Notebook
Essay: Augustine and the Manichees
Wednesday 14 January 2009 #
- How significant a force was Manichaeism in the Roman empire during Augustine’s lifetime? How dangerous a challenge did it present to orthodox Christianity? How much did it share with Christianity?
- How fair a picture of Manichaean teachings does Augustine give in the Confessions? How immediate a concern was Manichaeism when he was writing the Confessions?
- Paper:
- Conversion of St Augustine
- Due:
23 January 2009Complete!
Essay: Religious conflict and the Altar of Victory
Friday 28 November 2008 #
- What was the Altar of Victory debate really about? What exactly happened, 382–4?
- Were the issues specific to Rome or did they affect the whole empire?
- What similarities and differences are there in the arguments made by Symmachus and Ambrose? How do they relate to broader Christian–pagan dialogue?
- How accurate is it to see the period 382–402 as the ‘end of paganism’?
- How was ‘Christianization’ achieved? How effective were the laws against paganism?
- Paper:
- Conversion of St Augustine
- Due:
5 December 2008Complete!
Essay: Asceticism in Action
Friday 21 November 2008 #
- Why is sexuality so central to Augustine’s views about Christian commitment?
- How much do his views have in common with Jerome’s?
- How typical were they of elite Christians, of Christians in general, and of late antique culture?
- Paper:
- Conversion of St Augustine
- Due:
28 November 2008Complete!
Essay: Latin cases in Romance
Tuesday 18 November 2008 #
How much of the Latin case-system has survived into Romance?
- Paper:
- Romance Philology
- Due:
2 December 2008Complete!
Essay: The Conversions of Augustine
Friday 14 November 2008 #
- How did Augustine’s religious and philosophical position develop during the period between his student years and the writing of the Confessions?
- How straightforward an account of this development does he provide in his Confessions?
- How typical is Augustine’s experience likely to have been?
- Paper:
- Conversion of St Augustine
- Due:
21 November 2008Complete!
Essay: Reading the ‘Confessions’
Friday 7 November 2008 #
- What kind of book is the Confessions? When and why did Augustine write it?
- For what sort of readership was it intended? How would contemporary readers have reacted?
- What significant points of similarity and difference do you find between the Confessions and the other Christian works from this period, and with other ancient texts that you have read? How closely does Augustine continue to write within a ‘classical’ tradition?
- Paper:
- Conversion of St Augustine
- Due:
14 November 2008Complete!
Essay: Lexical continuity between Latin and Romance
Tuesday 4 November 2008 #
How much lexical continuity is there between Latin and Romance? How can continuity and change be explained?
- Paper:
- Romance Philology
- Due:
18 November 2008Complete!
Essay: Euripides’ ‘Phoenissae’ and Racine’s ‘Frères Ennemis’
Friday 24 October 2008 #
How do these plays engage with the psychopathology of political ambition?
- Paper:
- Ancient & French Classical Tragedy
- Due:
31 October 2008Complete!
Essay: Origins of the Romance languages
Tuesday 21 October 2008 #
When did the Romance languages begin?
- Paper:
- Romance Philology
- Due:
4 November 2008Complete!
Essay: Euripides’ ‘Andromache’ and Racine’s ‘Andromaque’
Friday 17 October 2008 #
When we contrast the structural coherence of the Andromaque with the very different form of the Andromache, do we see the difference between a great play and a poor one?
- Paper:
- Ancient & French Classical Tragedy
- Due:
24 October 2008Complete!
