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IMC 2020: Sessions

Session 347: Pastoral Power from Augustine to Louis the Pious

Monday 6 July 2020, 16.30-18.00

Organiser:Jennifer Awes Freeman, Department of Art History University of Minnesota
Moderator/Chair:Andrew Romig, Gallatin School of Individualized Study, New York University
Paper 347-aPracticing Augustinisme Politique: The Afterlife of Augustine's Anti-Donatist Realpolitik
(Language: English)
Sean Hannan, Department of Humanities, MacEwan University, Alberta
Index terms: Political Thought, Theology
Paper 347-bGregory the Great and the Performance of Caritas
(Language: English)
Jonathan Teubner, Institute for Religion & Critical Inquiry Australian Catholic University Victoria
Index terms: Politics and Diplomacy, Social History, Theology
Paper 347-cShepherd and Lawgiver: Political Theology in the Carolingian Era
(Language: English)
Jennifer Awes Freeman, Department of Art History University of Minnesota
Index terms: Art History - General, Political Thought, Theology
Abstract

This panel proposes to probe the boundaries between imperial and pastoral power in the early medieval Latin West. All three papers contest readings of long-held views about the symbols and meanings of pastoral power. Through a reading of Augustine of Hippo's Epistle 93, the first paper highlights the connection between Augustine's discourse of caritas and his performance of social and political control. The second paper turns to reflect on Gregory's Liber regulae pastoralis II and select letters that reveal a similar connection between the discourse of caritas and its performance. By drawing on a range of Carolingian imagery and poetry, the third paper will offer insights into how images of pastoral power migrated from their association with bishops and priests to imperial rhetoric.