Conference will examine medieval views about
the divine incarnation

Christian theologians and philosophers have long struggled with the mystery of divine incarnation -- that is, how the messiah Jesus Christ could be both a man and "God made flesh." During the High Middle Ages, when some of the world's greatest cathedrals were built, theologians developed a systematic philosophy concerning the incarnation by asking questions about Christ's human nature, his sensual desires, spiritual union in the body of Christ and the inevitability of the incarnation.

The questions posed by these medieval theologians will be examined once again at an international colloquium titled "Medieval Perspectives on the Incarnation," which will be held on campus Thursday and Friday, Nov. 5-6. The event is free and open to the public.

"Medieval Perspectives on the Incarnation" will focus on the subject of incarnation in art and theology. Participants will consider depictions of Christ's anatomy in architecture and the rendering of speech in visual representations of the Annunciation. It will also examine the work of some of the world's greatest theologians: Anselm, Aquinas, Bonaventure, Grosseteste and Duns Scotus.

In conjunction with the colloquium, art curator Joanna Weber will lead a tour of Early Italian Art (12th-14th centuries) in the Yale University Art Gallery, 1111 Chapel St., on Thursday at 2 p.m.

The opening session of the two-day conference will be held at 3:30 p.m. in Rm. 208 of the Whitney Humanities Center, 53 Wall St. The session will be chaired by Nicholas Wolterstorff, professor of philosophical theology at the Divinity School (YDS). Susanna Bede Caroselli of Messiah College will present a talk titled "Imaging the Incarnation."

In addition, Stephen F. Brown, director of the Institute of Medieval Philosophy and Theology and professor of theology at Boston College, will deliver the keynote address, "The Unity of Christ according to Henry of Ghent, Godfrey of Fontaines and Giles of Rome." Brown is the editor and co-editor of six volumes of "Opera Omnia" of William of Ockham and has written numerous articles on Ockham's sources and critics, on analogy and "univocity" and on the nature of theology in the Middle Ages.

The Friday sessions will be held in the RSV Room of the Yale Divinity School, 409 Prospect St. Speakers will include Marilyn Adams, Walter Cahn, Peter Hawkins, Rega Wood and Thomas McKenna from Yale; and John Inglis (University of Dayton), R. James Long (Fairfield University) and Edith Sylla (North Carolina State University).

This interdisciplinary colloquium is sponsored by the departments of medieval studies and religious studies and the Divinity School. The conference was organized by Rega Wood, adjunct professor at YDS and senior research scholar in the philosophy department. She is also general editor of the works of Richard Rufus of Cornwall.