PhD Courses in Denmark

Date and time: 10 October 2025 from 15:00 to 19:00

Participation in this PhD-course entails doing the suggested readings (all online accessible through KB) and attending the seminar. PhD students are further invited to join the dinner after the seminar at one’s own expense. Register for the dinner by writing to pbh@teol.ku.dk 3 October 2025 at the latest.

Course description

In the scholastic era and later Middle Ages, theological questions about the nature of the invisible presence of Christ in the consecrated host and on how the sensible and material factors in the Eucharist mediates this presence witnessed a big growth, and so did the artistic interpretations that accompanied and surrounded the Eucharist, attempting to communicate its special content and role. This one-day seminar dives into the interdisciplinary field between Art History and Theology by investigating notions of truth and mediality in material and textual interpretations of the Eucharistic sacrament in the scholastic era and later Middle Ages. The seminar engages two researchers on the field for presentations and discussion.

Heike Schlie, Universität Salzburg
The avant-garde role of Art in Exegesis: Eucharistic Typology in the Middle Ages

The typology of the Old and New Testaments was an important subject of exegesis in the Christian Middle Ages, serving to highlight the coherence of God's plan of salvation. Systematic catalogs of classifications were developed, such as those compiled in the Biblia Pauperum in the late Middle Ages. In the High Middle Ages, however, the first comprehensive systematic typologies were of an Eucharistic nature, because there was a great need to prove the predestination of the sacrament of the altar in the plan of salvation. The fact that many of these typologies were developed not only in writing but also in the medium of the material image is particularly evident in its implementation in the Eucharistic or sacramental context. We encounter this typology in hymns, but above all on Eucharistic vessels and altarpieces. The prefigurations of the Old Testament are already genuine images (figura, umbra) of things to come, which are iconically elaborated in art using specific pictorial strategies. By these images, the Old Testament prefigurations are not only related to their New Testament antitypes, but above all to the medieval liturgy, which is thus - from the Christian perspective - compellingly anchored in the plan of salvation.

Suggested readings:
Bruno Reudenbach, ”Salvation History, Typology, and the End of Time in the Biblia Pauperum” in Eva Frojmovic, ed., Visualising the Middle Ages, Leiden, 2015, pp. 217-232

Ueli Zahnd, Université de Genève
A Very Late Medieval View on the Eucharist: John Mair (1467-1550) on Truth and Mediality

The Scottish theologian John Mair was one of these scholastics of the ending Middle Ages who attempted to creatively combine their own solutions to theological issues with the numerous responses offered by the rich scholastic tradition. His works (which he mostly published in the form of commentaries) provide thus a helpful starting point for the study of Late Medieval theology. Focusing in particular on the question of the veneration of the host – is Christ really present in the host in a way that obliges believers to adore it? – my contribution will examine both Mair's commentary on Peter Lombard's Sentences (1509/1521) and on the Gospel of Matthew and John (1518/1529).

Suggested readings:
Stephen E. Lahey, "Late Medieval Eucharistic Theology", in Ian C. Levy, Gary Macy and Kristen van Ausdall (eds.), A Companion to the Eucharist in the Middle Ages, Leiden 2012, pp. 499-539

Ueli Zahnd, "Terms, Signs, Sacraments: The Correlation between Logic and Theology and the Philosophical Context of Book IV of Mair’s Sentences Commentary", in John T. Slotemaker and Jeffrey C. Witt (eds.), A Companion to the Theology of John Mair, Leiden 2015, pp. 241-287.

Target group: PhD students of humanities and theology

Course organiser:
Peter Buch Hvarregaard, PhD Fellow, Church History Section, Faculty of Theology, Faculty of Theology, University of Copenhagen
Florian Wöller, Associate Professor, Church History Section, Faculty of Theology, Faculty of Theology, University of Copenhagen

Programme:
15.00 Welcome
15.15 Presentation by Heike Schlie, Universität Salzburg
16.00 Response by Laura Katrine Skinnebach, Aarhus University, and questions
16.30 Coffee and cake
17.00 Presentation by Ueli Zahnd, Université de Genève
17.45 Response by Gustav Graeser Damgaard, University of Copenhagen, and questions
18.15 Discussion and final remarks
19.00 Dinner reservation

Language: English

ECTS: 0.7 ECTS

Registration: Please register via the link in the box no later than 3 October 2025.

Further information: For more information about the PhD course, please contact the PhD Administration (phd@hrsc.ku.dk).

Literature:
Stephen E. Lahey, "Late Medieval Eucharistic Theology", in Ian C. Levy, Gary Macy and Kristen van Ausdall (eds.), A Companion to the Eucharist in the Middle Ages, Leiden 2012, pp. 499-539

Ueli Zahnd, "Terms, Signs, Sacraments: The Correlation between Logic and Theology and the Philosophical Context of Book IV of Mair’s Sentences Commentary", in John T. Slotemaker and Jeffrey C. Witt (eds.), A Companion to the Theology of John Mair, Leiden 2015, pp. 241-287.

Bruno Reudenbach, ”Salvation History, Typology, and the End of Time in the Biblia Pauperum”, in Eva Frojmovic (ed.), Visualising the Middle Ages, Leiden, 2015, pp. 217-232.