Seton Hall University Honors Program

HONS 1102 AA and BB

Colloquium on Medieval Civilization

Spring 2010

Fahy 101 and 108

This syllabus is still under construction; this is the

February 2, 2010 version

Judaism and Christianity

Religious and intellectual foundations of medieval societies: allegory and interpretation as methodologies

Read before class:

• The Heritage of World Civilizations (WC), pp. 64-69 "Monotheism"  NOTE: These readings from WC are essential background for the set of classes that follow each reading.  They give the basic historical context for all the other readings, and should be read before you read the individual texts.  Our class discussions of the individual texts will presuppose that you are familiar with the historical background covered in these readings from WC.

• Maimonides, "Apples of Gold"

• Origen on John, and his attitude toward pagan learning

Research Paper:

You will be writing a research paper of some 10-15 pages based on primary sources during the course of the semester.  We suggest that you begin by reading the syllabus very carefully for topics that interest you.  Also, spend some time browsing in the Internet Medieval Sourcebook, for its wealth of primary source material.  Find two or three texts there as a basis of possible research, and consult with your professors for more ideas; you will have to develop several possibilities to hand in by January 28.

Creeds, canons, interpretation of texts and construction of meaning; establishment of orthodoxy; church as institution; Tradition and traditions

Jesus' followers have left us written records that manifest divergent understandings of his meaning and message; some of these books were incorporated into the evolving canon of what came to be known as the New Testament, and others were not.  The movement of Christian belief into the larger, Greco-Roman, world posed questions not directly addressed by the texts themselves, so that Christians needed to develop hermeneutical methods to answer these questions.  The answers so derived frequently conflicted with each other; as Christian belief became a matter of state, means for adjudicating these disputes became necessary.  We will be examining texts reflecting several stages of this development.

Read before class and hand in a page of answers to at least three of these questions:

• The Heritage of World Civilizations (WC), pp. 202-221 "Imperial Power and the Rise of Christianity"

• The Gospel of Thomas  (4th century)  Choose ten sayings that strike you as unfamiliar, and be prepared to discuss them.  How is this text different from the canonical gospels, and why do you think it did not become part of the canon?

• Deposition of Arius  (321)  What are Arius' beliefs about Jesus, and what are Alexander'?  How are they different?

• The Creed of the Council of Nicaea (325)  What questions does this creed settle; and how?  How can you tell?

• The Creed of the Council of Constantinople  (381)  How did the Council expand its statement of Christian belief?  What disputes does it try to settle?

Monasticism and Monastic spirituality

In the fourth century, Christian communities and their leaders found themselves suddenly integrated into the Roman civic world, and their bishops became influential civil as well as religious leaders.  At this same time, some Christians began the practice of withdrawing from "the world" and separating themselves from society in organized monastic communities.  Monasticism, long practiced in India, became a significant form of Christian religious practice as well.

What is the ideal of the self that the monastic tradition proposes?

What is the purpose of the monastic life, according to Benedict?  to Basil?
Why live in community?  What advantages flow from the communal life?

Read before class and hand in a page of answers to some of the above questions, referring to specific parts of the texts:

Islam

Quran, hadiths and the construction of Muslim orthodoxies

The Quran ("recitation") is the record of what the Prophet Muhammad heard in his encounters with God.  It is regarded by Muslims as the very Word of God itself, speaking to them as it was spoken to the Prophet.  The hadiths are stories told about the Prophet's experiences, and are revered as his example of how to live a life of submission (islam) to God.

By the 10^th century C.E., the “Sufi” orders of Islam—confraternities of lay persons under the spiritual guidance of local shaykhs, or teachers—attempted to model the teachings and actions of Prophet Muhammad as a way to mirror the values ascribed to Muhammad. 

Read before class and hand in a page of answers to some of these questions: 

• The Heritage of World Civilizations (WC), pp. 328-349 "The Formation of Islamic Civilization"

• The Heritage of World Civilizations (WC), pp. 378-401 "The Islamic World"

• Quran excerpts.  What are several themes in these excerpts that strike you as central teachings?  What excerpts teach this?

• Hadiths of Muhammad: Night Journey; Hadiths on Jesus.  What do you make of the story of the Night Journey?  Why do you think it was retold?  What is the view of Jesus that these hadiths present?

• Ibn Khaldun, Muqaddimah, pp. 333-367 

Deadline for choosing a topic for your research project.

Law, custom, society

In the medieval Islamic world, a number of institutions arose, including guilds or orders, trying to emulate the model of Mohammad and the teachings of the Quran.  The influence of the Quran extends to every sphere of life, and questions of its application became central to the development of law, art, social relations, poetry.  What do the two Sufi texts say about the proper way of life?  What do the "legal" texts of Al Ghazali show about the application of Quranic principles to life?  Give specific examples.    

Read before class and hand in a page of answers to some of the above questions:

• "Way of Sufi chivalry"

• "A Sufi Rule for Novices"

• Al Ghazali on Music

• Al Ghazali on Birth Control

• Islamic art reading

• Poetry of Rumi

• Islamic art slides on Blackboard

Umma and caliphate

Ibn Khaldun offers an analysis of the way in which power arises and is lost; and how power is ultimately in the gift of God.  Because God is one, power itself necessarily is one, and is properly vested in the Prophet's representative, the caliph.  At the same time, he notes that caliphal authority has taken on aspects of conventional royal authority as a practical way of its exercise.  The Muqaddimah is still a fundamental text of political science in the Muslim world.  In Ibn Khaldun's view, how does power arise?  What is its nature?  How should it be exercised?  Why?  What legitimates political power?  Why?  How do his views appear to flow from Muslim thought? 

Note that this discussion of Muslim political thought is the first of several discussions of political models developed during the Middle Ages.  We will subsequently be looking at Chinese, Byzantine and West European models in the next weeks.  Keep your understanding of Ibn Khaldun in mind as we move into those later discussions.

Read before class and hand in a page of discussion of his theory of the four stages of dynasties:

• Muqaddimah, Introduction, pp. 11-32; Chapter 2 on the Bedouin and Chapter 3 on the caliph, pp. 91-152

China

Confucius and Lao Tse

Composed in the sixth and fifth centuries B.C.E., the Analects and the Tao Te Ching reflect two ways of approaching the meaning of life that have continued to dominate Chinese thought, and East Asian thought more generally, ever since.  Our class discussion is aimed at identifying central aspects of these two modes of thought.  Identify three sayings, on different topics,  from each of the texts, and be prepared to discuss its meaning.

Read before class and discuss in your written homework the sayings you have chosen as important:

• The Heritage of World Civilizations (WC), pp. 46-57 "The Four Great Revolutions in Thought and Religion"

• The Heritage of World Civilizations (WC), pp. 222-241 "China's First Empire"

• Analects

• Tao Te Ching

East Asian Buddhism

Originating in India, Buddhist thought was carried north into China and Tibet, and thence to Mongolia, Japan and Korea.  Each new culture produced its own distinctive version of the Buddha's teaching.  What kinds of differences can you see in these various version of Buddhist living?  How do you account for them?  What do you find interesting about these differences?

Read before class and hand in your answers to those questions:

Chinese Political Models

For millennia, China has been a very large empire, ruled by force but needing wide-scale obedience and consent.  Chinese literature includes a very long tradition of reflection on how to accomplish these objectives effectively and ethically.

What do these texts tell you about what power meant?  How do they show the emperor's power?  What is the emperor responsible for?  What is he in charge of?  How does he do it well?  How is the emperor's power represented and characterized in Marco Polo's account?

Read before class and discuss your answers to those questions in your written homework:

• Mandate of Heaven from the Shu Jing

• Han Fei on the primacy of Law

• Selections from Xunzi

• Marco Polo, The Book of Marvels, Book I, chapters 41, 51, 52; Book II, chapters 1, 4, 8, 20

First test on the preceding material

Hand in a draft of the thesis statement for your research project.

Byzantine Empire

Constantine, Justinian and Constantinople

Constantine's decision to move the capital of the Empire radically shifted its nature.  His decision to favor the Christian church led ultimately to a wholly new form of political institution.  The government, the army, the church, the buildings, the art that developed in Constantinople all reflected this new society.

Read before class and write reflective answers to these questions:

• The Heritage of World Civilizations (WC), pp. 350-365 "The Byzantine Empire and Western Europe"

• Eusebius of Caesarea, Life of Constantine, Book IV, especially chapter XXIV on his role.  How does this chapter reflect a new relationship between the Empire and the developing Christian church?

• Procopius. The Buildings; Hagia Sophia  How does the Hagia Sophia embody the unified cosmic vision of Byzantine society?

• Procopius, The Secret History, part 2

• Constantinople slide show (on Blackboard)

Deadline for submitting the thesis statement for your research project.

Byzantine theology

The Byzantine church developed a great and unprecedented reverence for two-dimensional representation of religious figures.  These icons became controversial in the seventh century as some, especially from the Asian side of the Empire, interpreted them as idolatrous.  The controversy over the icons lasted well over a century, until their use was finally accepted in the middle of the ninth century, with the understanding that these images are images of the Divine, presenting and mediating the presence of the Divine to the believer.

Religious and spiritual life in Constantinople was not the exclusive province of the monks and nuns; lay persons were also active participants in the religious life of the Empire.

Read before class and write on several of these questions:

Byzantine monastic spirituality

Monasteries were central institutions in the Byzantine church; bishops were chosen from among the monks, and monasteries were significant parts of city life.  One can identify three kinds of monastic spirituality: the solitary life of the hermit, the monk in the isolated monastery, and the monk in the urban monastery.  All three share some general ideals, and all served as models of the religious life.  Byzantine monks, unlike their Western counterparts, were not ordained clergymen, and those monks who became clergy often experienced conflicts between their religious way of life and the duties they found themselves called to. 

Read before class and write on these questions:

• Desert Fathers, pp. 19-52  How does the journey to the desert reflect and enable the journey to the Self?

• Life of St. Simeon Stylites, pp. 69-84

• Hesychast texts

• Gregory of Nazianzus, Oration 2 In Defence of His Flight to Pontus, and His Return, after His Ordination to the Priesthood, with an Exposition of the Character of the Priestly Office  How does he articulate his difficulty with priestly ordination?

• Nilus of Rossano, Besieged by the Divine, chapter 4, pp. 135-180  How does this monk find problems with the church and state institutions he knew?

Deadline for submitting a preliminary outline of your research paper.

Byzantine political systems: Symphonia

From Constantine forward, the emperors of the eastern Roman empire claimed God-given power over all aspects of Byzantine society, secular and religious.   The Christian church remained subservient to the imperial system; and political conflicts frequently took a theological form.  The empire was constantly challenged by the advent of new peoples, who had either to be driven away or absorbed into the empire; if they were to become part of the empire, they needed to become religiously and culturally part of the Byzantine world, as well as political subjects.

Read before class and write on some of these questions:

• Procopius, History of the Wars, on Justinian and the Nika Riots  What does this text say about the basis and origin of power?  What did the emperor's power base itself on?

• Michael Psellus, Chronographia, Book I  What aspects of Basil's character does the author particular admire as making him an ideal emperor?  What does he particular blame Basil for?  How does Psellus understand the imperial office?

• Patriarch Anthony on Symphonia  What does this late text show about how the imperial system developed?

• Constantine Porphyrogenitus, On the Administration of the Empire, chapters 31, 32

• Pope Nicholas' Response to the Bulgars  Read chapers 2, 3 and 9.  What are the Bulgars' concerns?  How does the pope address them?  

Western European Christianity

Empire vs. Papacy

The remains of the Western Roman Empire had a very different development from the Empire which continued in Constantinople.  With the withdrawal of imperial troops in the face of invasions by a series of tribes, civil society in western Europe disintegrated.  The only institution which persisted through this period was the Christian church, whose leaders by default represented the only continuity with the past.  As the tribal societies settled into Europe, their leaders exercised effective power with no preordained reference to the authority of the church; in contrast to the Byzantine experience, church and state developed as rival centers of power, each claiming authority over the other.  Charlemagne and his successors to the imperial title came into growing conflict with the rising power of the bishop of Rome, a conflict which also embroiled the papacy in conflicts with local kings outside the empire. 

The documents we will be studying are, for the most part, reflective of one side or the other of this dispute.  What do the documents propose; what do they oppose?  What or whom are they arguing against?  What do they tell us about their writers and the world these writers came from?

Read before class and write on the above questions:

• The Heritage of World Civilizations (WC), pp. 365-377 "Division of Christendom"

• Pope Leo I and Attila  (455)

• Pope Gelasius on the Two Powers  (494)

• Dictates of Pope Gregory VII  (1090)

• John of Salisbury, Policraticus, on the body politic  (1159)

• The Bull Unam Sanctam of Boniface VIII  (1302)

• Salimbene on Frederick II  (1290)

• Frederick II on crusade

• The Decree "Licet Juris" of the Frankfurt Diet (1338)

Second test on preceding material 

Feudal society in the West

Feudal society was based on a perfectly enclosed hierarchical system mirroring, in its world view, the order of nature. Workers, soldiers and those who prayed were the three pillars of mankind: the first produced food and wealth; the second fought to protect it; and the third ensured that the relationship between man and the Divine remained peaceful. All relationships, be they commercial, military, political or religious, were based on this understanding of one’s place in the world.  The poetry and songs we have from the noble and royal courts of Europe provide us with  clear insights into the social values these courts prized.

What are the values promoted and condemned in Roland and Tristan?  How is this value system reflected in Boccaccio’s novelle?

Read before class and write on the above questions:

• The Heritage of World Civilizations (WC), pp. 372-377 "Feudal Society" and 456-478 "The High Middle Ages"

• Song of Roland (Italy and France Reader)

• Tristan and Iseult  (Italy and France Reader)

• Decameron III,2; IV, 9

Deadline for submitting a detailed outline or first draft of your research paper.

Medieval women

The literature of the Middle Ages has left us a number of memorable portraits of women which more than challenge our stereotypes of medieval society.  Are they funny?  Were they meant to be?  Were they thought to be true to life?  Why do you think so?  These fictions, written by men, offer us very different views of women.  What messages are they trying to convey?  What can you say about the world from which these stories come?

Read before class and write on the above questions:

• Chaucer, Wyf of Bath’s prologue and tale; Miller’s tale

• Boccaccio, Decameron, IV, 5; II, 7; X, 10

Dante

How does Dante's Inferno capture essential characteristics of the high medieval world view of the cosmos, of the use and meaning of religious symbolism, and the concept of social and religious justice?  Notice how the punishment not only fits the crime, but sheds light on the communal and ethical harm done by the sin.

Read before class and hand in your written response:

• Inferno 1, 5, 24-25, 26, 32-24

• Choose 2 among 3, 4, 10, 13, 15, 18, 19   Choose a canto and answer this question: What is the actual sin, and how does the punishment shed light upon the meaning and consequences (personal, social, political) of sin?  How does the poetry illustrate these meanings?

   

The institutionalization of knowledge

Islamic sciences

The Muslim conviction that Islam pertains to all aspects of life led quickly to the development of institutions to articulate the relationship of Quranic revelation to all forms of knowledge.  The Muslim empire quickly absorbed many of the great cities of the Eastern Mediterranean, with their treasuries of knowledge; and Muslim rulers sponsored the incorporation of this knowledge in a  Muslim form and the development of madrasas, or schools, for its transmission.  The Baghdad caliphs sponsored the translation of all ancient knowledge from Greek, Sanskrit and other languages into Arabic, and the circulation of these Arabic texts through the empire.  The outcome of this work was the astonishing flowering of philosophy, mathematics, physics, astronomy, medicine and other sciences of the medieval Muslim world.

Read before class; choose two of these texts and write on how they speak of God, self and world from the Muslim point of view:

• The Heritage of World Civilizations (WC), pp. 361-362 "Impact of Islam"

• Muqaddimah on the world  pp. 49-62; 371-390

• Ibn Sina on Necessary and Contingent Being (Islam Reader) 

• Physics and Astronomy text (Islam Reader)

• Zohar text (Islam Reader)

• Rumi poetry (Islam Reader)

Western sciences and Universities

The European universities, which developed out of the monastic and cathedral schools , on the one hand, and out of the Muslim madrasas, on the other, represented a systematic attempt to organize, develop and transmit knowledge of all sorts.

The European universities appropriated Greek knowledge as transmitted through the Arab translators, and elevated it to the status of a dominant intellectual method.  Aristotelian dialectic provided a method of arriving at demonstrable certainty not available through introspection alone; the intellectual confidence arising out of this discovery prompted great strides in religion, philosophy, science and the arts.  This Aristotelian synthesis, useful in its time, was powerfully challenged by the 14th century Nominalists, especially by William of Ockham's (1285-1349) dictum that "entities are not to be multiplied without necessity."

Read before class:

• The Heritage of World Civilizations (WC), pp. 466-468 "Schools and Universities"

• Peter Abelard's Sic et Non

• Robert de Courcon's Statutes for the University of Paris (1215)
• Pope Gregory IX's Statutes for the University of Paris (1231)
• The Decree Licterae Generales of Emperor Frederick II, establishing the University of Naples

Holy Thursday - No class

Western philosophy: Anselm, Thomas Aquinas

In your preparation for this class, pay particular attention to Anselm's argument as he attempts to give a rational demonstration of his belief that God exists, and then to the nature of Thomas' handling of the same question.  Note also how Thomas is dependent on Ibn Sina on this matter, and how they are both dependent on Aristotle.

Note the way in which Anselm's style is very close to that of Augustine in the Confessions, while Thomas takes a stylistically very different approach to the same question.  Note also that Thomas is disagreeing with Anselm's conclusions, and coming up with a different kind of answer to the question.  

What kind of conclusions can you draw about the change in the way people thought, from looking at these two different kinds of argument?  Do you agree with Anselm?  with Thomas?  Why?  How is Thomas Aquinas' argument influenced by Ibn Sina's?

In reading Thomas, note how his dialectic arrives at an answer in a very different way from Anselm's argument.  Note also that the dialectic argument requires him to state first, in the "Objections",  the position he ultimately refutes; Thomas own point of view is stated briefly in the "On the contrary", and articulated fully in the "I answer that".  The argument concludes by the "Replies to the objections," in which he refutes the positions opposed to his.  The dialectical method enables Thomas to arrive at certainty in his conclusions. 

Read before class:

• Anselm, Proslogion

• Aristotle's argument for a First principle from Metaphysics, Book II

• Thomas Aquinas, S.T. I, q. 2

Medieval sensibility: arts, architecture, music

Cloisters visit

The bus will leave from the side of the Rec Center at 11 a.m.  

In preparation for this trip, review the materials for the April 8 class, as well as other aesthetic information you have gathered through the course of the semester.  Think particularly about the philosophical implications of the shift from the romanesque to the gothic, and be prepared to look for the growing emphasis on the individual and particular that is characteristic of the gothic. 

You are required to hand in a one-page description and analysis of one object from the Cloisters collection; this assignment is due on April 20.

The Crusades

The events known as the Crusades were the military expression of mutual suspicion and incomprehension among Christians, Jews and Muslims in early medieval Europe.  In your reading, note the values praised by each writer, and those of the other side that are disparaged.  What are the alleged reasons for the actions portrayed; and to what extent do those alleged reasons appear to be the real ones? 

Choose one of the readings, and hand in a one-page analysis, discussing how that text reflects the author's own beliefs and attitudes, how those beliefs color his portrayal of the other's, and how they justify his own attitude.

Read before class:

• The Heritage of World Civilizations (WC), pp. 456-466
• Pope Urban II's summons to the First Crusade
• Crusaders' slaughter of the Jews of Mainz
• Jews and Christians on "the other" (Islam Reader)
• Anna Comnena on the first Crusaders
• Pope Eugene III's summons to the Second Crusade
• Privileges granted to crusaders
• Letter of Odo of Deuil to Suger (Italy and France Reader)
• Arab reaction to the Franks (Islam Reader)

• Villehardouin on the Fourth Crusade

Third text on preceding material.

Late medieval civil society

Mercantile society and values

The rise of a new class of citizens, the merchants, largely urban, travelling between the markets of Europe, both fit into the feudal world and its values which the new merchant class was trying to imitate, and also began to undermine it.

Old ideals still held true to some extent, but got trumped in a series of comic misadventures in Boccaccio’s Decameron, sometimes jokingly referred to as the Human Comedy.

What is the actual theme of the novella of count Bonifacio?  What social and political world do you think this story comes from?  How is this theme presented?

Boccaccio presents serious issues in often comical garb.  What are the questions addressed in two or three of these novelle, and show how the different social classes, their values and outcomes of the stories shed light upon the issues presented?

 Read before class and write on the above questions:

• The Heritage of World Civilizations (WC), pp. 478-487 "The Renaissance"

• Novellino (France and Italy Reader)

• Boccaccio, Decameron, I, 1; II, 5; III, 2; V, 9; VI, 2; VIII, 3; X, 9

The Sphere of the Private in the Mercantile World

The grand cosmological visions of medieval cultures also left a great deal of room for the articulation of the perennial human impulses to love, to combat, to laugh, to enjoy the pleasures of life.  We are fortunate to have a number of these stories as well.

In each of the stories, what world does the story come from?  Who or what is being made fun of?  Why is it funny?  Or is it not funny?   What values are being promoted or attacked?

Read before class:

• The Thousand and One Nights (on e-reserve in the Library)

Deadline for submitting the final version of your research paper.

The mystics

The Middle Ages saw considerable development of the "mystical" sensibility of uncovering the "inner" self to reveal the divine hidden within.  This phenomenon develops in part with a growing emphasis on the humanity of Jesus in Christianity as the period developed.

Come to class prepared to discuss the levels of meaning in several of the assigned texts.  Are there common themes in these texts?  What are they?  Do you see interesting differences among the texts?

Read before class and write on your responses to the above questions:

• The Little Flowers of St. Francis, Part I, chapters 2, 3, 9, 13, 28
• Bonaventure, The Soul's Journey to God, chapter 1 (handout)
• Kabbalah text on the Song of Songs (handout)
• "Sexual Holiness" (in Course Documents in Blackboard)
• Meister Eckhart, Sermon Fifteen (handout)
• John of the Cross, Dark Night (handout)

The humanists

Humanism began as a critique of scholasticism and its perceived inability to understand the Self. Beginning in the mid-fourteenth century with the Italian scholar Francesco Petrarca, a new movement arose looking to the past for answers as to how to build a person and a society with new values. This movement, later known as Humanism, peaked in the century after Constantinople fell and thousands of educated Greek-speakers brought their learning and their manuscripts to Italy.

What questions does Petrarch ask himself, what answers can he offer?  Where do these answers come from? What contradictions does he discover?

What does Pico think of these contradictions, and where do his answers come from?

To what other areas of life does Humanist thought apply according to Alberti, how and why?

Read before class and hand in your answers to the above questions:

• Petrarch, Sonnet 1, Letter to Posterity, Ascent of Mount Ventoux (France and Italy Reader)

• Pico della Mirandola, Oration on the Dignity of Man (France and Italy Reader)

• Leon Battista Alberti, Book of the Family (France and Italy Reader)

Machiavelli, The Prince

Read before class:

• Machiavelli, The Prince

• Machiavelli, Letter to Francesco Vettori, Dec. 10, 1513 (Connell, pp. 134-140)

Summary

Exam  10:10 a.m. - 12:10 p.m.