Prof. Bruce Marshall Opens Byzantine Lecture Series to Packed House
On Thursday, September 15, the Medieval Institute was pleased to host Professor Bruce Marshall as the first lecturer in the 2019-2020 Byzantine Lecture series. Marshall, an expert in systematic theology, delivered an engaging and thorough talk entitled “Fighting Words? Palamas, Aquinas, and the Filioque" to a record audience of over 90 people.
Marshall began with a systematic introduction to the Filioque controversy followed by a comparative analysis of the approaches of Gregory Palamas and Thomas Aquinas to the doctrine of the Filioque. Finally, Marshall disputed the approach taken by some scholars to minimize the theological import for the arguments against the Filioque in the eastern church. In addition to his scholarly work, Marshall is active in ecumenical dialogue, which enabled him to offer a broad range of perspectives on this history of the Filioque controversy.
The Byzantine Series underscores the Medieval Institute’s emergence as a premier center for the study of Byzantine Studies. According to Fr. Khaled Anotolios, who organized the lecture and introduced Marshall, “This lecture exemplified the unique breadth of scope that characterizes the University of Notre Dame's Medieval Institute, especially with regard to its attentiveness to both Byzantine and Western medieval studies and its concern for the contemporary legacy of East–West medieval conversations. Professor Marshall analyzed some of the primary witnesses to medieval East–West debates on the procession of the Spirit with a view to the constructive applications of these debates to current ecumencial dialogue between Eastern and Western Christians.”
Be sure to check out our events feed for notices of upcoming lectures in the Byzantine Series.
Bruce D. Marshall is Lehman Professor of Christian Doctrine at the Perkins School of Theology, Southern Methodist University. He grew up in Michigan, West Virginia, and Wisconsin, receiving his B.A. from Northwestern University and his M.A.R. and Ph.D. from Yale University. He is the author of Trinity and Truth (Cambridge University Press, 2000) and Christology in Conflict (Blackwell, 1987), and editor of Theology and Dialogue: Essays in Conversation with George Lindbeck (University of Notre Dame Press, 1990). A historical and systematic theologian, Marshall’s work focuses on the doctrines of the Trinity, the incarnation, and the Eucharist, the relationship between faith and reason, and the significance of the Jewish people and Judaism for Christian faith and theology. He works extensively on some of the major theologians of the Middle Ages, especially Thomas Aquinas and John Duns Scotus.