SCHEDULE OF READINGS
These may be
supplemented by handouts
and/or web assignments; you should consult the web regularly for course
notes
1.11: Introduction (followup
readings: Regular Life, pp. ix-xi, 1-12)
THE MONASTIC PERSON
1.18:
Monastic lives
Readings: Life of St. Antony;
Testament of St. Francis, St.
Francis’
Letter to All the Faithful,
and Bonaventure’s Major Life
of St. Francis
(in St. Francis...Omnibus,
pp. 66-70, 91-99, 615-787); Regular
Life,
pp. 18-27 (selections from the Letters
of St. Antony and the Life of
Holy Syncletica)
1.25:
The literature of
contemplation and self-improvement
Readings: Regular Life, pp. 28-52; The Admonitions of St. Francis, the
Praises and the Canticle of the Sun, and the Sacrum Commercium (in St.
Francis...Omnibus, pp.77-87, 123-39, 1531-96)
THE MONASTIC COMMUNITY
2.1: Rules (distribution of guidelines for term paper)
Readings: Regular Life, pp.
53-100, 147-51; St. Francis...Omnibus,
pp.
27-64, 165-75.
2.8: Books, reading and worship
Readings: St. Francis’ Letter to a
General Chapter and The
Office of
the Passion (in St.
Francis...Omnibus, pp.102-08, 140-55)
2.15: The cloister
THE MONASTIC COMMUNITY AND THE WORLD
2.22: Monastic churches (PAPER TOPIC AND ANNOTATED BIBLIOGRAPHY DUE)
3.1: Worldiness and reform
Readings: Regular Life, pp.
101-38, 152-57; Venarde, 1-88; Women
and
Monasticism, 1-37
3.8: Women’s communities
Readings: Venarde, 89-186; Women and
Monasticism, 38-124
Sessions in the last six weeks of the semester will be scheduled to
afford an opportunity for you to present your research, and for
roundtables for common discussion of aspects of selected problems
(e.g., a comparison of monastic rules; the different accounts of the
life of St. Francis, contemporary visions of monasticism)
Tentative schedule
3.22: Presentation of research
or roundtable: topic to be arranged
3.29: Reading week/no class
4.5: Presentation of research
or roundtable: topic to be arranged
(FIRST DRAFT OF PAPER DUE)
4.12: Presentation of research
or roundtable: topic to be arranged
4.19: Reading week/no class
4.26: Presentation of research
or roundtable: topic to be arranged
MONDAY, MAY 1: FINAL PAPER DUE -
ABSOLUTE DEADLINE