By Jill Raitt (NHC Fellow, 1987–88) Focusing on the Colloquy of Montbéliard, a theological debate in 1586 between Lutherans and Calvinists, Raitt explores the complex array of shifting political alliances and religious tensions which characterized the Holy Roman Empire after the Peace of Augsburg. When the Wars of Religion broke out in France, both sides … Continued
By Bernard McGinn (NHC Fellow, 1999–00) "Perhaps no mystic in the history of Christianity has been more influential and more controversial than the Dominican Meister Eckhart. Few, if any mystics have been as challenging to modern readers and as resistant to agreed-upon interpretation." So begins McGinn's much lauded introduction to the intriguing preacher and philosopher. … Continued
By Robert S. Nelson (NHC Fellow, 1986–87) Because Greek manuscripts are essential sources for the history of Byzantine civilization, they have long been incorporated into the scholary narratives of diverse disciplines, ranging from philology and palaeolography to art history. The present study seeks to situate such objects within a different context, that of their manufacture, … Continued
By Michael Philip Penn (NHC Fellow, 2007–08; 2012–13) The first Christians to meet Muslims were not Latin-speaking Christians from the western Mediterranean or Greek-speaking Christians from Constantinople but rather Christians from northern Mesopotamia who spoke the Aramaic dialect of Syriac. Living under Muslim rule from the seventh century to the present, Syriac Christians wrote the … Continued
By Eleonore Stump (NHC Fellow, 1999–00) Few philosophers or theologians exerted as much influence on the shape of medieval thought as Thomas Aquinas. He ranks amongst the most famous of the Western philosophers and was responsible for almost single-handedly bringing the philosophy of Aristotle into harmony with Christianity. He was also one of the first … Continued
By Laura Engelstein (NHC Fellow, 1997–98) Of the many sects that broke from the official Russian Orthodox church in the eighteenth century, one was universally despised. Its members were peasants from the Russian heartland skilled in the arts of animal husbandry who turned their knives on themselves to become "eunuchs for the kingdom of heaven's … Continued
Edited by Harlan R. Beckley (NHC Fellow, 1995–96) During the first half of the twentieth century, John A. Ryan developed and promoted moral arguments for reforming the economy of the United States. He was an advocate of minimum wage legislation and child labor restrictions, and he was very much involved in Franklin D. Roosevelt's New … Continued
By Rachel Fulton (NHC Fellow, 1998–99) Devotion to the crucified Christ is one of the most familiar, yet most disconcerting artifacts of medieval European civilization. How and why did the images of the dying God-man and his grieving mother achieve such prominence, inspiring unparalleled religious creativity as well such imitative extremes as celibacy and self-flagellation? … Continued
By Gianna Pomata (NHC Fellow, 2003–04)
By Gastón Espinosa (NHC Fellow, 2011–12) Every year an estimated 600,000 U.S. Latinos convert from Catholicism to Protestantism. Today, 12.5 million Latinos self-identify as Protestant—a population larger than all U.S. Jews and Muslims combined. Spearheading this spiritual transformation is the Pentecostal movement and Assemblies of God, which is the destination for one out of four … Continued