Professor to Deliver Pair of Lectures on Early Christianity and Mysticism
WILLIAMSTOWN, Mass. - Bernard McGinn, the Croghan Bicentennial Visiting Professor in Biblical and Early Christian Studies at Williams College, will give a pair of lectures over the next two weeks focusing on his research on Christian mysticism.The lectures will be held on Tuesday, Oct. 20, and Tuesday, Oct. 27, both at 8 p.m. in Griffin Hall, room 6.
The first lecture is titled "Love: Active, Contemplative, Essential: The Contribution of the Mystics." The second lecture is called "Communicating the Incommunicable: Mystical Ineffability from Origen to Catherine of Siena."
The lectures are free and open to the public.
McGinn, visiting from the University of Chicago Divinity School where he holds the position of Naomi Shenstone Donnelley Professor Emeritus of Historical Theology, is involved in research that focuses on Christian mysticism in the West.
He is completing a five-volume history called "The Presence of God." The four volumes already completed are "The Origins of Mysticism," "The Growth of Mysticism," "The Flowering of Mysticism," and "The Harvest of Mysticism in Medieval Germany."
McGinn has written extensively in the area of mysticism as well as in the domain of the history of apocalyptic thought. He is the author of "The Doctors of the Church: Thirty-three Men and Women who Shaped Christianity" (2009), "The Essential Writings of Christian Mysticism" (2006), and "Antichrist: Two Thousand Years of the Human Fascination with Evil" (2000).
He received his bachelor's degree from St. Joseph's Seminary and College, and his doctorate from Brandeis University. He is currently teaching a religion course at Williams titled "Introduction to Christian Mysticism."
