Preaching to the unconverted: The theology of sin and repentance and the origins of Dominican Mission.
Item
-
Title
-
Preaching to the unconverted: The theology of sin and repentance and the origins of Dominican Mission.
-
Identifier
-
AAI3115273
-
identifier
-
3115273
-
Creator
-
Mazza, Edmund J.
-
Contributor
-
Adviser: Howard L. Adelson
-
Date
-
2004
-
Language
-
English
-
Publisher
-
City University of New York.
-
Subject
-
History, Medieval | History, Church | History, European
-
Abstract
-
The thirteenth-century missionary effort of the Order of Preachers to convert Jews, Muslims and other non-Christians has been viewed by scholars as a manifestation of a "persecuting society." Jeremy Cohen argues that the mendicants, under the direction of Friar Raymond of Penafort developed a new ideology against Jews which classified them as "heretics" no longer deserving of any tolerated place in Europe. Likewise, Robert Chazan has argued that the proselyzation of the friars embodied that same desire for a "more homogenous Christian environment" which underlay the Rhineland massacres accompanying the First Crusade of the eleventh century. This dissertation, however, argues for a revised view of the Dominican missionary overtures of the 1200s, one which identifies this movement not so much with the drive for homogeneity, as for holiness. Beginning with the efforts of twelfth-century Christian humanists such as Anselm of Canterbury, Peter Abelard, Bartholomew of Exeter, and Alan of Lille, it is possible to uncover what has, heretofore, gone unremarked in previous scholarship---these same authors who wrote polemical tracts targeting Jews and other non-Christians are also chiefly responsible for developing a theology of sin and repentance and the Church's first handbooks for confession and preaching. In the thirteenth century, these tasks became the almost exclusive preserve of the mendicants. They filled a vacuum with regard to pastoring the laity which Waldensians, Cathars, and other heretical groups had sought to supply. But the preaching of the friars was not limited to the spiritual care of lay and heretical persons, it sought to fill that other pastoral vacuum---preaching to the unconverted. In the words of one witness, Dominic was "zealous for souls, not only those of Christians but also of Saracens and other unbelievers...he proposed to go to the pagans and die there for the faith..." Dominic sent Friar Paul instead, significantly, the author of the order's first summa on sin for the confessional. Like Paul, Friar Raymond of Penafort composed one of the most celebrated summae on confession and undertook an unprecedented preaching campaign to non-Christians. Dominican writings reveal the same pastoral approach to non-Christians as to Christians.
-
Type
-
dissertation
-
Source
-
PQT Legacy CUNY.xlsx
-
degree
-
Ph.D.
