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medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture Would your comment concerning the difficulty in achieving objectivity when teaching the development and history of Catholicism not apply to other religions as well? -----Original Message----- From: [log in to unmask] [mailto:[log in to unmask]] Sent: Friday, 07 May 2004 12:21 To: [log in to unmask] Subject: [M-R] teaching medieval religion medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture Thanks for the interesting responses to the issue I brought up about teaching medieval religion. I was surprised in my class, not so much by the ferocity of the debate, as by the problems my students had in seeing this as an historical issue - I thought I had been teaching about medieval responses to images/the elevation of the host / the importance of pilgrimages etc. to students who were interested in the Middle Ages but I got the feeling that some of them had chosen to do this course because they wanted to explore the roots of the faith they had been following all their lives - in some cases this was over 60 years - so I had to tread carefully. I also wonder about how one teaches objectively when one is/is not a Christian oneself - as Laura has suggested the neutral tone one tries to adopt is not always perceived as such! Nicholas Watson writing on 'Middle English mystics' (a descriptive term he takes issue with) in the Cambridge History of Medieval English Literature comments that 'Since mystical theology is itself greatly concerned with what the Cloud-author calls 'discretion of spirits' . . . it has meant that the academic study of mystical theology has never been definitively detached from its practice.' He is thinking of English Catholic scholars such as David Knowles and Edmund Colledge who, Watson claims, wish to 'find a place from where English Catholics can speak to the larger Catholic world'. A number of members of this list are clearly practising Catholics - how difficult is it to achieve objectivity when teaching the development and history of Catholocism? with thanks again Cate ********************************************************************** To join the list, send the message: join medieval-religion YOUR NAME to: [log in to unmask] To send a message to the list, address it to: [log in to unmask] To leave the list, send the message: leave medieval-religion to: [log in to unmask] In order to report problems or to contact the list's owners, write to: [log in to unmask] For further information, visit our web site: http://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/lists/medieval-religion.html This message is confidential. If you are not the intended recipient please notify us immediately. You may not copy this message or use it for any purpose or disclose its contents to any other person or take any action based on them. E-Mails are susceptible to interference. UCAS and its subsidiaries, UCAS Enterprises and UCAS Trading, accept no responsibility for information, errors or omissions in this e-mail nor for its use or misuse nor for any act committed or omitted in connection with this communication. If in doubt, please verify the authenticity of the contents with the sender. UCAS and its subsidiaries reserve the right to monitor and intercept communications for lawful business purposes _______________________________________________________________________ This e-mail has been scanned for all known viruses by Peapod via the MessageLabs service. ********************************************************************** To join the list, send the message: join medieval-religion YOUR NAME to: [log in to unmask] To send a message to the list, address it to: [log in to unmask] To leave the list, send the message: leave medieval-religion to: [log in to unmask] In order to report problems or to contact the list's owners, write to: [log in to unmask] For further information, visit our web site: http://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/lists/medieval-religion.html