Ecstasy in the Classroom - Ayelet Even-Ezra

Ecstasy in the Classroom

Trance, Self, and the Academic Profession in Medieval Paris
Buch | Hardcover
312 Seiten
2018
Fordham University Press (Verlag)
978-0-8232-8192-3 (ISBN)
128,40 inkl. MwSt
Ecstasy in the Classroom analyzes the early thirteenth century theological discourse about Paul’s rapture and other modes of cognizing God. It reconstructs the perceptions of transformation and self they imply, and demonstrate their role in establishing the peculiar professional identity of scholastic theologians compared with other seers of God.
Can ecstatic experiences be studied with the academic instruments of rational investigation? What kinds of religious illumination are experienced by academically minded people? And what is the specific nature of the knowledge of God that university theologians of the Middle Ages enjoyed compared with other modes of knowing God, such as rapture, prophecy, the beatific vision, or simple faith? Ecstasy in the Classroom explores the interface between academic theology and ecstatic experience in the first half of the thirteenth century, formative years in the history of the University of Paris, medieval Europe’s “fountain of knowledge.” It considers little-known texts by William of Auxerre, Philip the Chancellor, William of Auvergne, Alexander of Hales, and other theologians of this community, thus creating a group portrait of a scholarly discourse. It seeks to do three things. The first is to map and analyze the scholastic discourse about rapture and other modes of cognition in the first half of the thirteenth century. The second is to explicate the perception of the self that these modes imply: the possibility of transformation and the complex structure of the soul and its habits. The third is to read these discussions as a window on the predicaments of a newborn community of medieval professionals and thereby elucidate foundational tensions in the emergent academic culture and its social and cultural context. Juxtaposing scholastic questions with scenes of contemporary courtly romances and reading Aristotle’s Analytics alongside hagiographical anecdotes, Ecstasy in the Classroom challenges the often rigid historiographical boundaries between scholastic thought and its institutional and cultural context.

Ayelet Even-Ezra is Assistant Professor of History at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. She studies Europe’s medieval scholastic culture of the twelfth and thirteenth centuries.

As its title suggests, this book does three things: (1) It describes the discourse about Paul’s trance and other modes of cognizing God through key questions raised by early thirteenth-century theologians; (2) It discusses the perceptions of the self implied by this discourse; (3) It suggests these questions resonate concerns of theologians regarding the nature of their academic profession. Each chapter, therefore, has accordingly three titles.

Introduction / 1

1 Why was Paul ignorant of his own state, and how do various

modes of cognizing God differ? / 23

The experiencing self and the observing self

Theology among other modes of cognizing God

2 How could Paul remember his rapture? / 59

Memory and the continuity of the self

Theology between experience and words

3 Can a soul see God or itself without intermediaries? / 81

The self as distinct from its habits and actions

Theology between experience and observation

4 Does true faith rely on anything external? / 111

The self as an ultimate source of authority

Theology between internal and external authority

5 What happens to old modes of cognition when new ones are

introduced during trance and other transitions? / 135

The self and its ability to manipulate parts of it during transitions

Theology between reasoned knowledge and simple faith

6 Can knowledge qua knowledge be a virtue? / 158

The self in society

Theology between theory and practice

Summary and Epilogue / 189

Appendix / 199

Acknowledgments / 205

Notes / 207

Bibliography / 265

Index / 291

Erscheinungsdatum
Reihe/Serie Fordham Series in Medieval Studies
Verlagsort New York
Sprache englisch
Maße 152 x 229 mm
Themenwelt Geisteswissenschaften Philosophie Philosophie des Mittelalters
Geisteswissenschaften Religion / Theologie
Geisteswissenschaften Sprach- / Literaturwissenschaft Anglistik / Amerikanistik
Geisteswissenschaften Sprach- / Literaturwissenschaft Literaturwissenschaft
ISBN-10 0-8232-8192-2 / 0823281922
ISBN-13 978-0-8232-8192-3 / 9780823281923
Zustand Neuware
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