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Personal History

Although born in Britain, I received my later secondary education and did my initial university studies in history (BA and MA) in Auckland, New Zealand. Subsequently, I did doctoral study at the University of Oxford, UK , followed by five years (1980-1985) teaching British civilisation at the Universite de Paris III, while pursuing my own studies in medieval thought (focusing on Peter Abelard) in connection with Jean Jolivet, at the Ecole pratique des hautes etudes en sciences religieuses. This was followed as two years as a Leverhulme research fellow at the University of Sheffield, UK , working with Prof. David Luscombe, on editing the writings of Peter Abelard.

I came to Australia in July 1987, when I took up a position at Monash University as Lecturer in the Dept of History. Since then I have become involved in developing the Centre for Studies in Religion and Theology and in promoting studies in religion more generally, with a strong interest in interfaith work. I have had spells of study at the Institute for Advanced Study, Princeton, in 1990 and 2000, and have also taught in Paris, at the Ecole pratique des hautes etudes (Ve section) and in the Ecole des hautes etudes en sciences sociales.

Current Research

I am currently pursuing a range of research projects in relation to the interreligious and intellectual history of medieval Europe:

a) scholastic thought and culture in twelfth-century Europe, with particular reference to contemporaries of Abelard and Heloise
b) music theory, science and philosophy in thirteenth-century Paris (collaborative project on Johannes de Grocheio and Gui of St-Denis)
c) medieval virtue ethics and the creation of the feminine subject (collaborative project relating to writings addressed to women between 13th and 15th centuries)
d) the translation of the relics of Thomas Aquinas from Italy to France in the fourteenth century and its liturgical commemoration in the Dominican order (collaborative project)
e) common ground between Christian and Islamic theories of financial ethics

Major Publications

---- Intellect et imagination dans la Philosophie Medievale. Intellect and Imagination in Medieval Philosophy, Faith as Existimatio rerum non apparentium: intellect, imagination and faith in the Philosophy of Peter Abelaard (Turnhout, Belgium: Brepols, 2006), 915-926.
---- Anselm and Abelard: investigations and juxtapositions, St Anselm and the development of philosophical theology in twelfth-century Paris (Toronto Canada: Pontifical Institute for Mediaeval Studies, 2006), 196-226.
---- Abelard and Heloise, Great Medieval Thinkers (New York: Oxford University Press, 2005).
---- 'The Council of Sens (1141): Bernard, Abelard and the Fear of Social Upheaval', Speculum 77.2 (2002), 342-82.
---- 'Interpreting Abelard And Heloise in The Fourteenth And Early Fifteenth Centuries: The Criticisms of Christine de Pizan and Jean Gerson', in Chemins de la pensée médiévale. Études offertes à Zénon Kaluza, ed. Paul J.J.M. Bakker, Emmanuel Faye and Christophe Grellard, Textes et Études du Moyen Âge, 20 (Turnhout: Brepols, 2002), pp. 709-724
---- 'Hugh Metel, Heloise and Peter Abelard: the Letters of an Augustinian Canon and the Challenge of Innovation in Twelfth-century Lorraine' in Viator 32 (2001), 59-91.
---- (ed.), Listen Daughter: the Speculum Virginum and the Formation of Religious Women in the Middle Ages (New York: Palgrave, 2001).
---- The Lost Love Letters of Heloise and Abelard: Perceptions of Dialogue in Twelfth-Century France (New York: Palgrave, 1999).
---- 'St Anselm and Roscelin: Some New Texts and their Implications II. An Essay on the Trinity and Intellectual Debate 1080-1120', Archives d'histoire doctrinale et littéraire du moyen âge 65 (1998), pp. 39-90.
---- Peter Abelard, Authors of the Middle Ages, Vol. II, no. 5 (London, Variorum 1995).
---- 'Philosophy and Theology 1100-1150: The Search for Harmony', in Françoise Gasparri (ed.), Le XIIe siècle: Mutations et renouveau en France dans la première moitié du XIIe siècle, Cahiers du Léopard d'Or (Paris: Léopard d'Or, 1994), pp. 159-203.
---- Constant J. Mews & Eligius-Marie Buytaert (eds.), Petri Abaelardi Opera Theologica II, Corpus Christianorum Continuatio Mediaevalis 13, (Turnhout: Brepols, 1987) 613pp.
---- 'On Dating the Works of Peter Abelard', Archives d'histoire doctrinale et littéraire du moyen âge 52 (1985); 73-134.

Book Chapters
'Abelard and Heloise on Jews and hebraica vertias', Christian attitudes towards the Jews in the Middle Ages, Routledge London, 2007, pp. 83-108.
'Scholastic Theology in a Monastic Milieu in the Twelfth Century: the case of Admont', Manuscripts and the Monastic Culture, Brepols Belgium, 2007, pp. 217-239.

Refereed Journal Articles
'Cicero and the boundaries of friendship in the twelfth century', Viator, Brepols Belgium, 2007, pp. 369-384.
'Usury and just compensation: Religious and financial ethics in historical perspective', Journal of Business Ethics, Springer Netherlands, 2007, pp. 1-15.
'Le Liber pancrisis, un florileges des peres et des maitres moderns du Xlle siecle', Archivum latinitatis medii aevi, Libraire Droz Geneva, 2007, pp. 145-191.
'Negotiating the boundaries of gender in religous life: Robert of Arbrissel and Hersende, Abelard and Heloise', Viator, Brepols, 2006, pp. 113-148.

Areas of Research & Supervision

I have a wide range of research interests and potential areas of supervision: history of ideas (ancient, medieval to early modern); religious thought and practice (medieval Europe in particular, but also of modern world); medieval studies more generally relating to France and England; gender, religion and society.

Teaching

HSY1010 - Medieval Europe
HSY2/3640 - Christians, Jews and Muslims in the Age of the Crusades
HSY4260 - Medieval Dialogues: Mysticism, Reason and Society
RLT2/3470 - The Religious Quest: Judaism, Christianity and Islam
RLT4040 - Islamic thought
RLT4060 - Medieval Women and their World: Constructing Identities