Our written work is designed this semester to practice some fundamental skills essential to good theological scholarship, especially historical theological scholarship. Our second exercise, therefore, is in comparative analysis. I will ask you to explore themes, motifs, images, as you see them in two of our figures. The structure of this is more traditional than the first essay. Be thinking in terms of an introduction with a clear thesis/argument statement, a body of supporting evidence integrally ordered to that thesis/argument, and a clear conclusion that both summarizes your argument and points beyond it to some implications. Total length should be somewhere between 4-6pgs, double spaced, with reasonable margins and 12 point font (Times Roman, Garamond, or equivalent).
Textual citations for the primary sources can be parenthetical: (Mirror, 139) or (Revelations, 179). If you cite one of our secondary readings (e.g., Turner, McGinn, etc), please cite this with a properly formatted endnote. (Chicago Manual of Style), and give a works cited page at the end of the paper, citing only the secondary sources.
Here are some prompts to get you going. Feel free to develop these according to your own reading.
1. Evaluate how Angela of Foligno and Julian of Norwich see the role of the Crucified Christ in their mystical theology. How does each one view the suffering of Christ in relation to the suffering of the human person?
2. Describe the use of darkness and light imagery in Angela and in Mechtild. Is God known in darkness? In light? In both?
3. Both Marguerite and Julian have a complex understanding of how the typical teaching and life of “holy church” relates to the kind of mystical knowing or mystical identity in God that they describe. How are their approaches to “holy church” (the little) similar? How are they different?
4. Marguerite was killed for her book. Angela of Foligno died a natural death. Is there something about the teaching of Marguerite that, in your view, makes her book more “dangerous” than Angela’s? Or do you think it’s really an unfortunate convergence of events that led to Marguerite’s condemnation and execution?
5. Teresa of Avila begins the Interior Castle with the titular image, a crystalline castle with Christ dwelling at the center. How does Teresa use the language of interiority, compared to (pick one)?
Please follow instrutions carefully.
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