2015/2016

2015/2016

DM270

M-STO/01 ()

DEPARTMENT OF HUMANITIES

PHILOSOPHY

PERCORSO COMUNE

1°

6

36 lesson hours

Italian

ORAL TEST

FRANK THOMAS - 6 ECTS

For being admitted to the (oral) exam of "modulo B" students must have successfully passed the (written) exam of "modulo A".

- to deepen the knowledge of the Middle Ages by studying a religious and cultural problem that crosses many other topics related to medieval history
- to test the methodological concepts acquired in the "modulo A", especially the critique and historical interpretation of written and figurative sources

"Saints and miracles in the Christian Middle Ages"

In christianity the veneration of persons considered special friends of God grew more and more important from the 4th century on. The most significant feature attributed to such „holy“ men or women is their capacity to work miracles. The perspective of the course will certainly not be our personal faith or scepticism. Rather the two related phenomena of saintliness and miracle will be read as religious and cultural concepts with their own history, that is, subject to change in the course of time. Thus, the medieval practice and ideas referring to the saints, to their physical remains (relics) and to miracles are helpful for a better understanding of cultural processes and achievements of the uttermost importance for European history, such as ideas on the afterworld, the religious beliefs of laymen, the distinction between true and false, the diversification of the scientific disciplines, the borders between the divine, the natural and the human sphere and last not least the distinction between the sacred and the secular.

Lectures

Bibliography for students who will attend the class:

1) Notes from the lessons

2) Sofia Boesch Gajano, La santità, Roma/Bari 1999

3) Lorraine Daston / Katharine Park, Wonders and the order of nature, 1150-1750, New York, Zone Books, 1998, chapter 1

Bibliography for students who will not attend the class

1) Sofia Boesch Gajano, La santità, Roma/Bari 1999

2) André Vauchez, La santità nel medioevo, Bologna, Il Mulino, 1999

3) Lorraine Daston / Katharine Park, Wonders and the order of nature, 1150-1750, New York, Zone Books, 1998, chapters 1 and 3

oral exam about the content of the course and the textbooks indicated in the bibliography