Lecturing with Chapter 8

On Tuesday, I lectured on a topic directly related to chapter 8: “New Christian Pieties and Anti-Jewish Fantasies.” Here’s what I did.

1. Veneration of the BVM. I reviewed the slow development of her veneration—Mary as a counterweight to Eve, as a symbol of the incarnation, as an intercessor. I talked about discussions of her virginity, her immaculate conception, her assumption. And I described how her veneration took off after 1100, partly from grassroots enthusiasms, partly from courtly love borrowings, and partly thanks to St Bernard. I also briefly discussed Black Madonnas. (And, with all due deference to the DaVinci Code, I threw in a bit of info about Mary Magdalene.)

2. Eucharistic Devotion and Corpus Christi. All the basics: transubstantiation; the visions of Juliana of Liège; Urban IV’s institution of the feast in 1264.

3. Redemptive Suffering. I talked about the Gero Cross as symptomatic of a new emphasis on the crucifixion; I talked about contemplation of the wounds of Christ; I emphasized that all this was about redemptive suffering, not sadism; I discussed stigmata and St Francis; and I talked a bit (using St Catherine of Siena as my example) about how individual holy people also sought, through their own suffering, to redeem the sins of others.

4. Anti-Jewish Fantasies. I then talked about how a by-product of these new pieties was the development of new fantasies about Jews:

BVM . . . and her role in the much repeated “Jewish boy” story.

CORPUS CHRISTI . . . and charges of host desecration.

REDEMPTIVE SUFFERING . . . and blood libel tales that Jews ritually crucified Christian boys.

It worked pretty well—and much better than last Thursday’s dull, dull lecture. Then on Thursday, I laid the groundwork for our discussions of the letters of Abelard & Heloise.

First, I discussed the intellectual contributions of A. and H., as well as their life histories. I used a map in the hope it would help them “see” the story.

Second, I discussed how institutions of learning changed and developed over the Middle Ages—from the foundations of Boethius and Cassiodorus; to the proliferation of monastic schools under Charlemagne; to cathedral and municipal schools c. 1050+; to universities c. 1200+. I did my best to help them locate Abelard & Heloise in the proper chronological place.

Third, I discussed intellectual developments, basically, the influx of new texts c. 1150-1250 and the development of scholasticism from Abelard to Aquinas. I gave the class an example of an article, using “Whether there can be sin in sexual desire?” (Second Part, Question 74, Article 3) Not sure if they were swayed or not!

Obama comes to USC tomorrow. Much chaos and secrecy . . . and we are still supposed to hold our classes. Not me. I’m not asking my students to forego the chance to see their president and I'm not missing the chance either!