Bibliography
Thomas
O'Loughlin s. xx–xxi
Works authored
OʼLoughlin, Thomas, Gildas and the Christian scriptures: observing the world through a biblical lens, Leiden, Boston: Brepols, 2013.
abstract:
Gildas is the earliest insular writer who has left us a substantial legacy of theological writing. He is usually, however, not seen as a theological writer but as an historical source for ‘dark age’ Britain at the time of the Germanic invasions in the mid-sixth century. Yet the deacon Gildas saw himself as a prophet charged by God to call the rulers and clergy of his society back to being a chosen people of the covenant. The form this call took was that of an indictment of those groups based on the testimonia of the Christian scriptures. This book is a study both of Gildas’s use of the scriptures (his text, his canon, his exegetical strategies) and of how, from the way he interprets sacred history, he created a distinctive theology of the church and of salvation.
(source: Brepols)
abstract:
Gildas is the earliest insular writer who has left us a substantial legacy of theological writing. He is usually, however, not seen as a theological writer but as an historical source for ‘dark age’ Britain at the time of the Germanic invasions in the mid-sixth century. Yet the deacon Gildas saw himself as a prophet charged by God to call the rulers and clergy of his society back to being a chosen people of the covenant. The form this call took was that of an indictment of those groups based on the testimonia of the Christian scriptures. This book is a study both of Gildas’s use of the scriptures (his text, his canon, his exegetical strategies) and of how, from the way he interprets sacred history, he created a distinctive theology of the church and of salvation.
(source: Brepols)
Works edited
OʼLoughlin, Thomas (ed.), Early medieval exegesis in the Latin West: sources and forms, Variorum Collected Studies Series, 1035, Farnham, Surrey: Ashgate, 2013.
Contents: Preface -- Introduction -- Part 1. Processing the patristic inheritance: ‘Aquae super caelos (Gen 1:6-7): the first faith-science debate? -- The controversy over Methuselah’s death: proto-chronology and the origins of the western concept of inerrancy -- Adam’s burial at Hebron: some aspects of its significance in the Latin tradition -- A woman’s plight and the western fathers. -- Part 2. Developing New Exegetical Strategies: Julian of Toledo’s Antikeimenon and the development of Latin exegesis -- The exegetical purpose of Adomnán’s De locis sanctis -- The symbol gives life: Eucherius of Lyons’ formula for exegesis -- Biblical contradictions in the Periphyseon and the development of Eriugena’s method -- The plan of the New Jerusalem in the Book of Armagh. -- Part 3. Exegesis as a practice: Adam’s rib and the equality of the sexes: some medieval exegesis of Gen 2:21-22 -- The waters above the heavens, Isidore, and the Latin tradition -- Seeking the early medieval view on the Song of Songs -- The gates of Hell: from metaphor to fact -- The mysticism of number in the medieval period before Eriugena -- Individual anonymity and collective identity: the enigma of early medieval Latin theologians -- Indexes.
abstract:
One of the significant developments in scholarship in the latter half of the twentieth century was the awareness among historians of ideas, historians of theology, and medievalists of the importance of the Christian scriptures in the Latin Middle Ages. In contrast to an earlier generation of scholars who considered the medieval period as a ’Bible-free zone’, recent investigations have shown the central role of scripture in literature, art, law, liturgy, and formal religious education. Indeed, to understand the Latin Middle Ages one must understand the value they placed upon the Bible, how they related to it, and how they studied it. However, despite the new emphasis on the Bible’s role and the place of exegesis in medieval thought, our detailed understanding is all too meagre - and generalisations, often imagined as valid for a period of close to a millennium, abound. How the Scriptures were used in one pursuit (formal theology for example relied heavily on ’allegory’) was often very different to the way they were used in another (e.g. in history writing was interested in literal meanings), and exegesis differed over time and with cultures. Similarly, while most medieval writers were agreed that there were several ’senses’ within the text, the number and nature varied greatly as did the strategies for accessing those meanings. This collection of fifteen articles, concentrating on the early Latin middle ages, explores this variety and highlights just how patchy has been our understanding of medieval exegesis. We now may be aware of the importance of the Bible, but the task of studying that phenomenon is in its infancy.
Contents: Preface -- Introduction -- Part 1. Processing the patristic inheritance: ‘Aquae super caelos (Gen 1:6-7): the first faith-science debate? -- The controversy over Methuselah’s death: proto-chronology and the origins of the western concept of inerrancy -- Adam’s burial at Hebron: some aspects of its significance in the Latin tradition -- A woman’s plight and the western fathers. -- Part 2. Developing New Exegetical Strategies: Julian of Toledo’s Antikeimenon and the development of Latin exegesis -- The exegetical purpose of Adomnán’s De locis sanctis -- The symbol gives life: Eucherius of Lyons’ formula for exegesis -- Biblical contradictions in the Periphyseon and the development of Eriugena’s method -- The plan of the New Jerusalem in the Book of Armagh. -- Part 3. Exegesis as a practice: Adam’s rib and the equality of the sexes: some medieval exegesis of Gen 2:21-22 -- The waters above the heavens, Isidore, and the Latin tradition -- Seeking the early medieval view on the Song of Songs -- The gates of Hell: from metaphor to fact -- The mysticism of number in the medieval period before Eriugena -- Individual anonymity and collective identity: the enigma of early medieval Latin theologians -- Indexes.
abstract:
One of the significant developments in scholarship in the latter half of the twentieth century was the awareness among historians of ideas, historians of theology, and medievalists of the importance of the Christian scriptures in the Latin Middle Ages. In contrast to an earlier generation of scholars who considered the medieval period as a ’Bible-free zone’, recent investigations have shown the central role of scripture in literature, art, law, liturgy, and formal religious education. Indeed, to understand the Latin Middle Ages one must understand the value they placed upon the Bible, how they related to it, and how they studied it. However, despite the new emphasis on the Bible’s role and the place of exegesis in medieval thought, our detailed understanding is all too meagre - and generalisations, often imagined as valid for a period of close to a millennium, abound. How the Scriptures were used in one pursuit (formal theology for example relied heavily on ’allegory’) was often very different to the way they were used in another (e.g. in history writing was interested in literal meanings), and exegesis differed over time and with cultures. Similarly, while most medieval writers were agreed that there were several ’senses’ within the text, the number and nature varied greatly as did the strategies for accessing those meanings. This collection of fifteen articles, concentrating on the early Latin middle ages, explores this variety and highlights just how patchy has been our understanding of medieval exegesis. We now may be aware of the importance of the Bible, but the task of studying that phenomenon is in its infancy.
Contributions to journals
OʼLoughlin, Thomas, “Muirchú’s poisoned cup: a note on its sources”, Ériu 56 (2006): 157–162.
abstract:
In his account of events in Tara on Easter Sunday 432, Muirchú has Patrick involved in a miracle, whereby Patrick is unharmed by a poisoned cup of wine. While the ultimate source of this miracle is biblical, it has many variants in the tradition of hagiography. Muirchú knew this tradition and adapted it to his purposes in the Vita Patricii. His usage of this tale of the poisoned cup demonstrates both part of his library and his method of composition. Furthermore, the way that he portrays Patrick's reaction to the attempted poisoning illustrates particular qualities that Muirchú wished to associate with his subject.
abstract:
In his account of events in Tara on Easter Sunday 432, Muirchú has Patrick involved in a miracle, whereby Patrick is unharmed by a poisoned cup of wine. While the ultimate source of this miracle is biblical, it has many variants in the tradition of hagiography. Muirchú knew this tradition and adapted it to his purposes in the Vita Patricii. His usage of this tale of the poisoned cup demonstrates both part of his library and his method of composition. Furthermore, the way that he portrays Patrick's reaction to the attempted poisoning illustrates particular qualities that Muirchú wished to associate with his subject.
OʼLoughlin, Thomas, “Perceiving Palestine in early Christian Ireland: martyrium, exegetical key, relic and liturgical space”, Ériu 54 (2004): 125–137.
abstract:
Adomnán's De locis sanctis provided to its readers in the late seventh century a landscape of Palestine and other eastern Mediterranean lands. This landscape's structure was determined by readers' own expectations of those places based in their religious culture as Latin Christians. The text appears to use four categories in its exploration of what can be seen as particularly significant in those places; as such it is less a portrait of locations in its period of composition, and more a description of an icon.
abstract:
Adomnán's De locis sanctis provided to its readers in the late seventh century a landscape of Palestine and other eastern Mediterranean lands. This landscape's structure was determined by readers' own expectations of those places based in their religious culture as Latin Christians. The text appears to use four categories in its exploration of what can be seen as particularly significant in those places; as such it is less a portrait of locations in its period of composition, and more a description of an icon.
OʼLoughlin, Thomas, “Palestine in the aftermath of the Arab Conquest: the earliest Latin account”, Studies in Church History 36 (2000): 78–89.
abstract:
Written, probably, in the early 680s on lona, Adomnán’s De locis sanctis has excited interest, and been used as a quarry for facts about the Holy Land, ever since. It purports to report the pilgrim experiences of a ‘bishop of the Gaulish race’ (prooemium, I), Arculf, who, when later on Iona, told of what he had seen in Palestine, Alexandria, and Constantinople. Realising his ‘scoop’, Adomnán set the details down in a permanent record. Within twenty years this formed the basis of a more concise account by Bede, who added a few details of his own about Arculf which have become standard elements of the latter’s biography: the pilgrim, returning home, was blown by a gale on to the western shores of Britain, and thence he travelled to Iona where he told his story. However, while Arculf - through either Adomnán’s or Bede’s account - is the focus of attention in scholarship using these works as evidence, Bede recognized the expertise of Adomnán in the work, and did not reduce him to the status of an amanuensis.
abstract:
Written, probably, in the early 680s on lona, Adomnán’s De locis sanctis has excited interest, and been used as a quarry for facts about the Holy Land, ever since. It purports to report the pilgrim experiences of a ‘bishop of the Gaulish race’ (prooemium, I), Arculf, who, when later on Iona, told of what he had seen in Palestine, Alexandria, and Constantinople. Realising his ‘scoop’, Adomnán set the details down in a permanent record. Within twenty years this formed the basis of a more concise account by Bede, who added a few details of his own about Arculf which have become standard elements of the latter’s biography: the pilgrim, returning home, was blown by a gale on to the western shores of Britain, and thence he travelled to Iona where he told his story. However, while Arculf - through either Adomnán’s or Bede’s account - is the focus of attention in scholarship using these works as evidence, Bede recognized the expertise of Adomnán in the work, and did not reduce him to the status of an amanuensis.
Thomas O'Loughlin, “[Review of: Simon Taylor (ed.), Uses of place-names (1998)]”, in: The Innes Review 49 (1998): 186–187.
OʼLoughlin, Thomas, “The view from Iona: Adomnán’s mental maps”, Peritia 10 (1996): 98–122.
abstract:
Adomnán wrote a geographical work. How did he view the world around which he imagined people travelling. This raises questions about the state of contemporary geographical knowledge and whether we can assume that he shares our notions of time and space. In fact, both are different. Here mental maps are used to allow him to tell us about his world rather than about the past of ours. We can use a series to reconstruct this world: (i) a T–O map to explain the actual sequence of movement in De locis sanctis and why Arculf’s arrival in Iona did not raise any questions for him; (ii) a Square–V map of the races of mankind; (iii) a map of circles based on Luke and Acts to explain the division of De locis sanctis into books; (iv) a map of scriptural signs which would explain the temporal inconsistencies in the description of places; and (v) an eschatological map which shows the book beginning at the gates of heaven and ending at the gates of hell.
abstract:
Adomnán wrote a geographical work. How did he view the world around which he imagined people travelling. This raises questions about the state of contemporary geographical knowledge and whether we can assume that he shares our notions of time and space. In fact, both are different. Here mental maps are used to allow him to tell us about his world rather than about the past of ours. We can use a series to reconstruct this world: (i) a T–O map to explain the actual sequence of movement in De locis sanctis and why Arculf’s arrival in Iona did not raise any questions for him; (ii) a Square–V map of the races of mankind; (iii) a map of circles based on Luke and Acts to explain the division of De locis sanctis into books; (iv) a map of scriptural signs which would explain the temporal inconsistencies in the description of places; and (v) an eschatological map which shows the book beginning at the gates of heaven and ending at the gates of hell.
OʼLoughlin, Thomas, “The Latin version of the Scriptures in use in Iona”, Peritia 8 (1994): 18–26.
abstract:
For some time now the consensus has been that Adomnán was drawing on several biblical texts, principally the Vulgate but also the Vetus Latina, and perhaps he had some knowledge of the Septuagint. The argument of the present paper is that his De locis sanctis provides no evidence for the presence of either a text of the Vetus Latin or the Septuagint in the library of Iona in the last quarter of the seventh century.
abstract:
For some time now the consensus has been that Adomnán was drawing on several biblical texts, principally the Vulgate but also the Vetus Latina, and perhaps he had some knowledge of the Septuagint. The argument of the present paper is that his De locis sanctis provides no evidence for the presence of either a text of the Vetus Latin or the Septuagint in the library of Iona in the last quarter of the seventh century.
Contributions to edited collections or authored works
OʼLoughlin, Thomas, “The so-called capitula for the Book of the Apocalypse in the Book of Armagh (Dublin, Trinity College, 52) and Latin exegesis”, in: Pádraic Moran, and Immo Warntjes (eds), Early medieval Ireland and Europe: chronology, contacts, scholarship. A Festschrift for Dáibhí Ó Cróinín, 14, Turnhout: Brepols, 2015. 405–423.
abstract:
In the Book of Armagh, on f 159v, we find a lozenge of text which suggests a division system for the text of the New Testament’s Book of the Apocalypse. This short text, which is also found in the Metz Bible, identifies fourteen moments in the Apocalypse in a manner very similar to the way a set of capitula identifies passages within a text while dividing it into sections-and this text has traditionally been studied as one more set of textual divisions for this biblical book. However, closer examination of the text, combined with a comparison with other sets of capitula from biblical codices and summaries in exegetical handbooks suggest this text neither sections the book efficiently nor does it provide an introduction to its content. Rather, the numbered list of items proceeds visually through the book, offering the reader a guide to imagining the visions directly while knowing the narrative account of those visions is to be found in the biblical book’s text.
abstract:
In the Book of Armagh, on f 159v, we find a lozenge of text which suggests a division system for the text of the New Testament’s Book of the Apocalypse. This short text, which is also found in the Metz Bible, identifies fourteen moments in the Apocalypse in a manner very similar to the way a set of capitula identifies passages within a text while dividing it into sections-and this text has traditionally been studied as one more set of textual divisions for this biblical book. However, closer examination of the text, combined with a comparison with other sets of capitula from biblical codices and summaries in exegetical handbooks suggest this text neither sections the book efficiently nor does it provide an introduction to its content. Rather, the numbered list of items proceeds visually through the book, offering the reader a guide to imagining the visions directly while knowing the narrative account of those visions is to be found in the biblical book’s text.
OʼLoughlin, Thomas, “Adomnán’s plans in the context of his imagining ‘the most famous city’”, in: Lucy Donkin, and Hanna Vorholt (eds), Imagining Jerusalem in the medieval West, 175, Oxford: Oxford University Press, for the British Academy, 2012. 15–40.
abstract:
Adomnán of Iona's work on the holy places of Jerusalem and surrounding regions (De locis sanctis) has been used as a guide to seventh-century Palestine. In particular, its plans of monuments such as the Church of the Holy Sepulchre have been used by archaeologists for information about buildings, while their form interests historians of cartography. However, these plans must be read with the book's several purposes in mind. They attempt to harmonize biblical data (and Adomnán's other literary sources) visually. In addition, they project elements of Iona's monastic liturgy into an alien liturgical space. The plans are not simply illustrations to clarify the text but constitute a distinct, parallel text of their own, with elements shown that Adomnán would not have asserted in writing. They indicate that, for Adomnán, there were different orders of verification for written texts and visual materials such as plans.
abstract:
Adomnán of Iona's work on the holy places of Jerusalem and surrounding regions (De locis sanctis) has been used as a guide to seventh-century Palestine. In particular, its plans of monuments such as the Church of the Holy Sepulchre have been used by archaeologists for information about buildings, while their form interests historians of cartography. However, these plans must be read with the book's several purposes in mind. They attempt to harmonize biblical data (and Adomnán's other literary sources) visually. In addition, they project elements of Iona's monastic liturgy into an alien liturgical space. The plans are not simply illustrations to clarify the text but constitute a distinct, parallel text of their own, with elements shown that Adomnán would not have asserted in writing. They indicate that, for Adomnán, there were different orders of verification for written texts and visual materials such as plans.
OʼLoughlin, Thomas, “The biblical text of the Book of Deer (C.U.L. Ii.6.32): evidence for the remains of a division system from its manuscript ancestry; Appendix: A concordance of the display initials of the Book of Deer with the Ammonian sections / Eusebian canons”, in: Katherine Forsythe (ed.), Studies on the Book of Deer, Dublin: Four Courts Press, 2008. 3–31 (with appendix).
Thomas O'Loughlin, “Cáin Adomnáin”, in: John T. Koch (ed.), Celtic culture: a historical encyclopedia (2006): 327.
Thomas O'Loughlin, “Adomnán, St”, in: John T. Koch (ed.), Celtic culture: a historical encyclopedia (2006): 12–13.
OʼLoughlin, Thomas, “Imagery of the New Jerusalem in the Periphyseon and Eriugena’s Irish background”, in: J. McEvoy, and M. Dunne (eds), History and eschatology in John Scottus Eriugena and his time. Proceedings of the Tenth International Conference of the Society for the Promotion of Eriugenian Studies, Maynooth and Dublin, August 16–20, 2000, Leuven: Leuven University Press, 2002. 245–259.
OʼLoughlin, Thomas, “Tradition and exegesis in the eighth century: the use of patristic sources in early medieval scriptural commentaries”, in: Thomas OʼLoughlin (ed.), The Scriptures and early medieval Ireland: proceedings of the 1993 Conference of the Society for Hiberno-Latin Studies on Early Irish Exegesis and Homilectics, 31, Steenbrugge, Turnhout: In Abbatia S. Petri, Brepols, 1999. 217–239.
OʼLoughlin, Thomas, “Biblical contradictions in the Periphyseon and the development of Eriugena’s method”, in: Gerd van Riel, Carlos Steel, and James J. McEvoy (eds), Johannes Scottus Eriugena. The Bible and hermeneutics. Proceedings of the Ninth International Colloquium of the Society for the Promotion of Eriugenian Studies held at Leuven and Louvain-la-Neuve, June 7–10, 1995, 1.20, Leuven: Leuven University Press, 1996. 103–126.
