Hey everyone,

Next Wed. we will meet for the final PA meeting for 2013 when we will go over Chapter 12: A Church for All People? (1100 – 1300).

As we discussed last week in our meeting, please select and choose one topic to write on and let everyone know before the end of the week what topic you will be writing on.

This way, we can avoid having multiple writings on the same topic.

Bellini, Giovanni – “St. Francis in the Desert” c. 1480, The Frick Museum, NYC

So here are the topics:

1. The rise of the university system in Europe (Bologna, Italy and Paris in particular), its Muslim influence, and the rise of scholasticism
2. The influence of the Dominican Order
3. The influence of Francis of Assisi and the Franciscan Order – especially the prominent role they played in Catholic inquisitions against heretics and enemies of the Church; and or the establishment of Catholic inquisitions in general
4. The impact of Pope Innocent III who reigned during 1198 – 1216 and the Fourth Lateran Council of 1215.  Write about that Council’s doctrines on “transubstantiation” and the Eucharist
5. The impact that the philosophy of Aristotle had upon the medieval Church from the 4th Lateran Council to the time of Thomas Aquinas
6. How in the 13th century there was a shift and flowering of “a distinctively devotional pattern which concentrated on God as person, actively intervening in his creation,…”; write about the changing views of Mary and Christ, in literature (Meditations on the Life of Christ), in art (Giotto, the Pieta, Jesus as “The Man of Sorrows”)
7. The growing Church sanctioned persecution of Jews throughout Europe during this time
8. The rise of mysticism that began in the 14th century: The Cloud of Unknowing, Meister Eckhart, female mystics who had visions of Christ

Boticelli, Sandro – St. Thomas Aquinas, 15th cent.

Responses will be posted on Wed., 12/18.