Clare of Assisi and Female Expressions of Franciscan Spirituality and Theology course
Francis of Assisi dominates our understanding of Christian spirituality emerging from the Middle Ages. Perhaps rightly so. But the voices of women within his movement are often reduced and, when mentioned at all, they are often placed into the mould of Francis himself.
This course looks at the voices of medieval Franciscan female theologians in their own words and on their own terms.
We will focus particularly on Clare of Assisi, her struggle to live a life of poverty she thought appropriate, and the theology she developed in her four letters to Agnes of Prague, observing the religious and cultural context which impacted her theological claims.
We will then look briefly at three other examples of major female contributors to the religious, theological and cultural landscapes of the later Middle Ages from the Franciscan traditions: Isabelle of France, Angela of Foligno, and Camilla Batista da Varano.
Isabelle was an important founder of an order of Franciscan nuns, alternative to that found by Clare and (although largely unheard of today) much more popular than Clare’s form of Franciscan life until the 15th century.
Angela and Camilla were both radical theologians who took up and developed many of the important theological ideas of their day and shaped theologies based on the ideas of Francis (and in Camilla’s case, Clare) but that also were innovative in their own right.
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Dr Michael Hahn is also leading a study week on Hildegard de Bingen’s Scivias, 12 to 15 May 2025 which is open to all (join as an auditor) and part of the MA in Christian Spirituality at Sarum College
Read Dr Hahn’s review of the British Library’s exhibition, Medieval Women In Their Own Words
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