429) condemned parts of Ruusbroec’s Espousals in two letters to the Herne Carthu- sian Bartholomew Clantier († 1427).1 In his second letter, Gerson included an excerpt from a capitular sermon by an anonymous Carthusian.2 Elsewhere, I have demonstrated that this quotation has its origin in a sermo or collatio held by Henry of Coesfeld († 1410) at the 1406 general chapter of the Urbanist branch of the Carthusian Order in Seitz [Žiče].3 This sermon contains a sum- mary of Henry’s theology of devotio, as it was developed in a few earlier ser- mons and a tract on the institution of the sacrament of the Eucharist.4 ¶ I would like to thank José van Aelst, Krijn Pansters, Kees Schepers, and John Arblaster, for giving valuable comments and insights to improve this essay. I am also indebted to Jasper Hop- kins’ translations of the early sermons of Nicholas of Cusa, made available on his personal web- site (jasper-hopkins.info). 1 For an overview of the Gerson–Groenendaal controversy, see K. Schepers, ‘Ruusbroec in Latin: Impulses and Impediments’, in: J. Arblaster & R. Faesen, A Companion to John of Ruusbroec [Brill’s Companions to the Christian Tradition, 51], Leiden – Boston, 2014, 237-285, p. 262-268. 2 See the edition of Epistola II ad Bartholomeum in A. Combes, Essai sur la critique de Ruys- broeck par Gerson, 3 vols., Paris, 1945-1959, vol.
    [Show full text]
  • Brepolis Catalogue
    2020 Online DATABASES Brepols Online Databases Table of Contents Introduction 1 Source Collections 2 Bibliographies 11 Encyclopaedias 18 Stand-alone Databases 21 WEBSITES www.brepolis.net - www.brepols.net More info on databases: about.brepolis.net E-NEWSLETTER Subscribe to our free E-Newsletter: [email protected] Please specify your field(s) of interest. B Introduction Unequaled resources for the study of Western civilisation from Antiquity to the twenty-first century For more than 25 years, Brepols Publishers has been The other strength of Brepols lies in the study of Latin developing high-value databases in the field of Humanities. language and Literature as we offer the world’s leading Since 2001, these databases are available online on a databases in this field. Brepols has created a Latin environ- platform called BREPOLiS. ment where we bring together recent Latin texts editions and Latin dictionaries: At the moment, BREPOLiS offers seven bibliographic databases, four encyclopaedias, eight full-text data- The cluster Brepolis Latin Complete gathers together bases and four stand-alone databases. the Library of Latin Texts (Series A & Series B), the Monumenta Germaniae Historica, the Archive of Celtic- Latin Literature, the Aristoteles Latinus Database, and One of Brepols’ main fields of interest isMedieval Studies. the Database of Latin Dictionaries. The Cross Database We have created an unparalleled medieval environment Searchtool allows the user to search these databases where we bring together key resources for the study of simultaneously. the Middle Ages with bibliographies on the one hand, and with encyclopaedias on the other. Two clusters are available, including “live links”: A last cluster of databases is dedicated to Religious Studies and Church History and includes the Index Religiosus, the Dictionnaire d’histoire et de géographie ecclésiastiques, and Brepolis Medieval Bibliographies gathers together the Bishops of the Holy Roman Empire (Bischöfe des Heiligen the International Medieval Bibliography, the Bibliographie Römischen Reiches).
    [Show full text]
  • William of St. Thierry's Theological Treatment of Salvation in Light of His Pneumatology
    Durham E-Theses In the Spirit of Salvation: William of St. Thierry's Theological Treatment of Salvation in light of his Pneumatology O'LEARY, DEVIN,JAMES How to cite: O'LEARY, DEVIN,JAMES (2016) In the Spirit of Salvation: William of St. Thierry's Theological Treatment of Salvation in light of his Pneumatology, Durham theses, Durham University. Available at Durham E-Theses Online: http://etheses.dur.ac.uk/11671/ Use policy The full-text may be used and/or reproduced, and given to third parties in any format or medium, without prior permission or charge, for personal research or study, educational, or not-for-prot purposes provided that: • a full bibliographic reference is made to the original source • a link is made to the metadata record in Durham E-Theses • the full-text is not changed in any way The full-text must not be sold in any format or medium without the formal permission of the copyright holders. Please consult the full Durham E-Theses policy for further details. Academic Support Oce, Durham University, University Oce, Old Elvet, Durham DH1 3HP e-mail: [email protected] Tel: +44 0191 334 6107 http://etheses.dur.ac.uk 2 Devin James O’Leary Abstract While desire for salvation forms the foundation of all Christian investigation, the modes through which salvation is explored vary between different theologians. William of St. Thierry, while leaving behind a wealth of extant sources, is frequently overlooked in the academic and theological investigation of the subject. This study undertakes an in-depth investigation of William’s writings, focused on pnuematological soteriology and an explanation of the characteristic elements which made up his thinking on this core.
    [Show full text]
  • Poverty and Mobility: New Religious Movements and Urban
    Poverty and Mobility: new religious movements (c. 1200-1300 AD) Europe c. 1200- 1300By 1200, the map of Europe was a complex one: • A number of polities that had grown up in the wake of the collapse of the Carolingian empire – by this stage, they were increasingly mature and ambitious! • The most powerful kings increasingly sought to establish fuller control over core and neighbouring territories, limiting the authority of other dukes and princes within them, and establishing clearer borders. The roots of “countries”, in the modern sense, are becoming a little easier to see. • In the region of modern-day France, the Kings of the Franks (who increasingly styled themselves “Kings of France”) began a struggle with the Angevin/English kings; the latter had full sovereignty in England, but also held and effectively ruled many territories in France that were technically subordinate to the French King. • The Empire, meanwhile, was becoming an increasingly German polity. Increasingly independent and ambitious local states in northern Italy – Venice and Genoa especially – as well as the Papacy begin to roll back the power of the German Emperors in the Italian peninsula. • The aspiration to have a ‘universal’ authority still existed in the Latin West, however, despite the decline of the Empire. The post-Gregorian reform papacy had much success in subjugating the clergy throughout Western/Central Europe to its overall authority. This greater control in religious matters ran across borders and effectively gave the papacy significant political influence across the West. They also claimed the right to collect taxes from ecclesiastical properties regardless of which polity they were located in.
    [Show full text]
  • The Shape of Spiritual Direction in the Mystical Theology of Jan Van Ruusbroec
    THE CATHOLIC UNIVERSITY OF AMERICA The Shape of Spiritual Direction in the Mystical Theology of Jan van Ruusbroec A DISSERTATION Submitted to the Faculty of the School of Theology and Religious Studies Of The Catholic University of America In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements For the Degree Doctor of Philosophy By Greg Voiles Washington, D.C. 2016 The Shape of Spiritual Direction in the Mystical Theology of Jan van Ruusbroec Greg Voiles, Ph.D. Director: James Wiseman, O.S.B, S.T.D. This dissertation considers the trinitarian mystical theology of the late-medieval mystical theologian Jan van Ruusbroec and how his trinitarian thought forms and animates his written spiritual direction. It particularly examines the relationship between Ruusbroec’s trinitarian mystical theology and his post-Brussels written spiritual direction, which offers guidance to specific communities and persons in their pursuit of union with God through the life of prayer, worship, and service. In order to render a coherent account of this relationship and its primary characteristics, the work argues that one must read Ruusbroec as a mystical theologian. As a mystical theologian, Ruusbroec’s thought displays the natural integrity of theology and spirituality, as assumed by the majority of the theological masters of the Christian tradition, from its origins to the High Middle Ages. After dealing with the biographical details of Ruusbroec’s life and historical, cultural, and theological contexts, the study makes a foray into the works of Ruusbroec to show the primary characteristics of the Brabantine’s trinitarian mystical theology, the core of which is his teaching of essential love, the perfect, eternal simultaneity and harmony of activity and rest of the life of the Trinity.
    [Show full text]
  • The Strategy of Ontological Negativity in Meister Eckhart's Metaphysics
    religions Article The Strategy of Ontological Negativity in Meister Eckhart’s Metaphysics and in Philosophical Traditions of India Tatyana Lifintseva * and Dmitry Tourko * Faculty of Humanities, School of Philosophy, National Research University Higher School of Economics, Staraya Basmannaya st., 21/4, Moscow 105066, Russia * Correspondence: lifi[email protected] (T.L.); [email protected] (D.T.); Tel.: +7-9099748119 (T.L.) Received: 4 October 2018; Accepted: 20 November 2018; Published: 26 November 2018 Abstract: In this article, the authors investigate ontological strategies in Meister Eckhart’s metaphysics, which remounts Neoplatonism and the Corpus Areopagiticum, and in two schools of Indian philosophical tradition, the Advaita Vedanta and Early Buddhism. Along with differences in the anthropology, epistemology, and soteriology of these traditions, we can find similar strategies of ontological negativity and mystical experience in both traditions: detachment from the world of images and forms as the highest blessing; non-association of oneself with corporality, feelings, cognitive ability and reason; interiorizing the intentionality of consciousness, and termination of its representative function. Practically all systems of Indian philosophy were projects of liberation or personal transformation from subjugation and suffering into being free and blissful. The idea of spiritual release is also the cornerstone of Christian salvation as with the renouncement of sin and entering blissful unity with God. The apophatic doctrine of Christian neo-platonic mystics about the concealment, non-comprehensiveness, and inexpressibleness of God as the One and Nothingness, and also the idea of comprehension of God by means of detachment from the created world and one’s own ego, gives us the opportunity for such comparative analysis.
    [Show full text]