Friday, February 21, 5 pm, 715 Hesburgh Library
Topic:
Bridging the Divide: Religious History & Historical Theology
Speakers:
John Van Engen (University of Notre Dame, History): “Struggling with Doubt, Belief, and Understanding in the Twelfth Century: Situating William of St. Thierry’s Mirror of Faith“
Nicolas Kamas (University of Notre Dame, Medieval Institute): “Rupert of Deutz on the Azymite Controversy”
Rupert of Deutz, at the publication of his treatise De divinis officiis, became the foremost monastic commentator on the Mass of his time and one of the most original allegorists in the early twelfth century. In the midst of his extensive exegesis, however, he did not neglect contemporary controversies: the twenty-second chapter of the second book of his commentary concerns the use of leavened and unleavened bread in the celebration of the Eucharist, an issue that had risen to prominence in the Christian West after the legation of Cardinal Humbert of Silva Candida to Constantinople (and the subsequent exchanges of excommunications between Humbert and the Patriarch Michael Cerularius) approximately sixty years before. Rupert’s analysis of this issue, although neither comprehensive nor particularly fair to the Greek position, is certainly original, and it reflects both a style of theology and a concern for issues that bear a marked difference from those of his contemporaries.