‘Mundus imago Dei est’: The Spirituality of the Emblematist of the French Renaissance

Abstract

This study explores the constitutive principle of Mundus imago Dei est in the work of emblematists representative of both Catholic and Protestant traditions in France in the late sixteenth- and early seventeenth-centuries. Examples selected have been militant (Georgette de Montenay), philosophical (Jean-Baptiste Chassignet), and devotional (Jean de La Ceppède). The aim is to discover common rhetorical strategies of an aesthetic in the service of faith. Qualities and features derived from the Augustinian tradition are demonstrated. Further, apparent disharmony of images is shown to yield to harmony of thought.     

Hamlet and the Soul-Sleepers

ABSTRACT

The article argues that the soliloquy, ‘To be, or not to be,’ in Shakespeare’s Hamlet is informed by soul-sleeping: the belief that on its separation from the body at death, the soul enters an unconscious state typically described as sleep or a sleep-like stupor, in which it remains until wakened and joined with the resurrected body, and then assessed at the Last Judgment. The doctrine was advocated in some of Luther’s works of the 1520s and 1530s and found acceptance among some early English Protestants, but was destined to be repudiated by later Protestant orthodoxy, and was universally condemned by mainstream Protestant thinking of Shakespeare’s day. The article surveys the history of this heterodoxy in England, demonstrates its continuing significance in the late-sixteenth and early-seventeenth century, elucidates the references to the doctrine in Hamlet’s soliloquy, and discusses their relevance to the broader understanding of the religious subtext of the play.     

A framework and two sketches concerning psychoanalytical training and practice

The author discusses the mode of knowledge production in psychoanalysis based on a reflection on the psychoanalytical education and its relationship to clinical practice. She points out that there is a risk in a form of clinical activity found in our education, which, under the fascination of the analyst's power of operating in the metaphorical domain of words, loses sight of the material dimension of the clinical action. In other words, this form of clinical activity loses sight of the meeting with another human being, of the repertoire of theories and experiences that informs this action and the patient's and the analyst's concrete life situation. The author highlights the role of writing as a privileged way of dealing with the material and immaterial facts that constitute the clinical action and reflects on some of the forces that structure nowadays the reception of knowledge production inside the psychoanalytical field. She uses the notion of 'minor literature', by Franz Kafka, to express the possibility that a live circuit of writings exchanged among psychoanalysts can offer to an interchange of experiences and ideas that is the live expression of the history of the psychoanalytical groups. A clinical session is presented in order to promote considerations about the psychoanalytical education, theory and practice.     

RENAISSANCE HUMANISM AND PHILOSOPHY AS A WAY OF LIFE

A long-established view has deprecated Renaissance humanists as primarily literary figures with little serious interest in philosophy. More recently it has been proposed that the idea of philosophy as a way of life offers a useful framework with which to reassess their philosophical standing. This proposal has faced some criticism, however. By looking again at the work of three important figures from the period, this essay defends the claim that at least some thinkers during the Renaissance did see philosophy as a way of life, while also acknowledging the force of reservations made by recent critics.     

Christianity in the world of Japan’s religions: reception,incorporation, separation

This article traces three key themes in the encounter of Christianity with Japanese culture: namely, reception, incorporation and separation. It argues that these three can also be traced in the much longer engagement of Buddhism with Japan, and that their complex interaction is a helpful way of understanding the tension of inner and outer in Japanese Christian experience.     

Reading Like a Nun: The Composition of Convent Libraries in Renaissance Europe

In this article the author examines the composition of convent libraries in Renaissance Europe—specifically, Italy and Spain. While much research on monastic libraries has occurred, little has concerned convent libraries. They are unique because they include writing both by and for women. The author used previous historical research to form an overview of a convent library's composition. Examining monastic and Tridentine rules regarding literature collected and produced in convents allows one to understand if ecclesiastical legislation restricted convent literature. From there, examining scribal work performed in convents, a few known convent holdings, and the works written by nuns themselves can illuminate the holdings of a convent library. These methods lead to the conclusion that convent libraries contained collections rich in social history and women's history because they contained some of the only literature by, for, and about women.     

Francisco López de Gómara's Humanist Reframing of the Missionary Project on Cozumel

Abstract

This article examines the rhetorical strategy and discursive practices employed by Francisco Lopez de Gomara in his Conquest of Mexico. It focuses specifically on the historian's treatment of events on the Island of Cozumel prior to Cortes' invasion of the mainland. The article interprets Gomara's Cozumel story, “the first encounter,” as a typological figure of speech. The political goals of empire, conversion and material gain are subsumed in a rhetorical vision of the New World. Cozumel is the promise. The historian frames the conquest of Mexico, the fulfillment that Cozumel heralded as a humanist project, and the New World as a work of Renaissance lay culture. The principal weapon of conquest and reconstruction is language. Wielded by Cortes and his historian, it functions to construct and communicate a rhetorical vision of a New World that incorporates the best of Europe and America even while it decries human rights abuses on both sides.     

Martin Luther in The Netherlands

ABSTRACT

Martin Luther’s influence in the Netherlands has often been overlooked in favour of a focus on the theology of Calvin. However, several historical facts lead us to consider the importance of Luther for the Dutch and the abiding significance of his work. The article examines several of those historical phenomena including the fluid ecclesiastical situation in the Netherlands from the 1520s to 1546, the year of Luther’s death. It also considers the impact which the reception of Luther’s writings had on Dutch society, both directly and in interaction with other theological perspectives. This leads naturally to a consideration of the general importance of Luther’s writings for the Dutch and their church(es). And after a survey of the variations and mutations which Luther’s ideas underwent in the Dutch context, we conclude with a brief survey of Luther’s continuing reception in the Netherlands beyond the sixteenth century.