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So I was asked to give an introduction to medieval theology, which is sort of like preparing

a multi-course tasting menu of a bunch of different plates

instead of just like cooking an enormous steak that you're going to eat for the next 45 minutes.

So my hope is that we can, if you have questions or if you want to explore particular ideas

or particular thinkers, that we can do that in the Q&A or maybe a little afterwards if there's

something that you want to dive into more extensively.

So tonight I'm going to begin by defining what theology is and then give some brief historical

background on the Middle Ages with apologies to at least the one card-carrying medieval historian among you.

And some sort of historical developments that account for why theology developed in the way that it did.

And then we'll explore the three types of medieval theology, monastic, scholastic, and vernacular, and we'll use examples that

pertain to the Eucharist, and especially ways in which the Trinity and the incarnation structure

what happens in the Eucharist. Now, you have a handout which has some of the longer quotations

I'm going to use, and I have an extremely modest PowerPoint that has a few pretty images

in case you need to kind of zone out and look at something

other than pictures of your own campus.

So, we'll start with this, which is one of my favorite things

to kind of illustrate the principle I'm going to talk about.

This is from a 12th century stained glass window in the Cathedral of Chartre in France.

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