Lecture explores the relationship between disciplines

 

Robin Kirkpatrick, Professor Emeritus of Italian and English Literature at the University of Cambridge (Robinson College), delivered, on September 29, the university’s Religion and Literature Annual Lecture, “The Pace of Praise: Might Theology Walk Together with Literature?”

As the Visiting Distinguished Professor of Religion and Literature for Fall 2014, Kirkpatrick acknowledged Notre Dame’s steadfast commitment to Religion and Literature,

“Praise will be a central concern with the argument that follows … the common study of Theology is to highly cultivate and promote the language of intelligent praise … [and] is to parallel its reach in performance in prayer and in literature,” he said.

Kirkpatrick, a scholar of Dante and Renaissance literature, provided a “literary, critical eye toward human rather than divine creation” in texts “praised in the past” and likely to be “praised in the future.”

He examined several literary and religious texts for “intelligent praise.”  These texts included but were not limited to Psalm 137, Flannery O’ Connor as quoted from Archbishop Rowan William’s website, Chaucer’s [excerpt] Troilus and Criseyde Book V, and selections from Dante’s Paradiso and Purgatorio.

Particularly renowned for his work in translating Dante’s Commedia, Kirkpatrick explained that this work’s “capacity for theological nuisance even for quite a dancing delight in intellectual invention is entirely consistent of the training of the literary foot.”

Kirkpatrick told the Rover that the Annual Religion and Literature Lecture has a twofold benefit: “[F]irst there is a great deal of extraordinary work being done here already in Theology and literature.  [Second,] literature offers the opportunity to investigate the cultural implications of theological positions.  Theology is alive in the creative act itself—theology introduced to forms of thinking, not argumentative, not just defined by dogmatic ways of thinking.”

When asked how this kind of discussion can advance the Catholic identity of Notre Dame, Kirkpatrick said that is provides “a surety and confidence in their own faith identity without any kind of embarrassment.  It gets rid of a lot of incongruencies and complications that arise in people who turn around their identity … A real engagement and development of a confidence trying it out on things which do not immediately seem to bolster or support that identity.”

Vittorio Montemaggi, Assistant Professor of Religion and Literature, was a student of Kirkpatrick’s at Cambridge.  Montemaggi spoke with the Rover about organizing the lecture and hosting Kirkpatrick on campus this fall: “Professor Kirkpatrick visited Notre Dame before this present visit twice in the last few years, and those visits were wonderful.  From our perspective, it brought together undergraduates and postgraduates and faculty … really interesting conversations came out of those.  In the process of developing Theology and literature here at Notre Dame, the possibility arose of inviting Professor Kirkpatrick to spend a full semester here teaching a course and meeting with students on a more regular basis.

“This particular lecture is organized every year,” he continued.  “The Religion and Literature lecture is organized by the Journal of Religion and Literature, which is here at Notre Dame. But from the beginning, it was our idea that this lecture would be one of the activities that Professor Kirkpatrick would be involved in while here for the semester.”

Kirkpatrick is currently teaching a course for the Literature PhD Program, “Searching Scripture: Literature in a Biblical Light.”  He will also be leading a seminar series on Scripture and Literature.  The first seminar of the series, “Translation, Criticism, and Interpretation,” is scheduled for Monday, October 13, at 4:30 p.m.

Alex Slavsky is a sophomore theology and philosophy major whose long-term aspiration is to be able to levitate above the stratosphere while philosophically discussing the Patristic fathers of the Church. Contact him at aslavsky@nd.edu.