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October 30: Jesus (Rutledge)
Prologue:  Athens & Jerusalem

- a balanced life: humans as rational and spiritual creatures
- Christianity, like modern science, a major export of the west to the world
- the popularity of Jesus; the hidden danger of Jesus and the New Testament

The Jesus of History

 -the historical evidence:  Josephus; the Talmud; Suetonius, Tacitus, Pliny; the New Testament
 -historical context:   born c. 4-6 b.c.; died c. 29 a.d.; Nazareth of Galilee and Roman Judea
 -Jesus the Jew:  from the world of Torah study, synagogue, rabbis, tension with Rome
 -his ministry related to that of John the Baptizer, who was beheaded for criticizing Herod
 -relations with Sadducess, Pharisees, Essenes, Zealots; a healer (Mt. 1-4)
 -Teachings:  -moral, spiritual, not intellectual teaching; a teller of parables (Lk 15-16)

  -ex:  Sermon on the Mount (Mt. 5-7); attacked hypocrisy; prophetic (Mt. 25)
  -God favors humility, concern for others, equality of persons; judges the uncaring
  -eschatological, apocalyptic; suffering and conflict part of his Way

 -Passion:  during Passover ( > the eucharist/ communion), arrested, tried, crucified  (Lk. 22-24)

 -resurrection:  the ‘master story’ of Christianity; life is stronger than death
 -the wonderful ambiguity of Luke’s resurrection appearances (ch. 24):  fact, fiction, faith and the resurrection
 -instead of repeating Jesus’ teachings, followers begin to teach Jesus (Acts 2)
 -political and spiritual messianic expectations, and how Jesus confounds them
 -“Son of God” :  an affront to Israelite faith; familiar to non-Jewish world
 -the Christian claim:  God appears in Jesus in human form (the incarnation)

October 31: Paul and Early Christianity (Stone)

Introduction - Elements in the Greco-Roman world in the first century CE that are congenial to this fledgling religion, Christianity
* The Roman Empire, Language, Religion, Philosophy
* Philosophy -
(a) Stoicism and even Epicurianism present universal doctrines that have universal appeal
(b) Turn to subjectivity, turn inward makes ethical experience something that is primarily internal, a matter of attitudes and intentions
(c) Religious element in Stoicism is pantheistic, but God is identified with a reason, the divine Logos
(d) Later elements in Platonism that are agreeable to Christian beliefs, Good (God) as the source of truth and source of creation, immortality of the soul

Paul (5-67 CE)- a central figure in transforming Christianity from a minor sect to a major religion
1. Establishing elements in this religion that are distinct from Judaism
2. Spreading this religion through missionary activities

Saul of Tarsus
* Evidence - Luke, the Acts of the Apostles, and Paul's letters, 1 Thessonians., 1 & 2 Corinthians, Galatians, Phillipians, Philemon, Romans
* Born in Tarsus - a Hellenized Jew of the Diaspora, unlikely that he was raised in Jerusalem (Acts 22:3)
Greek was probably his first language
Tarsus was a center of Stoic philosophy - Stoic thought and rhetoric reflect in his letters (Rom. 6:1-4 ff.)
* Persecuted early members of the Christian sect, probably Jewish members
Luke's account - Acts 7:58, 8:3, and 26:10-11
Paul's account - Gal. 1:13, 1:23
* Roman citizen? (Acts 22:25-27)
* Pharisee? (Acts 23:6, Phillipians 3:4-6 but Gal. 1:14

Josephus, History of the Jewish War:
The Pharisees, who are considered the most accurate interpreters of the laws, and hold the position of the leading sect, attribute everything to Fate and to God; they hold that to act rightly or otherwise rests, indeed, for the most part with men, but that in each action Fat cooperates.  Every soul, they maintain is imperishable, but the soul of the good alone passes into another body, while the souls of the wicked suffer eternal punishment.

Paul the Apostle
* Luke - emphasis on conversion, his Judaism, his citizenship, his preaching to the Gentiles (Acts 17:16-33)
* Paul - revelation of Jesus (Gal. 1:11-12), relationship with the early churches (1 Thess. 2:7-8), suffering
* Transforms Jesus's message into a Christian doctrine, ethical teachings and parables are fine for the individual but not for the church, church unity requires doctrine
* Rejects following the law alone as an adequate for spiritual life,
* Embraces a transforming inner experience as necessary, contra Stoics inwardly we are not free
* Preaches faith in Jesus and his resurrection as necessary to personal salvation from one's sinful nature
* Theology develops in active response to the problems and conflicts that arose in the early churches

Paul's views about women
* Bad - 1 Tim. 2:12 and 1. Cor. 14: 33b-36 (but these are not Paul)
* Mixed - context is how to dress for public prayer, 1 Cor. 11:1-12
* Good - Gal. 3:28

Conclusion

November 1: Early Christian Literature: Acts (Menzer)
I. Discussing sacred texts from a literary perspective

II. Medium and message
A. From scroll to codex
development of parchment, needs of Christian readers
B. Genre: the ancient historical novel
prose narrative; common motifs: travel, adventure, miracles/prophecy, exoticism
teaching through entertainment
opening with prophecy: Acts 1.8 (Philostratus's Life of Appolonius)

III. Literary techniques
A. Repetition of arrest/trial motif
comparison: Chariton's Callirhoe and Acts 5.33-34
structure: miracle, teaching, arrest, trial, affirmation
1) Acts 3-4: Peter and John (4.31)
2) Acts 5: All apostles (5.41-2)
3) Acts 6-7: Stephen (7.55-6)
B. Characterization: Paul the rhetorician (Acts 17-22-32)

IV. Literature as interpretation
A. New ways of reading: Psalm 16 & Acts 2, 13; Isaiah 52-53 & Acts 7
B. Interpretation as composition

November 2: The Development of Christianity: Canon, Creed, & Clergy  (Rutledge)

Introducton:  The Christ of Faith  (Christ = “anointed of God” < Grk. Cristos/ Heb. Messhiah)
     -resurrection:  the ‘master story’ of Christianity; the ambiguity of Luke’s resurrection appearances (ch. 24):
      fact, fiction, faith and the resurrection
     -instead of repeating Jesus’ teachings, followers begin to teach Jesus (Acts 2); messianic expectations
     -“Son of God”: the incarnation:  God appears in human form; an affront to Jews; familiar to Gentiles
I. The Development of Christianity
     -Canon - codex, codices; papyrus; palimpsest; vellum; uncial, miniscule; Marcion; 382 - Council of Rome
       oral vs. chirographic (handwritten) culture
     -Creed - < Lat. credo, “I believe” - doctrines of Trinity (Nicea, 325) & Christology (Chalcedon, 451)
     -Clergy - espiscopals (bishops), presbyters, deacons; growing authority of Roman church
II.  The Passing of Classical Culture
     -reasons for Christianity’s success; Constantine (d. 337 ce); 330 - Constantinople; missionaries
     -superseding the Roman empire: 380 - Edict of Theodosios; 527 - Platonic Academy closed in Athens
     -apologetics:  Socrates, Plato, and Augustus as forerunners of Christ
III.  The Development of Judaism
     -separation of Christianity & Judaism, esp. after revolts of 70 and 135 a.d.; the “Diaspora”
     -“Judaism & Christianity are two sons of the same mother, who died in 70 ce”
     -survival of Rabbinic Judaism:  synagogue; Mishnah; Talmud; centers:  cities of the Empire
A dilemma:    survival vs. fidelity to the original vision
 

November 7: Augustine and the Discovery of the Will (Stone)

Introduction
* Themes in Augustine's Confessions: (1) a balanced human life, (2) turn toward a person's inner life (123), (3) clarification of orthodox Christian doctrine in face of heresies
* Will - phenomenon of inner life or myth?

The problem of evil
* God is good, the creator of all things - what then is the cause of evil? (113)
* Rejection of Manicheanism - heresy of two substances, one good and one evil (112)

The influence of Platonism
* Augustine read translations of Platonist works, probably the Enneads of Plotinus
* Hierarchical order of Being that is also a moral order, to exist is good (Chain of Being)
* Evil itself is not something real; it occurs when we choose the inferior over the superior (126)
* Human condition is a state in which the true order of the world has been inverted

Free choice of the will must be the cause of evil
* Will is a power of choosing, a power of spontaneity that is internal, its essence is freedom
* Desire and Reason are good and have a proper order so they cannot alone be the origin of evil
* Ignorance, Short-sightedness, Sin (126) - only the third requires a will

Augustine's conversion
* The enslavement of the will (140)
* The inadequacy of reason (147)
* The necessity of grace "... it was as if a light of relief from all anxiety flooded into my heart.  All the shadows of doubt were dispelled" (153)

Conclusion
Creation, disorder, order restored

November 9: Medieval Manuscripts (Menzer)

I. Medium and message (or Why should we care about how manuscripts are made?)
questions of authority; variants vs. uniformity

II. How are manuscripts made?
A. The nitty gritty
1. making the parchment
2. preparing the writing surface
3. writing
4. illumination
5. binding
B. The Aberdeen Bestiary <http://www.clues.abdn.ac.uk:8080/besttest/firstpag.html>
twelfth-century manuscript
quire marks, pricking and ruling, initial indicators, pouncing
C. Notes on copying
one scribes or many (the late medieval peccia system)
eye skips vs. "ear skips"

III. The Beowulf MS
A. Dating Beowulf
date of the manuscript?  11th century
date of the text?  Maybe 8th,  maybe 9th,  maybe 7th,10th, or 11th.
date of the events in the ms? the mythic past, pre-450
B. History of the MS, Cotton Vittellius A xv, a.k.a. Nowell Codex
Laurence Nowell (the dissolution of the monasteries)
Robert Cotton (the Cotton Fire of 1731)
C. Contents
"Pride and Prodigies" (Andy Orchard)
questions of genre
D. The Beowulf text
1. This doesn’t look like English!
 597, Augustine of Canterbury arrives in Britain
 runic characters: wynn (w), thorn (þ)
 adaptations from Latin alphabet: eth (ð), æsc (æ)
 eight distinctions: a d e f g h r s (a d e f g h r s)
2. This doesn’t look like poetry!

IV. Reading mss electronically
access, technology (UV), convenience
manuscript and transcription
transcription vs. edition vs. translation

November 10: Early English Literature: Beowulf (Menzer)

I. Where are we?
The importance of English
A little historical background
pre-43 C.E. Celts
43 C.E. Arrival of Romans
410 C.E. Roman forces leave
449 C.E. Germanic tribes come in: Angles, Saxons, Jutes, Frisians
II. Medium and message
A. Transcription/Edition/Translation
B. Form and genre
1. Old English poetry
strong stress meter, half lines, alliteration, kennings (pp. 53, 59)
2. Is this an epic? nationalism
III. Doing things with words, part 1: Appositive style
A. Appositives (p. 57): Beowulf, the hero of our story, is a really strong guy.
B. Appositive style
Sigemund and Heremod (pp. 79-81)
storytelling as history and repository of cultural values
Grendel’s attack (pp. 55-6)
IV. Doing things with word, part 2: Function of public speaking
A. Beowulf’s boasts (pp. 71-72)
B. Wealhtheow’s speeches (pp. 89, 91): peaceweaver
in apposition: Hildeburh (86) and Grendel’s mother
the cycle of revenge (see 142 and 144)
V. What is a good king? Scyld Scefing and Beowulf
 

November 13: Popes, Monks, and Kings: The Empire of Charlemagne (Spear)

I.  Popes
 The Petrine Doctrine (Matt. 16:18)
 The "Great" Popes
 Leo I the Great (450)
 Gregory I the Great (600); St. Augustine's mission to England; Gregorian chant; the Vulgate translation by Jerome.

II.  Monks
 the monastic impulse; Essenes; Matt. 19:29
 Monks as martyrs:  St. Simeon the Stylite
 St. Benedict, St. Scholastica, Monte Cassino (529); the Rule
 St. Augustine's mission to England (again):  St. Boniface;  Pepin the Short

III.  Kings
 Q.  How does a kingly figure like Beowulf become an emperor like Charlemagne?

 The Franks were non-Arians (see Perry, p. 132)

 Pepin the Short (again) the Mayor of the Palace, member of the Carolingian family, asks of the pope:  Is it right that a powerless ruler should continue to the bear the title of king?

 Charlemagne (Lombards, Saxons, Bavarians, Avars); Alcuin, palace church at Aachen; biographer Einhard; Pope Leo III's tribulations; imperial coronation Christmas Day 800 A.D.;

Brief Assessment of Charlemagne's Empire.

November 14: CASTLES AND CRUSADES (Spear)

I.  Feudalism
 A.  Public vs. Private authority
 B.  Feudalism is not a medieval word; feudum is, which is the fief (rhymes with beef)
  1.  Involves contractual obligations between a lord and a vassal
  2.  Involves exchange of military service for land
 C.  Castle as symbol of feudal power
  1.  Motte and bailey
 D.  Church becomes feudalized

II.  Crusades
 A.  Papal leadership
  1.  Pope Urban II calls Council of Clermont in 1095
  2.  Jerusalem falls in 1099
  3.  Holy Land feudalized

III.  Reasons for “Success”
 A.  Religious zeal
 B.  Ideal of Jersusalem as pilgrim center
 C.  Unreflective self-confidence
 D.  Policy of the Just War
 E.  Opportunities abroad for the knightly class

November 15: Song of Roland: A Literary Perspective (Menzer)

I. Le Chanson de Roland
A. The Title (chanson de geste, jongleur, scop)
B.  The Form of the Poem
1. The laisse (p. 75, laisses 59-60)
2. Assonance
3. Meter (decasyllabic line, caesura)

II. Medium and Message
A. Old French
B. Moment on the Manuscript (Digby 23 or the Oxford MS, c. 1100, found 1820)
1. England (Norman Conquest 1066)
2. Dialects

III.  Beowulf and Roland
A. Male relationships
1. Lord and retainer: the uncle-sister’s son relationship
2. God and vassal (pp. 123-4, laisses 174-6)
B. Glory
1. Stories (p. 83, lines 1013-4; p. 97, line 1466)
2. Heaven (p. 86, lines 1134-5)

IV. Two Things to Think About
A. "Roland is bold, Olivier is wise, | and both of them are marvelously brave" (p. 85, lines 1093-4)
The original disagreement (pp. 84-5)
Olivier’s anger (pp. 104-5)
The reconciliation (pp. 112-3)
B. The Other: Jews and Muslims

November 16: The Crusading Spirit (Rutledge)

I.   The Other:  Judaism & Islam
  -separation of Christianity and Judaism - esp. after 70 and 135 a.d. - 'Diaspora'
 -survival of Rabbinic Judaism; synagogue; Mishnah, Talmud; Christian anti-semitism
 -Mohammed; Mecca, Medina; 622 a.d.; the Qu'ran / Koran; military conquest; jihad
 -Abbasids (Baghdad); Fatimids (Cairo); Ummayads (Cordoba, Grenada;  and Damascus)
II. The Song of Roland - (778 / early 1100s)
 -Europe’s misunderstanding of Islam
 -the subordination of Christian to military, cultural values
III. Crusades Against the Infidels & Heretics (1095 - 1400)
 -the Reconquest of Spain (Reconquista) - gradual southward movement from 800 ad on
 -from pilgrimage to the east, to holy war against Muslims
 -the (perceived) threat:  heresy as treason; two ex:   -the Waldensians; the Cathari, or Albigensians
IV.  Pacifism, Heresy, and the Inquisition
 -changing Christian attitudes to heretics:  from correction to execution
 -Courts of Inquisition - 1232 and after; Tomas de Torquemada (1420-1498)
 -a counter-example:  Juliana of Norwich (1342-1416):  “All shall be well.”  (SR)
 -the inquisitorial spirit in the West  (or ‘from Toledo to Moscow to Washington’)
 -“Do not resist an evildoer…but…Love your enemies…” – the Church, pacifism, and other religions
 -On justice & love: required reading for Archbishop Turpin:  Acts 10: 34-35 and I Cor. 13)

November 28: The Spirit of Medieval Philosophy (Stone)

Introduction
* Branches of Medieval Philosophy - Christian philosophy, Islamic philosophy (Avicenna ,Averroes), Jewish philosophy (Moses Maimonides)
* Philosophy/Theology
* Continuity, Conservatism, Diversity

Role of Reason in Medieval philosophy
* St. Anselm (1033-1109) - Faith seeking understanding - reason serving faith
* Peter Abelard (1080-1142) - philosophy, the love of wisdom/religion, the love of God - two paths to same end
* St. Thomas Aquinas (1224-1274) - reason and the senses can independently arrive at some revealed truths

Method - Dialectic, argumentative reasoning
* Look at both sides of the issue - advance arguments for both sides
* Include scripture, saints, and philosophers in the argument
* In order to persuade, defend, explain, and understand

"Proving" God's Existence

St. Anselm
* "Since it is God we are speaking of, you do not understand it.  If you could understand it, it would not  be God." - St. Augustine, Sermons
* We have an idea of God as something than which nothing greater can be conceived
* One can think of this being as existing in reality or as existing in the understanding only
* To exist in reality is greater than to exist in the understanding only
* God, that than which nothing greater can be conceived, must exist in reality

St. Thomas Aquinas - Five ways in which God can be proved
* Critique of St. Anselm - essence is distinct from existence
* What we are (essence) is separate from the fact that we are (existence)
* Understanding that we exist as dependent, contingent beings requires that an independent, necessary being exists
* One way in which God can be proved
* We observe with our senses that things change
* Everything receives its motion or change from something else
* An infinite regression of causes is impossible, cannot be an actual cause of change

Conclusion
Prominence given to Aristotle in the thought of Aquinas reflects the growing interest in nature as a legitimate object of study and knowledge.

November 29: Dante: A Historian's Perspective (Spear)

I.  Some preliminary observations

II.  Historical background (Dante, 1265-1321)

 A.  the Guelfs vs. the Ghibellines
  Guelf (Welf) = pro-papal party
  Ghibellines (Waiblingen) = pro-imperial party

Thus, the Guelfs were the Italian party which supported the papacy against the emperors, and the Ghibellines were the Italian party which supported the emperor against the papacy.

  Battle of Benevento 1266
  Whites (Moderate Guelfs) vs. Blacks (Extreme Guelfs)
  Farinata degli Uberti (canto X)
  Battle of Montaperti 1260
  Bocca degli Abbati (canto XXXII)

 B.  the Papacy
  Celestine V (1294) (Canto III)
  Boniface VIII (1295-1303) (Cantos XIX & XXVII)
  Nicholas III (1277-1280) (Canto XIX)

III. the Comedy as a political work

  Cf. Joan M. Ferrante, The Political Vision of the Divine Comedy [1984].
 

November 30: Dante’s Divine Comedy: A Literary Approach (Menzer)

I. Form and Function
100 cantos (33 x 3) + 1 = 100, terza rima, hendecasyllabic

II. The Very Important Text, Part I:  Dante and His Predecessors
A. Paying homage (30, SR 51): invoking muse (267, SR 43), prophecy (98-9, 210)
B. Dante and the writers in Hell (Canto 4)

III. The Very Important Text, Part II: The Letter to Can Grande
Dante Aligheiri, a Florentine by birth but not in character (SR 73, SR 76)
A. The accessus
B. Genre: comedy, etymology (SR 76)
C. Literary analysis: the four levels of interpretation (SR 75)

IV. The Vernacular: Language and Identity
A. Latin vs. Italian: De Vulgari Eloquentia (On Eloquence in the Vernacular)
B. Dialects in the Inferno
Farinata (96-7), Bologna (160), Lombard (228), Pisa (277)
Ulysseus and the Greeks (233)

V. Books and Love
A. Dangerous books: the knights and ladies of Canto 5
B. Divine "women" (36-9)

December 1: Dante from a Theological Perspective  (Rutledge)

I.  Introduction:
 -ideas of heaven & hell; Dante’s realist, our ‘relativist’ view of morality
 -reading theologically -- seeing the particular in a universal framework
 -Christianity and Pagan learning - Virgil as a guide to God
 -on number, hierarchy, inclusiveness (all Truth is ordered by divine Being)
 -Life as Comedy - ‘beginning badly, but ending well;’   the final word is Love
II.  The Inferno - 'the distortions of love'
 -sins of Incontinence, Violence, and Fraud; hell shows the acts of sin & their fruits
III. The Purgatorio - 'the purifying of love'
 -from II Maccabees 12: 39-45; purgatory shows the roots of sin, and its cleansing
 -"suffering makes them clean" -- the need for repentance
 -the Seven Deadly Sins:  pride, envy, wrath, sloth, avarice, gluttony, lust
 -Beatrice succeeds Virgil:  theology completes philosophy, grace completes nature
IV. The Paradiso - 'the enjoyment of love'
 -beauty, order, mystery; apophatic theology
 -St. Bernard succeeds Beatrice; the vision of the Virgin Mary
 -finally, the vision of God:  three circles of Light

“I seemed to see the universe alight with a single smile.”

December 5: The Dissolution of the Medieval Empires (Spear)

  The Church:  The Decline of the Papal Monarchy
   The Decline of the Crusading Movement
  the fall of Acre (1291)
  the destruction of the Templars (1300)
   Boniface VIII vs. Philip IV (1303)
   Avignon Papacy (1309-1378)
 D.  Great Schism (1378-1415) and Conciliar Movement
   Council of Pisa (1409)
   Council of Constance (1415) (Martin V, 1417-1431)
 E.  Growth of Heresy
   John Wycliffe (d.1384), the Lollards
   John Huss (d.1415)

  The Holy Roman Empire
     The Golden Bull of 1356
  7 electors recognized (eg. 3 abps & the king of    Bohemia)
 
  Beginnings of rise of Nation state
 A.  The Hundred Years' War (1337-1453)
  Battle of Agincourt (Oct. 25, 1415)
  Joan of Arc (1429)

  The Black Death (1348)
   Bubonic plague; pneumonic plague