Medieval and Early Modern Mysticism Seminar (January 2014)
The Medieval and Early Modern Mysticism research network brought together expertise from several faculties within the University of Oxford and beyond. Ten weekly seminars were held as a starting point to gain a broad overview and increase the understanding of individual disciplines, their perspectives, terminology and approaches.
Seminar 1 – January 2014
Louise Nelstrop (Sarum College, Salisbury / Theology and Religion, Oxford): Richard Rolle‘s Mystical Theology
Ayoush Lazikani (English, Oxford): Affective Pain and Imaging the Child in Ancrene Wisse and the Wooing Group
Seminar 2 - February 2014
Johannes Depnering (Medieval & Modern Languages, Oriel): Writing about traumatic and mystical experiences: the erasure marks in Zurich, ZB, MS. Rh 159
Ben Morgan (Medieval & Modern Languages, Worcester): How to write a phenomenology of religious life: some practical examples from the manuscript transmission of the Sister Catherine treatise
Seminar 3 - February 2014
Daniel McCann (English, St Anne‘s): Ineffable Style: The Language of Affect
Juliana Dresvina (English, King‘s College London): Attachment and Religiousity: a Case for Medieval Mystics?
Seminar 4 - February 2014
Wolfgang Achtner (Theology, Gießen) & Ulrich Ott (Bender Institute of Neuroimaging, Gießen):
The mystic experience of time – interreligious and interdisciplinary perspectives
Seminar 5 - February 2014
Edward Howells (Heythrop College, London): An Ignatian approach to reading classic theological texts
Joana Serrado (Theology and Religion, Oxford): Portuguese Kissing: Philosophical mysticism in Joana de Jesus (1617-1681)
Seminar 6 – March 2014
Mathilde van Dijk (Theology and Religious Studies, Groningen): Collecting the fathers in the Devotio moderna
Almut Suerbaum (Medieval & Modern Languages, Somerville): Mystical song and ‘mouvence‘: Hadewijch and Dorothea von Montau
Seminar 7 – March 2014
Mark Edwards (Theology and Religion, Christ Church): The influence of Dionysius Areopagite in the English Mystics
Patrícia Calvário (Philosophy, Porto): The corporeal experience of the Divine according to Gregory Palamas
Seminar 8 – April 2014
Martha Reeves (Independent scholar, Oxford): The Work of Silence
Juliana Dresvina (English, King’s College London): Attachment and Religiousity: a Case for Medieval Mystics?
Seminar 9 – June 2014
Elena Ene D-Vasilescu (History/Theology, Wolfson): 'Nourished by the Word, manna, and milk. The Church Fathers and the mediaeval mystics on spiritual nourishment'
Seminar 10 – June 2014
Racha Kirakosian (Medieval & Modern Languages, Somerville): 'A Nun with Musical-Mystical Experiences (case study: Christina of Hane)'
Annette Volfing (Medieval & Modern Languages, Oriel): 'Competing Voices in Middle High German Mystical Literature'
‘Three Perspectives on the Song of Songs’ and ‘Mariology and Mysticism’ (October 2014)
Elena Ene D-Vasilescu (Wolfson), Johannes Depnering (Oriel), Joana Serrado (LMH): ‘Three Perspectives on the Song of Songs’
Almut Suerbaum (Somerville): ‘Mariology and Mysticism’
‘The Kiss in Iberian Mysticism’ and ‘The Kiss in the Patristics’ (November 2014)
Mark Edwards (Christ Church): ‘The Kiss in the Patristics’
Joana Serrado (LMH): ‘The Kiss in Iberian Mysticism’
‘Genre Questioning Song of Songs’ and ‘Institutionalized Mysticism' (November 2014)
William Robert (Syracuse): ‘Genre Questioning Song of Songs’
Annette Volfing (Oriel): ‘Institutionalized Mysticism - Two Prose Adaptations of the Daughter Zion Allegory’
'Gregory‘s Commentary on the Song of Songs' and 'Song of Songs in its Ancient Context’ (December 2014)
Johannes Zachhuber (Trinity): ‘From first fruits to the whole lump - Fall and redemption of human nature in Gregory‘s Commentary on the Song of Songs’
Jacques van Ruiten (Groningen): ‘Love in Ancient Israel - Song of Songs in its Ancient Context’
Reading Derrida Reading (June 2015)
A lecture by Amy Hollywood (Harvard University) with responses by Fernanda Bernardo (Coimbra) and Graham Ward (Oxford)
Last Train to Oxford (June 2015)
A performance of the dramatised adaption of John Schad’s documentary novel Someone Called Derrida
The Real, the True, and Critique: Mysticism in the Study Of Religion (June 2015)
A lecture by Amy Hollywood (Harvard University) with responses by Vincent Gillespie (Oxford) and Joana Serrado (Oxford). Convenor: Pamela Sue Anderson.
Henry Adams, Henry James, and Minnie Temple: The Pursuit Of The Real at the Turn of the 20th Century (June 2015)
A lecture by Amy Hollywood (Harvard University)
The Unspeakability of Trauma, the Unspeakability of Joy: The Pursuit of the Real at The Turn of the Twenty-First Century (June 2015)
A lecture by Amy Hollywood (Harvard University) with a response by Kate Kirkpatrick (Oxford). Convenors: Johannes Depnering (Oxford) and Louise Nelstrop (Oxford).
25 Years of the Soul as Virgin Wife: Eckhart and the Beguines (June 2015)
A roundtable with Amy Hollywood (Harvard University) convened by Ben Morgan (Oxford) and Johannes Depnering (Oxford)
True and False Mysticism In Leibniz (November 2015)
A talk by Professor Paul Lodge (Tutorial Fellow in Philosophy at Mansfield College)
Dante, Mysticism, and Poetic Craft (February 2016)
A talk by Dr David Bowe (Victoria Maltby Junior Research Fellow)
