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Seeing the Invisible God:
Image and Icon in Medieval Christian Mysticism
David Albertson
REL 499 (Special Topics)
Fall 2008
Ever since Paul called Jesus the “icon of the invisible God,” the project of seeing the unseen has become a complex problem for Christianity. The Platonic idiom of vision, beauty, and light assumed in early Greek Christianity reappears in medieval mysticism.Yet in both cases Plato’s metaphor is complicated by the insistence that God is beyond visuality.
One way Christian authors dealt with the problems of seeing God was to distinguish image and icon. Some medieval mystical texts make bold use of images. Others advise readers to pursue total darkness of vision, without images. Icons represent a different strategy: through the icon the viewer does not see anything, but rather is seen by an invisible God.
Students will survey some foundational Platonic and Christian texts, examine representatives of the different visual strategies, and finally study their convergence in one of the latest and most intriguingmedieval mystics, Nicholas of Cusa. The course is a discussion-based seminar, allowing students to make regular presentations and to craft their own research project. Specific reading assignments will be announced in the prior class. The midterm exam will take place in the 7th week of the semester. The final project will be due on the last day of class. There will be no final exam.
Required texts:
Course Reader
John of Damascus, Three Treatises on the Divine Images (SVS)
Nicholas of Cusa, Selected Spiritual Writings (Paulist)
Suggested texts:
Moshe Barach, Icon. Studies in the History of an Idea (NYU)
Hans Belting, Likeness and Presence. A History of the Image before the Era of Art (Chicago)
Alain Besançon, The Forbidden Image. An Intellectual History of Iconoclasm (Chicago)
Vladimir Lossky and Leonid Ouspensky, The Meaning of Icons (SVS)
Jeffrey Hamburger, The Visual and the Visionary: Art and Female Spirituality in Late Medieval Germany (Zone)
Assignments:
- Study assigned texts in preparation for intensive group discussion (20% of grade)
- Two presentations on an assigned source (10% each)
- Take-home midterm exam (20%)
- Final project on a topic chosen in consultation with the instructor (40%)
University policies:
Students with disabilities
Any student requesting academic accommodations based on a disability is required to register with Disability Services and Programs (DSP) each semester. A letter of verification for approved accommodations can be obtained from DSP. Please be sure the letter is delivered to me (or to TA) as early in the semester as possible. DSP is located in STU 301 and is open 8:30 a.m.–5:00 p.m., Monday through Friday. The phone number for DSP is (213) 740-0776.
Academic integrity
USC seeks to maintain an optimal learning environment. General principles of academic honesty include the concept of respect for the intellectual property of others, the expectation that individual work will be submitted unless otherwise allowed by an instructor, and the obligations both to protect one’s own academic work from misuse by others as well as to avoid using another’s work as one’s own. All students are expected to understand and abide by these principles. Scampus, the Student Guidebook, contains the Student Conduct Code in Section 11.00, while the recommended sanctions are located in Appendix A: Students will be referred to the Office of Student Judicial Affairs and Community Standards for further review, should there be any suspicion of academic dishonesty. The Review process canbe found at:
Use of course materials
In SCampus 2000-2001 (page 91 under Academic Policies) there is a policy which reads: “Notes or recordings made by students based on a university class or lecture may only be made for purposes of individual or group study, or for other non-commercial purposes.... This restriction also applies to any information distributed, disseminated or in any way displayed for use in relationship to the class, whether obtained in class, via email or otherwise on the Internet, or via any other medium. Actions in violation of this policy constitute a violation of the Student Conduct Code, and may subject an individual or entity to university discipline and/or legal proceedings.”
Class Schedule
I. God and Visuality
Week 1: Plato and Paul
Selections from Republic, Book VI-VII
2 Corinthians
Week 2: Plotinus and Augustine
Selections from EnneadsI.6, V.3, V.5. VI.7
Selections from ConfessionsVII, IX, X
Selections from City of God XXII.29
II. Iconic Visions
Week 3: What are icons?
John of Damascus, Three Treatises on the Divine Images
(Lossky and Ouspensky; Barach)
Week 4: Iconicity and iconoclasm
John of Damascus, Three Treatises on the Divine Images
(Belting; Besançon)
III. Darkness
Week 5: Darkness and silence
Selections from Dionysius, Mystical Theology
Week 6: The hierarchy of lights
Selections from Dionysius, Celestial Hierarchy; Ecclesiastical Hierarchy
Week 7: Two Dionysian Aesthetics
Selections from Bonaventure and Meister Eckhart
(Midterm exam)
IV. Legible Visions
Week 8: Medieval women and images
(Hamburger)
Week 9: Reading visions I
Selections from Hadewijch of Antwerp, Visions
Week 10: Reading visions II
Selections from Julian of Norwich, Showings
V. Image and Icon in Nicholas of Cusa
Week 11: Darkness and images
On Learned Ignorance, Book 1
Week 12: Theophany asmirror
On Seeking God
On the Hidden God
Week 13: Dialectics of the icon I
On the Vision of God
Week 14: Dialectics of the icon II
On the Vision of God