Saturday 22 August 2015

Exhibition in the Predigerkirche Erfurt Opens

Today marks the opening of the exhibition 'The Hours' (2015). Here are a few images of what to expect.

The exhibit runs until 27th September 2015 and is available to view from Tuesday to Saturday 11am 'til 4pm. In the first week the exhibit will be open 11am until 8pm.
The exhibit is funded through the AHRC, King's College London and Sparkassenstiftung Erfurt.




The Hours (2015). Real-time generative performance, projected on wood canvas. Videos and images courtesy of the artists, punct. (Taery Kim & Kyuha Shim).

Wednesday 25 March 2015

Stunden – Zeitraumerfahrung mit Meister Eckhart in der Predigerkirche Erfurt

Vom 23.08. bis 27.09.2015 wird es im Hohen Chor der Predigerkirche eine spektakuläre Ausstellung geben. Sie trägt den Titel “Stunden – Zeitraumerfahrung mit Meister Eckhart in der Predigerkirche”. Dabei geht es um eine Boden-Leinwandprojektion der Videokonzeptkünstlerin Taery Kim (unter Mitarbeit von Kyuha Shim).

Die Ausstellung der zeitgenössischen amerikanisch-koreanischen Künstlerin ruft das Dominikanische Stundengebet visuell in Erinnerung. Die Besucher können die Überschreitung von heute und Meister Eckharts Zeit selbst erleben.

Die Vernissage für diese Ausstellung planen wir für den 22.08., 16.00 Uhr. Als Festredner hat Dr. Kai Uwe Schierz zugesagt. Er ist Direktor der Kunstmuseen der Stadt Erfurt.
Geöffnet sein wird die Ausstellung von Dienstag bis Sonntag, jeweils von 11 bis 16 Uhr. Für die erste Woche planen wir erweiterte Öffnungszeiten: täglich von 11 bis 20 Uhr.

Zum Abschluss der Ausstellung gibt es am Sonntag, dem 27.09.2016, 10 Uhr, unseren Sonntagsgottesdienst mit einer Predigt von Prof. Dr. Dietmar Mieth (Meister Eckhart Gesellschaft) zum Thema "Bild und Bildung bei Meister Eckhart". Im Anschluss an den Gottesdienst findet das k!rchencafé.anders statt. Für eine Stunde werden die Kinder ein besonderes Meister-Eckhart-Projekt erleben, während wir die Erwachsenen zu einer Führung mit vikarin Anne Bezzel durch Kirche und Kloster einladen. Thema der führung ist: "Meister Eckhart im Kontext seiner Zeit".

Die Ausstellung wird vom AHRC, King's College London und von der Sparkassenstiftung Erfurt gefördert.

Thursday 26 February 2015

The Next Generation of Palaeographers

On January 16th the project's Dr. Chris Wojtulewicz spoke to students and staff of Warminster School about the detective work that he and the team do at the Vatican Library and other institutions holding collections of medieval manuscripts across Europe. Perhaps some future palaeographers were among them?

A write-up and some photos can be found on the school's website here: http://www.warminsterschool.org.uk/news-and-events/news/talk-from-dr-christopher-wojtulewicz

Wednesday 10 September 2014

Dass ein Wort nicht nur ein Wort ist ...

Dass ein Wort nicht nur ein Wort ist, hat einer der in der Welt berühmtesten (zumindest außerhalb Erfurts) Professoren von Erfurt dargelegt: Thomas von Erfurt. Auch wenn wir seine genauen Lebensdaten nicht kennen, so wissen wir doch, dass er zum Ausgang des 13. und Beginn des 14. Jahrhunderts Hochschullehrer an einem der Kollegien, wohl der Schule des Schottenklosters unterrichtete und sicherlich mit dem anderen weltberühmten Erfurter Zeitgenossen, Meister Eckhart und seinem Werk bekannt war. Umgekehrt wissen wir auch, dass Meister Eckhart Wesentliches von Thomas gelernt hatte.
Was hat Thomas berühmt gemacht? Thomas war Philosoph, philosophischer Grammatiker – und er hatte das Wort auf die Goldwaage zu legen gelehrt. Ein Wort, das war sein zentraler Gedanke, ist nicht nur ein Wort. Es ist mehr Wert, hat mehr Gewicht und besitzt mehr Inhalt als alles Gold der Welt. Denn das Wort ist vielfältig, es multipliziert sich gerade zu selbst. Während Gold, wenn es in Schmuck, als Geld, als Sicherheit verteilt wird, abnimmt oder zumindest dem täglichen Marktkurs und seinen Schwankungen ausgesetzt ist, steigert sich jedes Wort selbst. Denn es kann mit sich selbst oder mit einem anderen Wort zusammentreten und sich so selbst einen neuen Sinn geben. Aus „Ja“ wird „jaja“, und schon ist „Ja“ nicht mehr „Ja“, sondern fast das Gegenteil von „Ja“, nämlich „jaja“, na gut, vielleicht auch nicht. Die Bank am Markt kann ein Finanzgebäude sein, doch auch das Bett des Obdachlosen. Oder: Ich bin in Erfurt zuhause, ich bin in Erfurt zuhause, ich bin in Erfurt zuhause – derselbe Satz hat drei komplett verschiedene Bedeutungen. Der erste (ich bin in Erfurt zuhause) meint z.B., ich bin in Erfurt nicht mehr fremd, ich habe mich hier richtig eingelebt. Der zweite (ich bin in Erfurt zuhause) meint z.B., dass ich mich in Erfurt, aber nicht in Weimar, Leipzig oder sonst wo, wo ich mich auch noch aufhalte, zuhause weiß. Und der dritte (ich bin in Erfurt zuhause) deutet an, dass ich mich hier in Erfurt ganz als Mensch fühle, angenommen, dass ich das bin, was ich sein will.
Dass es solche Sprachnuancen eines Wortes, und erst recht eines Wortes im Verbund mit anderen Worten gibt, und dass ein Wort nicht nur ein Wort, sondern vielmehr ein Zeichen ist, das ganz reich und vielfältig ist, das erst gedeutet werden muss, ja das man auf die Goldwaage legen und erst lesen lernen muss, das hat Thomas von Erfurt in einem Buch, um 1309, niedergeschrieben, das bald „Spekulative Grammatik“ genannt wurde. Es war ein Bestseller des ausgehenden Mittelalters, aber es blieb auch weltweit die meistgelesene philosophische Grammatik bis ins 20. Jahrhundert. Auch wenn bald der Name des Verfassers vergessen war (er wurde erst am Anfang des 20. Jh.s wieder entdeckt), dieses Buch hatte damals und hat heute immer noch enormen Einfluss auf unser Verständnis von Worten. Auf dieses Buch berief sich der berühmte Philosoph der Zeichenlehre (Semiotik), Charles S. Peirce (1839-1914), und es bildete die Grundlage für den wohl bedeutendsten deutschen Philosophen des 20. Jh.s, Martin Heidegger (1889-1976). Gibt es bald eine Straße in Erfurt mit dem Namen „Thomas von Erfurt“? „Ja“ oder „jaja“?

Prof. Dr. Markus Vinzent
Fellow der Kolleg-Forschergruppe
Max-Weber-Kolleg für kultur- und sozialwissenschaftliche Studien
Universität Erfurt

Tuesday 5 August 2014

Adolar Zumkeller and the History of the Augustinian Hermits

When we think of all the manuscripts that witness to the period spanning from the mid-thirteenth to the early fourteenth centuries – by most accounts quite a short period of history – of those manuscripts whose primary subject is theology, we are not often struck by the relationship between their composition (if it is a collection, what reason lies behind the bringing together of these texts?) and the person who copied or brought together the collection (who was it? If they were of a religious order, which?).  So often we look at texts and focus only on that part of the manuscript that interests us, and so often our sense of the composition is undone by later rebinding.  Looking into the relationship between composition and the compiler (perhaps we want to say, to borrow Jacob Neusner’s point about systematic thinking, that they are often ‘a composition, not merely a composite, held together by an encompassing logic’ [Chapters in the Formative History of Judaism: Second Series: More Questions and Answers (Lanham, MD, 2009), 79]) can often yield some interesting information about the religious orders at work in the universities: what figures were they interested in? what theological questions were dominating the intellectual scene? 

One of the many great things that Adolar Zumkeller has given us in his various works on the Augustinian Order is a keen sensitivity to the tightness of the community as it emerged in the thirteenth and early fourteenth centuries.  The constellation of the students and teachers of the Order, at least initially, around Giles of Rome (and of course, Augustine himself) served to show that the Order was keen to establish itself through the strengthening of its members: Augustine and Giles were not just particularly good people to study in order to become well versed in theology; both figures were held up to support the spiritual growth of those who were exercising their vocation to live according to the particular charism of the Augustinian Order.  Zumkeller draws our attention to the focus of the Order on study, for ‘[t]he study of sacred scripture was understood to be the most noble work of the friars, a kind of divine service.’ (Adolar Zumkeller, Theology and History of the Augustinian School in the Middle Ages, John E. Rotelle (ed), The Augustinian Series, vol. 6 (Villanova, PA: Augustinian Press, 1996), 11) In fact, it was Giles’s position that the ‘study of theology’, combined with ‘regular observance’, would not only ensure the growth of the Order, but also the humility of the Order, as we read from Giles in 1292: ‘Maintain and foster the study of theology with all your effort because this, along with regular observance, is necessary for our Order to grow and even to exalt in humility.’ (Analecta Augustiniana IV (1911-1912) 203, as given in A. Zumkeller, Theology and History of the Augustinian School (1996), 11).  If the study of theology were the means by which the Order would grow - not just in size, but in spiritual formation - it shows that the interest shown in gathering together reportationes of texts was key to establishing a clear Augustinian theology, as with the outstanding example of Vat. lat. 1086 where we find over 500 quaestiones from Paris compiled by Prosper de Reggio Emilia in the second decade of the fourteenth century.  This is to say, the development of a theology that is informed by studying Augustine himself, under the direction and guidance afforded by the works of Giles, which understands itself as necessarily recording, preserving and even engaging with the theological opinions of other, non-Augustinians in Paris.  Even though Zumkeller is keen to impress on us the seriousness with which the Order was dedicated to forming students in Augustine through Giles of Rome (ibid. 11-16), such an Augustinian theology seems to demand of her students, not an attitude of being closed in (an otherwise easy conclusion to draw), but an engagement with contemporary intellectual debate – indeed a very Augustinian desire.  It seems true also that this meant taking particular note of those theologians who were espousing opinions which were perceived to be, in some sense, Augustinian or of particular interest to Augustinian theological concerns.  Meister Eckhart actually serves as a very good example of this: Vat. lat. 1086 – certainly a manuscript that shows strong Augustinian principles - is one of only two manuscripts that witness to Eckhart’s Parisian Questions, and of all nine it contains six.  Similarly, the fragment of an otherwise unknown Eckhart text in Troyes found by P. Walter Senner OP is given as a note to a Question by James of Viterbo – another important and influential Augustinian.  Clearly Eckhart was considered important by the Augustinians by the early fourteenth century.  The other witness to Eckhart’s Parisian Questions, Avignon Bibliothèque Municipale Ms. 1071, witnesses to the first three, which have received much more attention for their content than any of the others (notwithstanding the fact that Qq. VI-IX from Vat. lat. 1086 are comparatively recently rediscovered), although this manuscript contains many anonymous texts (some have been identified, see Alessandra Beccarisi’s note on this manuscript in her article ‘Eckhart’s Latin Works’ in Jeremiah Hackett (ed.) A Companion to Meister Eckhart (Leiden: Brill, 2013): 85-124, here 91).  Perhaps Avignon, MS 1071 needs further exploration…

Chris Wojtulewicz

Friday 1 August 2014

Divine Production in Late Medieval Trinitarian Theology

Book Review 

JT Paasch, Divine Production in Late Medieval Trinitarian Theology. Henry of Ghent, Duns Scotus and William Ockham, Oxford Theological Monographs (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2012)
Pages: 203 + xiii        ISBN 978-0-19-964637-1

Paasch aims to shed light on what he admits is a perplexing issue of how we encounter God as Trinity, in a divine internal production process, not involving creation, but one in which all products co-exist eternally and are not sub-ordinate to the producer. He considers the treatment given divine production by three prominent figures, Henry of Ghent, Duns Scotus and William Ockham who all held views that were innovative and reflective of medieval developments in this topic. The book takes the form of a medieval 'punch-up' that could have occurred as the three slogged out their attempts to embrace Aristotle with the Nicene Creed in scholarly debate. It is pointed out that any such meeting did not occur as these men lived in successive generations, though in practise, Scotus did respond to Henry and Ockham to his two predecessors.

Paasch splits the book into two main sections covering, 'how a divine person is produced', and 'how a divine person is a producer'. The parallel structure to each section first of all presents the bold pitch of Henry. This is then countered as Scotus exposes the flaws in Henry before presenting his own amendments. In the first section looking at the 'elements of production', Ockham challenges Scotus before flooring Henry. During 'round two', considering 'the producer', Scotus and Ockham knock out Henry without coming to blows themselves.

The theological hits are rendered in a series of proposals and counter proposals that are formatted in an algebraic style which is generally straightforward although unavoidable repetitions and cross-referencing interrupt the flow a little. These proposals develop the framework of the arguments with amplification by the author. The reader is led through the discussion with the three medieval heavyweights and throughout Henry begins as the plausible instigator who is first trumped by Scotus before being nailed by Ockham.

A brief background shows how the ideas of Aristotle's eternal creation from material and Avicenna's production by emanation moulded the thoughts of later Christian thought. When considering the ingredients that go into production, Aristotle begins with a lump of material and this undergoes change. As creation is ex nihilo, then if divine production is ex nihilo it is like creation. So to be either from material or ex nihilo brings difficulty. Paasch shows how Henry treats the divine essence as a lump of matter and provides a convenient way to understand the Nicene Creed's statement that 'the Son is begotten from the substance of the Father.'  The case against Henry is given by Scotus who moves away from the Aristotelian idea of production from material. Scotus says that when the Father begets the Son there is a sharing of the divine essence, rather than just bringing him into existence without materials. Ockham is then introduced to eliminate Henry's thoughts of a lump of matter and counters Scotus by emphasising the sharing of divine essence rather than production of another person.

Part two also begins by showing how the three medievals all draw from Aristotle as the debate moves to consider how the divine person is a suitable producer capable of production. Paasch states, “Action requires a capable agent, a capable recipient and the right circumstances” (110). The agent needs the active power as the recipient needs to be capable of passively being acted upon. Henry is first shown to emphasise that power consists in a relationship with the activity and so the reproductive power of the Father is from the divine essence and possible because of the “act of relatedness that points towards his act of producing the Son” (135). Scotus is then recalled to present how this emphasis on relationship is misguided and the better term to describe production is expression. Thirdly the views of Ockham are presented to show how he contrasted with Henry, partially agreed with Scotus but ultimately emphasised the divine essence as the source of production.

The author presents an account of how the three scholars blended creative philosophy with careful theology in their attempt to answer creation and subordination issues in the Trinitarian mystery of divine production. The joy of the book is through the gradual unveiling of the mechanics of divine production and also the twists and turns provided by considering the perspectives of Henry, Scotus and Ockham in turn. Each chapter steps from one line of medieval thought to a more developed one and so the conclusions don't just present the thought of the key players but an illuminated medieval view on divine production.   


Ian Richardson

Thursday 31 July 2014

Mystical Theology and Continental Philosophy Conference


The sun shone on the annual Mystical Theology Network conference from 11th to the 13th July 2014 as it saw its largest manifestation at Hope Park, Liverpool Hope University.  With nearly 60 participants and 35 papers which covered a wide range of mystical texts and persons, along with their relation to continental philosophy.  Sessions were lively and stimulated great debate, thanks to exceptionally insightful and well-conceived papers, and small enough session audiences to warrant fruitful discussion.  From our project Dr. Chris Wojtulewicz gave a paper which examined, with the help of Heidegger, some elements in Eckhart’s thought that related both figures to the Modistae and specifically Thomas of Erfurt, whose text on speculative grammar was the subject of Heidegger’s Habilitation, and who was a potential (Franciscan) confrere of Eckhart in Erfurt, and possibly also Paris…