Department of German and Russian

Languages and Literatures

University of Notre Dame

Notre Dame, Indiana 46556

 

HOLY FOOLISHNESS IN CHRISTIAN RELIGIOUS AND CULTURAL TRADITIONS

RU 360Sec.01 (3.0Credit Hours)

Cross-listed As: MI 350,THEO 324A, ANTH 360K

Fall 2004

O`Shaughnessy 116

M W F 10:40-11:30

 

Professor Svetlana Kobets

Office: 302 Decio Hall

Office Hours: M 11:40-12:40,3:00-4:00, W 3:00-4:00

574-631‑7188

 

 

Can a saint be subversive? Why were Jewish prophets despised? Can folly be saintly? This course will approach these riddles through the analysis of a variety of texts ranging from the Old and New Testament books to hagiographies, literary works and philosophical treatises. Holy foolishness, or foolishness for Christ`s sake, a peculiar form of Christian asceticism, will be at the focus of our attention. We will examine different types of holy foolishness in Early, Eastern and Western Christianity to establish their cultural bearings. Concepts under discussion will include asceticism; sanctity; heresy; canonization; hagiography. Among the course readings will be the First Epistle of the Apostle Paul to the Corinthians; Early Christian Paterika; individual vitae of Byzantine holy fools (St. Simeon of Emesa, St. Andrew of Constantinople); controversial Lives of Christian saints (Life of Alexis the Man of God); Lives of Eastern Orthodox Saints (Kiev Cave Monks; St. Basil the Fool of Moscow); Lives of Western Christian Saints (St. Francis of Assisi); Russian literary pieces and elaborations on the subject of folly found in such works as "In Praise of Folly" by Erasmus of Rotterdam and "Madness and Civilization" by Michael Foucault.

 

 

 

 

The Desert Fathers: Sayings of the Early Christian Monks (Penguin Classics) by Benedicta Ward.

 

 

Little Fool by Svetlana Vasilenko.

 

 

Thomas of Celano`s First Life of St. Francis of Assisi.

 

 

Desiderius Erasmus, In Praise of Folly.

 

 

 

Excerpts from the Life of Antony by Athanasius: Part 1, Part 2

 

Holy Fools in Christian Traditions

 

1. Diogenes Laertius: The Life of Diogenes of Sinope

2. The Epistles of Diogenes

3. Kallistos Ware, "The Way of the Ascetics: Negative of Affirmative?" and "Asceticism in Late Ancient Christianity" from: E. Clark, Reading the Renunciation

4. Peter Brown, "The Rise and Function of the Holy Man in Late Antiquity"

5. Palladius, "The Nun Who Feigned Madness"

6. Palladius, "Sarapion Sindonites"

7. Leontius, "Life of Simeon the Holy Fool"

8. The Life of St. Andrew the Fool (fragments)

9. The Kiev-Cave Paterik: The Life of St. Feodosii

10. The Kiev-Cave Paterik: The Life of St. Isaakii

11. Life of St. Prokopii of Ustiug

12. Life of St. Nikola Kochanov of Novgorod

13. Life of St. Fedor (Theodore) of Novgorod

14. Life of St. Vasilii (Basil) the Blessed of Moscow

15. Life of St. Nicholas Salos

16. Life of St. Ivan "Big Cap"

17. Life of St. Michael, a fool in Christ

18. The Life of Archpriest Avvakum

19.The Life and Miracles of Blessed Ksenia of St. Petersburg

20. The Life of Feofil, a fool in Christ

21. The Life of Pelagia Ivanovna Serebrenikova

22. "The Holy Fool," from: Leo Tolstoi, Childhood

23. "Grisha," from: Leo Tolstoi, Childhood

24. "On the Eve of the Fete," from: Dostoevsky, The Possessed

25. "Stinking Lizaveta," from: Dostoevsky, The Brothers Karamazov

26. Ivan Turgenev, "A Strange Story"

27. V. A. Kolve, `God-Denying Fools and the Medieval Religion of Love`"

28. "The Great Confinement," from: Michel Foucault, Madness and Civilization