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Course begins January 15, 2025
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Live sessions with the instructor every week
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Sessions from 1:00 - 2:30pm Eastern U.S. Time
Week 1
Relics Before Relics: Sacred Objects in Ancient Judaism and Greco-Roman Paganism
From the bones of heroes to the Ark of the Covenant, this module examines sacred objects in pre-Christian traditions, kicking off a course-long discussion of what it meant for an object to be sacred or holy. Students will become familiar with the different powers and divine origins associated with such objects in these traditions.
Week 2
"Bones and Skulls of Criminals"?: The Late Antique Discourse on Relics
The cult of relics that grew out of the veneration of martyrs was not uncontroversial. Not only did it contravene ancient taboos on the treatment of corpses, but it also agitated Christian fears of idolatry and syncretism. This module examines pagan and Christian works on relic veneration and the early formation of a doctrine of relics.
Week 3
A World of Miracles
Miracles are integral to the Christian tradition of relics. This module will examine early medieval miracle stories to gain a sense of the ways relics were believed to function both supernaturally and socially. We will also discuss the phenomenon of miracle itself and the ways modern readers can approach these "impossible" but seemingly ubiquitous events.
Week 4
Inventio: Discovering Relics
Relics, like treasure chests, could be sought out and found if one knew where to look. This module examines the phenomenon of inventio and the ways the propitious unearthing of relics could shape political and religious fortunes in the Middle Ages.
Week 5
Translatio: Moving the Saints
Whether through trade, theft, or plunder, relics were regularly moved and dispersed. This module examines the various reasons a relic might change hands and the issues that came along with this exchange, such as preserving the object's physical integrity and gleaning the will of the saint him/herself. Readings will include interesting instances of relic theft and its justification.
Week 6
Criticizing Relics
In the later Middle Ages, the growing trade in relics and wider intellectual currents revived old concerns about the veneration of objects. Whereas some thinkers preserved an honored place for relic veneration, the nascent Protestant movement would reject it as a corrupting influence on the Christian tradition.
Meet Your Instructor
Kent Navalesi
Kent Navalesi is a historian of religion in Late Antiquity specializing in the cult of the saints in post-Roman Gaul. He received his PhD in History from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in 2020 and was most recently a Postdoctoral Scholar at the University of Kentucky's Lewis Honors College. He has taught several courses on premodern history and enjoys introducing students to the foreign but fascinating worldviews of the premodern world. Kent is currently working on a monograph, The Prose Lives of Venantius Fortunatus: Hagiography and the Laity in Sixth-Century Gaul, which examines the ways stories of episcopal and monastic saints contributed to the construction of particularly lay styles of piety.