Previous Years' Course Catalogues

The study of liturgy as ritual activity with a focus on the discipline of ritual studies and anthropology as a resource for liturgical scholarship and pastoral praxis. The course will consist of a close examination of seminal thinkers in ritual studies, their classic and contemporary works; consideration of methodological issues posed by social science methods; relationship between liturgy and ritual, theology and embodiment, worship and culture, ritual and ethics.

In this course, students will examine the writings of Anselm of Canterbury (1 033-11 09), an eleventh-century Italian thinker who became a monk, prior, archbishop and ultimately a leading theologian of his day. Scholars often treat Anselm as the first scholastic theologian, which to some degree is true. In this course, however, we will seek to understand Anselm the theologian as a constituent of the eleventh century, and of eleventh-century Anglo-Norman monasticism in particular. The focus of the seminars will be mainly on a close reading of the Cur Deus homo, a text that Anselm completed by 1098, after he had become archbishop in 1093. We will therefore explore two major contexts: (1) the world of eleventh-century monasticism of Normandy and (2) the world of the archiepiscopacy of Canterbury at the end of this same century. We will seek the read this text in light of the broad tradition of pre-modern treatments of Soteriology and the Incarnation, but also within the two more immediate contexts.

This course explores the theological, philosophical, and historical contributions of Maximus the Confessor. Students will engage with Maximus’s theological and philosophical sources, his historical context, and examine his influence in the Christian theological tradition. Through critical analysis of texts and discussion, participants will gain a deeper understanding of Maximus’s role in synthesizing prior Christian authors and shaping subsequent Christian theological discourse.

This seminar will examine the doctrine of individuality developed by the Franciscan thinkers John Duns Scotus and William of Ockham and the configuration of their thought as one or another form of metaphysical "individualism." It does so historically against the backdrop of both Franciscan spirituality and the contested "Aristotelian ism" of their university environment. The seminar is both an illustration of the value in and a critical reappraisal of a problem-historical analysis of
philosophy that centres upon philosophical accounts of our daily experience of both universality in the world, i.e., the fact that creatures come to us in kinds, and individuality, i.e., the fact that it is individual creatures that come to us in kinds.

This seminar will examine the doctrine of individuality developed by the Franciscan thinkers John Duns Scotus and William of Ockham and the configuration of their thought as one or another form of metaphysical "individualism." It does so historically against the backdrop of both Franciscan spirituality and the contested "Aristotelian ism" of their university environment. The seminar is both an illustration of the value in and a critical reappraisal of a problem-historical analysis of
philosophy that centres upon philosophical accounts of our daily experience of both universality in the world, i.e., the fact that creatures come to us in kinds, and individuality, i.e., the fact that it is individual creatures that come to us in kinds.

This course will be devoted to a close reading of the liturgical commentaries of the brilliant Carolingian bishop and diplomat Amalarius of Metz (ca. 775-ca. 850). Amalarius was a pioneer of the "allegorical" method of liturgical exegesis. Although his political enemies secured the condemnation of some of his ideas as heretical, Amalarius's writings were enormously influential and were adapted and imitated by liturgical commentators into the late Middle Ages. After a being introduced to the forms and genres of the early medieval liturgy and to Amalarius's career and allegorical method, we will read the bulk of Amalarius's genuine surviving exegetical writings alongside relevant early medieval liturgical texts. At all times we will situate Amalarius's concerns against the wider backdrop of liturgical developments in his age and against current trends in scholarship on rnedievalliturgy. This course will be suitable both for students who have had some prior instruction in medieval liturgy, and for those with no prior experience who are willing to make rapid progress in the subject.

This course will be devoted to a close reading of the liturgical commentaries of the brilliant Carolingian bishop and diplomat Amalarius of Metz (ca. 775-ca. 850). Amalarius was a pioneer of the "allegorical" method of liturgical exegesis. Although his political enemies secured the condemnation of some of his ideas as heretical, Amalarius's writings were enormously influential and were adapted and imitated by liturgical commentators into the late Middle Ages. After a being introduced to the forms and genres of the early medieval liturgy and to Amalarius's career and allegorical method, we will read the bulk of Amalarius's genuine surviving exegetical writings alongside relevant early medieval liturgical texts. At all times we will situate Amalarius's concerns against the wider backdrop of liturgical developments in his age and against current trends in scholarship on rnedievalliturgy. This course will be suitable both for students who have had some prior instruction in medieval liturgy, and for those with no prior experience who are willing to make rapid progress in the subject.

This course will be devoted to a close reading of the liturgical commentaries of the brilliant Carolingian bishop and diplomat Amalarius of Metz (ca. 775-ca. 850). Amalarius was a pioneer of the "allegorical" method of liturgical exegesis. Although his political enemies secured the condemnation of some of his ideas as heretical, Amalarius's writings were enormously influential and were adapted and imitated by liturgical commentators into the late Middle Ages. After a being introduced to the forms and genres of the early medieval liturgy and to Amalarius's career and allegorical method, we will read the bulk of Amalarius's genuine surviving exegetical writings alongside relevant early medieval liturgical texts. At all times we will situate Amalarius's concerns against the wider backdrop of liturgical developments in his age and against current trends in scholarship on rnedievalliturgy. This course will be suitable both for students who have had some prior instruction in medieval liturgy, and for those with no prior experience who are willing to make rapid progress in the subject.

This course seeks to understand the basis upon which the Bible can be read "figuratively", within the context of an understanding of historical and temporal reality. The course makes use of exegesis (1 Corinthians 10, Genesis, and Ephesians 1), history of interpretation (both Christian and Jewish), philosophy of time, and the history of the philosophy of time as relevant to Christian theology and exegesis. The goal of the course is to outline a working framework for understanding how traditional figural referents in the Bible can be sustained in Christian reading of Scripture.

This course seeks to understand the basis upon which the Bible can be read "figuratively", within the context of an understanding of historical and temporal reality. The course makes use of exegesis (1 Corinthians 10, Genesis, and Ephesians 1), history of interpretation (both Christian and Jewish), philosophy of time, and the history of the philosophy of time as relevant to Christian theology and exegesis. The goal of the course is to outline a working framework for understanding how traditional figural referents in the Bible can be sustained in Christian reading of Scripture.

This course seeks to understand the basis upon which the Bible can be read "figuratively", within the context of an understanding of historical and temporal reality. The course makes use of exegesis (1 Corinthians 10, Genesis, and Ephesians 1), history of interpretation (both Christian and Jewish), philosophy of time, and the history of the philosophy of time as relevant to Christian theology and exegesis. The goal of the course is to outline a working framework for understanding how traditional figural referents in the Bible can be sustained in Christian reading of Scripture. Seminar format. Evaluation: Based on seminar performance (discussion and presentation of weekly research - 50%) and a final paper (50%).

This seminar examines Meister Ekhart's mystical discours and its conceptual configuration as a 'contradictory monism' against the backdrop of the "Dioysian" tradition of Albert the Great (and Thomas Aquinas) and the current efflorescence of women's mysticism represented by Marguerite Porete