Franciscans:

Founded in 1209 by Francis of Assisi; adheres to the teachings and spiritual disciplines of the founder and in particular the original Rule of Saint Francis; Pope Innocent III approved the new order & the Rule which disallowed ownership of property, required members to beg for food while preaching.  The austerity was meant to emulate the life & ministry of Christ.  Franciscans traveled and preached in the streets, while boarding in church properties.

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Dominicans:

Founded by the Spanish priest Dominic of Caleruega in France who saw the need for a new type of monastic order, to address the issues of his day, specifically bringing the Word of God to the growing urban population; it needed more flexibility than the older isolated orders or the clergy.  Approved by Pope Honorius III 1216; founded to preach the Gospel & oppose heresy; the teaching activity of the order and its scholastic organisation placed their preachers in the forefront of the intellectual life of the Middle Ages and it became famed for its intellectual tradition.

 

Dante:

(1265 – 1321)  Italian poet of the Late Middle Ages famous for his Divine Comedy, widely considered the greatest literary work composed in the Italian language and a masterpiece of world literature. He played a major role in establishing the national language of Italy through his use of the vernacular (Italian in this case) rather than Latin and set a precedent that Petrarch and Boccaccio would follow. His depictions of Hell, Purgatory & Heaven provided inspiration for a large body of Western art and influenced John Milton, Geoffrey Chaucer & Alfred Tennyson.

 

Thomas Aquinas: 

(1225-1274) Italian Dominican friar, priest & Doctor of the Church; influential philosopher, theologian & jurist in the scholastic tradition; classical proponent of natural theology & father of Thomism (reason is found in God).  Massive influence on Western thought, much of modern philosophy is a reaction to his ideas (in ethics, natural law, metaphysics & political theory).  Unlike many in the 13th century Church he embraced Aristotle & tried to synthesis Aristotle & Christianity; best known works are the Summa Theologiae and the Summa contra Gentiles.

 

Lessing:

(1729- 1781) German writer, philosopher, dramatist, publicist & art critic, major figure in the German Enlightenment; his plays & theoretical writings influenced development of German literature.  Tried to set up a German National Theatre in Hamburg; his works are a prototype for later bourgeois German drama; most influential play, Nathan the Wise, reflects tension between Judaism, Islam & Christianity, implies no specific religion is the "correct religion", religion is relative to the individual's ability to reason & believed that human reason (initiated by criticism & dissent) would develop, even without help from divine revelation.

 

14th century mystics:

a late medieval Christian mystical movement prominent within the Dominican order & in Germany; represented by Meister Eckhart, Johannes Tauler, and Henry Suso.  Stands in stark contrast with scholasticism and German theology, often viewed as a predecessor to the Reformation.  It employed an approachable vernacular (not Latin), increased focus on the laity, it emphasized instruction with focus on Christ rather than the sacramental Church, downplayed asceticism and promoted the New Testament rather than the Old.

 

Ibsen:

(1828-1906) Norwegian playwright, theatre director & poet, the father of realism, a founder of Modernism in theatre, possibly most important playwright since Shakespeare (nominated for Noble Prize 3 times).  Major works include Brand, Peer Gynt, An Enemy of the People, Emperor and Galilean, A Doll's House (currently the world's most performed play).  A social critic, several of his later dramas considered scandalous; he examined the realities behind many facades, disquieting to many contemporaries. His poetic and cinematic early play Peer Gynt had strong surreal elements.

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Emperor and Galilean:

play (1873) by Ibsen, set in the years from 351 to 363 A.D, a time of conflict between Christianity &Hellenism. At the opening of the play the protagonist & future emperor Julian is 19 years old, with his step-brother Gallos, the heir to the throne.  Julian has high ideals but his desire to promote freedom of religion for Christians and pagans goes horribly wrong.

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Gnostic world conception:

postulates a dualism between God (spirit) and the world (material), 2 divine forces, one of the two principles being inferior to the other; between the struggle of these forces the world moves.  When this dualism is projected over time, we see the creation first of a material & sinful world, which exists only to be destroyed & the emergence of a post-apocalyptic, spiritually perfect world.  

 

Maximus:

a character from Ibsen’s drama, Emperor and Galilean, an Ephesus mystic, proclaims to the protagonist the vision of the "third kingdom", based on both Christian ethics & heathen wisdom and joy in life.  Maximus brings about a "symposium of the spirits" where he conjures up the 3 men who have changed history without knowing they were tools for the "will of the world".  The first two are Cain and Judas Iscariot, but the third one does not appear, and Maximus realizes that either Julian or he himself must be the one to play this part.

 

Stockholm address of 1887:

Ibsen, the speaker, makes reference to the Third Kingdom, the need to end social injustice especially aimed against the working class.  That the future had to be marked by such a new synthesis, a community of noble, harmonious development and freedom, producing a society in which no person can oppress another, this future had to be reached by a revolution in the spirit and an internal rebirth.