The Reuter Lecture 2015 Event

Origin:: Centre for Medieval and Renaissance Culture

Time:: 18:00
Date:: 2 June 2015
Venue:: Avenue Campus University of Southampton SO17 1BF

For more information regarding this event, please email Tracy Storey at [email protected] .

Event details

This year's lecture will be given by Mary Carruthers, Remarque Professor Emeritus of Literature, New York University, and a fellow of All Souls College, Oxford.

'Terror, horror, and the fear of God'

This lecture will be chaired by Professor Chris Woolgar , Director of the Centre for Medieval and Renaissance Culture and Professor of History and Archival Studies.

This talk explores the history of three closely-related but not equivalent concepts, terribilis (terror), horribilis (horror), and timor Domini (fear of God) as they are used in the Latin Bible and medieval literature. While ‘terror’ denotes an immediate physical response to something utterly alien and unknowable, ‘the fear of God’ is, in Bernard of Clairvaux’s phrase, a ‘friendly terror’, what Job, to his ultimate profit, experiences when God reveals to him a universe that, while very frightening, is wholly measured. Unlike the others, ‘horror’ was an aesthetic term, serving both to characterize a hair-raising experience and a stylistic effect.

This is a free lecture, to attend please book a place via the Online Store , the deadline for booking is 29 May 2015 .

Speaker information

Mary Carruthers ,New York University,Remarque Professor Emeritus of Literature and a fellow of All Souls College, Oxford.