Preaching the Saints: McGinn abstract

Monday, June 11, 2012

McGinn abstract

Mary as Model of Mystical Perfection in the Arnhem Mystical Sermons
Bernard McGinn

University of Chicago (emeritus)

The "Arnhem Mystical Sermons" are a collection of 162 Dutch sermons surviving in a single manuscript now in the Royal Library at the Hague. They were produced in the convent of St. Agnes, a house of Augustinian Canonesses at Arnhem, about the middle of the sixteenth century (ca. 1540-50). Long neglected (though an edition is imminent), these sermons form one of the most interesting collections of late medieval mystical sermons. A prominent feature of the sermons is a form of imitatio Christi based on interiorization of the meaning of the feasts of the liturgical year. Also prominent is a distinctive form of imitatio Mariae, that is, modeling one's interior life on the Virgin as the ideal mystic. This paper will look at the role of Mary in selected sermons in this corpus (several Advent sermons, the Christmas sermons, the one Easter sermon, and especially the sermon for the feast of the Assumption).

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Conference Program

FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 21, 2012
Welcoming Remarks, Introduction by Carolyn Muessig (9:00-9:30 a.m.)

I. PREACHING ITALIAN SAINTS I (9:30 a.m.-12:00 p.m.)
9:30 a.m.: Carolyn Muessig (University of Bristol), Sermons on the Cross: Ideals of Sanctity and Personal Devotion in Late Medieval Italy, sponsored by the Lauro de Bosis Lectureship in the History of Italian Civilization

10:15-10:30 a.m.: Morning coffee break

10:30 a.m.: Roberto Rusconi (University of Rome III), The Last Sermon: Antichrist Preaching in Late Medieval and Renaissance Representations, sponsored by Villa I Tatti

11:15 a.m.: George Ferzoco (University of Bristol), Late Medieval and Early Modern Preaching for Unpopular Cults: The Case of Pope Celestine V

Lunch break (12:00-1:00 p.m.)

II. PREACHING ITALIAN SAINTS II (1:00-3:15 p.m.)
1:00 p.m.: Thomas Forrest Kelly (Harvard University), The Cult of St. Donatus at Benevento

1:45 p.m.: Catherine Mooney (Boston College), Reinventing Clare of Assisi in Late Medieval Sermons, Art, and Hagiography

2:30 p.m.: Nirit Ben-Aryeh Debby (Ben-Gurion University of the Negev), The Cult of St. Clare of Assisi in Early Modern Italy, sponsored by Villa I Tatti

Afternoon tea break (3:15-3:45 p.m.)

III. POSTER SESSION (3:45-5:00 p.m.)
James Blasina, Musical Evidence and the Earliest Dissemination of the Cult of St. Katherine of Alexandria: 1050-1300

Jenny C. Bledsoe, John Mirk's Festial Sermon on St. Margaret: Saintly Intercession and Victory over the 'Fende'

Jennifer De La Guardia, Conversion Sermons Preached to the Jews of Florence in 1585 by Vitale de' Medici, a Convert from Judaism

Craig Tichelkamp, Medieval Sermons and Theological Aesthetics: The Influence of Anselm of Canterbury

Katherine Wrisley Shelby, Francis of Meyronnes and Harvard Houghton Library Ms Lat 276: The Mendicant Preacher's Confessional Handbook

John Zaleski, A Carthusian Sermon on Poverty from Harvard Houghton Library Ms Riant 95

KEYNOTE ADDRESS (5:00-6:30 p.m.)
André Vauchez (Académie des Inscriptions et Belles Lettres, Paris), St. Francis of Assisi and the Franciscan Saints in Italian Preaching, c. 1240-1340

RECEPTION (6:30-7:30 p.m.)
William King Richardson Room, Houghton Library

Exhibition: A HISTORY OF MEDIEVAL CHRISTIAN PREACHING AS SEEN IN THE MANUSCRIPTS OF HOUGHTON LIBRARY
Amy Lowell Room, Houghton Library, and online at http://hcl.harvard.edu/libraries/houghton/collections/early_manuscripts/preaching/

SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 22, 2012
Coffee and light breakfast (9:00-9:30 a.m.)

IV. PREACHING DOMINICANS (9:30 a.m.-12:00 p.m.)
9:30 a.m.: Nicole Bériou (University of Lyons II; Institut de recherches et d'histoire des textes; École pratique des hautes études), Preaching about the Sanctity of St. Dominic, Founder of the Order of Preachers

10:15 a.m.: Peter Howard (Monash University), 'Adorabo ad templum sanctum tuum': Preaching and the Actualization of the Holy in Renaissance Florence, sponsored by Villa I Tatti

11:00-11:15 a.m.: Morning break

11:15 a.m.: E. Ann Matter (University of Pennsylvania), Lucia Brocadelli: Autobiographical Preacher of the Early Modern Lombard Courts, sponsored by the Lauro de Bosis Lectureship in the History of Italian Civilization

Lunch break (12:00-1:00 p.m.)

V. PREACHING IN ENGLAND AND NORTHERN EUROPE (1:00-3:30 p.m.)
1:00 p.m.: Leo Carruthers (University of Paris IV, Sorbonne), 'I preach not, Sir, I come in no pulpit': Margery Kempe as Saint and Preacher

1:45 p.m.: Anne Thayer (Lancaster Theological Seminary), Mary in the Margins: Thomas Swalwell's Annotations on the Virgin

2:30-2:45 p.m.: Afternoon tea break

2:45 p.m.: Bernard McGinn (University of Chicago, emeritus), Mary as Model of Mystical Perfection in the Arnhem Mystical Sermons

CONCLUDING REMARKS AND DISCUSSION (3:30-4:30 p.m.)
Nicholas Watson (Harvard University) and conference participants