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Religions and the Miraculous*
Summer 2013
This course is designed to study the evolution of ideas about miracles and the miraculous in western religious culture. Why did the belief in miracles become so entrenched in the religious culture of the west? What challenged that belief over the course of the Middle Ages and early modern Europe? How did the understanding of the miraculous emerge from the Enlightenment? We will read a series of monographs and articles that address the nature of belief in miracles in medieval and early modern Europe and the advent of more secular modes of thought. Ideally, this reading will provide a constructive background for your own research on topics that may extend beyond this period or European focus.
May 20, 22, 24, 29, and June 3, 5, 7, 10, 12, 14, 17, 19, 21, evenings, from 6 p.m. to 9:15 p.m.
Downloads:
Syllabus:
Seminar Meetings
- Introduction
- Bailey, Magic and Superstition
- Paul Veyne, Did the Greeks Believe in their Myths?
- Peter Brown, Cult of Saints
- Benedicta Ward, Miracles and the Medieval MInd
- Arnold, Belief and Unbelief in Medieval Europe
- Justice, “Did the Middle Ages Believe in their Miracles,” Representations 103 (2008): 1-29. (pdf) Hyams, “Trial by Ordeal: The Key to Proof in the Early Common Law,” (pdf)
- Walsham, “Miracles in Post-Reformation England,” in Studies in Church History( pdf); Harrison, “Newtonian Science, Miracles and the Laws of Nature,” Journal of the History of Ideas 56 (1995): 531-53 (pdf).
- Harline, Miracles at the Jesus Oak
- Cameron, Enchanted Europe
- Spinoza, Theological-Political Tractate
- Hume, “On Miracles,” from An Enquiry Into Human Understanding
- Visit to Watkinson Special Collections/Paper presentations
Attendance
Attendance in class is required. If you know you will be unable to attend a class session please inform the professor in advance. Missing two sessions will result in an automatic lowering of your final grade by 10%. Missing three or more sessions will result in automatic failure of the course.
Assessment Expectations
The grading will be based on participation in class discussion, leading one week of discussion with a write up of the discussion, and a controlled research paper (10-15 pages) using a group of primary sources or a study of current scholarship on a particular issue.
Office hours: by appointment.
Books:
Bailey, Magic and Superstition in Europe
Veyne, Did the Greeks Believe in their Myths?
Brown, Cult of the Saints
Arnold, Belief and Unbelief in Medieval Europe
Ward, Miracles and the Medieval Mind
Cameron, Enchanted Europe
Harline, Miracles at the Jesus Oak
Spinoza, Theological-Political Tractate (Cambridge edition), ed. Jonathan Israel
Hume, An Enquiry into Human Understanding (any paperback edition)
Background Reading:
Weddle, Miracles