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Christ among the Medieval Dominicans

Representations of Christ in the Texts and Images of the Order of Preachers

Edited by Kent Emery, Jr., and Joseph P. Wawrykow

Notre Dame Conferences in Medieval Studies

Religious historians and historians of spirituality have developed and exploited the broad categories of “Christocentric and Theocentric spirituality” in order to differentiate the religious spirit of the Franciscans and the Dominicans. In addition, the philosophical interests of neo-Scholastic thinkers have curtailed attention to the role of the figure of Christ in the thought of Albert the Great, Thomas Aquinas, and other Dominican thinkers. To redress this imbalance, editors Kent Emery, Jr. and Joseph P. Wawrykow present this collection of essays to address the long-neglected depictions of Christ in the writings and art of the medieval Dominicans.

Christ among the Medieval Dominicans adopts a genuinely multidisciplinary approach to its topic, bringing together the research of experts in a wide variety of fields. The essays in this volume, written by an acclaimed group of international scholars and presented at the University of Notre Dame Conference in Medieval Studies, provide many perspectives (theology, philosophy, spirituality, institutional and social history, art history, Latin and vernacular literature, and manuscript studies) on the life and thought of the Order of Preachers. The essays focus on the role of Christ within the devotion and imagination of the Order and in effect expose the “state of the question” in studies of this important medieval institution. As a whole, the volume tests commonplace but often unexamined presuppositions of medieval historiography, especially in the history of spirituality and literary criticism. The essays are accompanied by ample visual evidence from paintings, manuscript illustrations and texts, woodcuts, and engravings, complete with generous indices of manuscripts and names.

This is a valuable resource for all scholars of the Middle Ages, especially those concerned with medieval religion, theology, and spirituality.

Kent Emery, Jr., is Associate Professor in the Program of Liberal Studies and the Medieval Institute at the University of Notre Dame. He is author of Dionysii Cartusiensis Opera selecta. Bibliotheca manuscripta IA-IB: Studia bibliographica (1991) and Monastic, Scholastic and Mystical Theologies from the Later Middle Ages (1996).

Joseph P. Wawrykow is Associate Professor in Theology and the Medieval Institute at the University of Notre Dame and author of God’s Grace and Human Action (Notre Dame Press, 1995).

Reviews

“This collection of conference papers deals with the way Christ was portrayed in the art and writings of the medieval Dominicans and those who were influenced by them. Most of the papers are in English, though three are in French. The papers deal with the order as a whole and with individual writers such as Stephen Langton, Mechthild of Magdeburg, Albert the Great, Thomas Aquinas, and others. The essayists, however, examine a wide range of themes, including catechists, marriage, medieval philosophy, and the way Dominic himself was remembered and compared to Christ, among others. The goal of the essayists was to examine the way the Dominicans perceived Christ and then to examine how that perception influenced their work. This book would be an excellent addition to academic, research, and especially theological libraries.” — Library Journal

“(This volume) is a high-quality collection of rare breadth . . . The collection provides a vast overview of medieval Dominican Christology which manifests, in spite of the differences, the profound continuity of theological and spiritual reflection in the Order of the Preachers. But the first merit of this book is to recall that the Dominicans, before doing philosophy, have been primarily theologians searching to accont for the heart of their faith: the person of Christ. These studies thus contribute to rediscover the specifically theological matter of the Dominican tradition, which the philosophical enterprise of twentieth-century neo-Scholasticism has sometimes obscured.” — The Thomist

“This volume helps the modern reader to correct some widely held misconceptions about medieval Dominicans. Emery and Wawrykow’s work admirably suceeds in accomplishing its goal of shedding new light on old, but central, topics of concern for medival studies.” — Church HIstory, Studies in Christianity & Culture

“The wide range and generally high quality of the contributions makes this an important and stimulating collection.” — The Heythrop Journal

“Christ Among the Medieval Dominicans provides a comprehensive and detailed look at the position of Christ in Dominican thought, life and practice in the medieval period. It is a multi-faceted window on a period and movement of considerable significance.” — The Art Book