Ch. 2 Sublimitas Sermonis (original) (raw)

Sublimity as Resistance to Form in the Early Modern Bible

The Bible and the Arts, ed. Stephen Prickett, 2013

This article attempts to reinstate the theological underpinnings of the notion of the 'sublime' in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, focusing on the rich and many-layered discourse (predominantly in France, but also in Italy, Germany and England) about Gen. 1:3, 'fiat lux', a passage notoriously cited by Longinus. I re-evaluate the well-known controversy over this citation between Nicolas Boileau and Pierre-Daniel Huet in the light of earlier theological commentary at Saumur, and trace its later influence down to Robert Lowth and, ultimately, Erich Auerbach, via Schiller and Kierkegaard.

Chapter 3 The Grand Style and Medieval Rhetoric, Augustine to the Twelfth Century

Sense of the Sublime, 2022

Antiquity and the Middle Ages recognized and practiced an elevated style in Latin verse and prose, called in the sources "grand style," grande dicendi genus, genus sublime, sublime dicendi genus, stilus grandis, grandiloquentia, sublimitas, sublimitas sermonis. 1 In the language of medieval and renaissance rhetorical texts, the terms "sublime" and "grand" are interchangeable as designations of style. But-not to diminish the importance of this chapter; only to set it in a clear relation to the conceptual aspects of sublimity-be it said that, while "sublime" is a technical term of rhetoric, its larger role is contemplation, experience of things boundless, awe-inspiring and divine. While those experiences often call on a style which is elevated and magnificent, the overlap is not baked into its usage. The move from the lower to the higher of the two usages is, in a memorable phrase of Deborah Shuger, "a shift from the body [rhetoric] to the soul Jaeger, Sense of the Sublime ch. 3

Divine Speech in Human Words: Thomistic Engagements with Scripture (2022)

Washington D.C.: CUA Press, 2022

Is the portrait of God revealed in Scripture fundamentally intelligible? The biblical accounts of God reveal seemingly contradictory themes: God’s holiness and narratives telling of his anger; the Divine Omnipotence faced with the Impossible; the suffering Christ upon the Cross and the transcendent Trinity of Persons in God; the unique Savior and the universality of God’s salvific will; and so forth. How are we to hold together all of this data without denying any aspect of the mystery of God? Must we give into our ambient culture’s sense that the biblical God cannot be taken seriously by truly discerning and rational minds when they try to understand "the Divine"? Or, in the midst of this apparent contradiction, can we find the lines of harmony in the revealed mysteries?

Seeing God through Language. Quotation and Deixis in Gregory's CE III, 3-5

2013

Book III of Gregory’s Contra Eunomium is mostly devoted to explaining three crucial sentences from the Holy Scripture: i.e. Prov. 8:22; Acts 2:36; 2Cor. 3:17. In various ways Eunomius did use such statements to advance his arguments against the divinity of the Only-Begotten. Now Gregory – recalling the teaching of his brother Basil – reexamines the original questions, by showing his arguments and his witnesses as he was calling them before a justice court. Thus, book III seems to assume the features of a passionate and articulated ‘theoretical homily’ in defense of the Incarnation of God. My aim is to stress once more the originality of Gregory’s account, who, in many passages, anticipates the style of the most relevant modern analytic philosophers. In this short contribution I will focus myself on the following traits: (1) the use of the powerful Cappadocian semantics of ‘ousia’ / ‘hypostasis’; and (2) the recurrence, throughout the whole text, of some indexical expressions with a special performative force.

When Augustine preaches on the Beatitudes: Format and Strategy

2018

Augustine’s sermons 53 and 53A deal with the beatitudes from the Sermon on the Mount (Mt 5). These texts are two different sermons with different emphases, preached on two separate instances for different occasions. In both sermons, Augustine briefly addresses all the beatitudes, and then singles out one in particular for further discussion. The beatitude selected is then extensively analysed in both sermons in a part that has its own structure. Because the existing, mainly content-oriented division into chapters in Lambot’s edition (CCSL Est Ag 53 (2018) 119-147 * Augustinian Institute, Jacobskerkhof 2, NL – 3511 BL Utrecht 41) –in 16 and 14 chapters respectively– makes it difficult to identify the rhetorical arrangement of the sermons, the texts have now been examined on the basis of a new method, which does not initially focus on content but on form. This method is based on a two-pronged analysis of linguistic and Scriptural signals. Application of this method has demonstrated th...

Redeemed Conversation: Selected Medieval Contributions to a Theology of Discourse

2012

Contemporary approaches to systematic theology as a theology of discourse constitute a re-visioning of the theological task through critical reflection of ways in which language and relationality both inform and are formed by the Christian faith. This re-visioning requires an engagement with texts from the tradition. St. Augustine’s De doctrina christiana and Confessions manifest a foundational example of the Christian tradition’s expression of the vertical and horizontal spiritual exercises that David Burrell has identified in Johannine reflections on friendship and its expression in the world. Two texts from the medieval tradition will be offered as both confirming and developing Augustine’s contributions. The Letters of Heloise and Abelard constitute a twelfth-century correspondence that has received substantial scholarly attention from the work of medievalists, historians and literary critics, but now requires more intentional reflection from the work of systematic theologians i...