Visions of God in the Middle Ages Topic of EC Lecture

October 13 - 7:30 pm - Cerf Center

Eureka College English professor Jessica Barr will present "Divine, Demonic, or Misunderstood: Visions of God in the Middle Ages" at 7:30 p.m. Oct. 13 in the Cerf Center at Eureka College. A reception will follow.

The free, public presentation will discuss several major poets and visionaries of the later Middle Ages, addressing what a visionary had to do in order for his or her vision to grant knowledge of God and to be considered authentic and legitimate, Barr said.

“Many people claimed to have divinely inspired visions in the Middle Ages; indeed, some of the most beautiful and moving literature that we have from the period professed to come from such revelations,” Barr said. “But what was the actual status of the vision in the Middle Ages? That is, how did medieval people understand the vision to work?”

The lecture will draw from Barr’s forthcoming book “Willing to Know God: Dreamers and Visionaries in the Later Middle Ages,” which is slated for publication by Ohio State University Press in 2010. The book argues that vision literature – both fact and fiction – offers an understanding of the medieval conceptions of knowledge, psychology and the limits of the human mind to perceive and understand the divine.

Barr joined the Eureka College faculty in 2007. She received a bachelor’s degree from Oberlin College, Oberlin, Ohio, and a master’s degree and doctorate, both from Brown University, Providence, R.I.

The presentation is the first of four Clarence R. Noe Dean’s Lectures by Eureka College faculty members this academic year. Others will be "Fifty Years of New Math” by education professor Leonard Savage on Nov. 5; "Uncovering History for the Stories That Matter" by English professor Kathy Whitson on March 2; and “Leadership in the Global Environment: Cross-Cultural Challenges and Perspectives” by communication professor Mike Thurwanger on April 8. All of the lectures will be at 7:30 p.m. in the Cerf Center.

For more information, call (309) 467-6301.

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Contact:

Michele Lehman

Media Relations Coordinator

mlehman@eureka.edu

(309) 467-6318