This module is part of the Distance Learning Website of the Carmelite Institute of Britain and Ireland (CIBI)

Welcome to the MA module on Carmelite historiography: we hope it will be an enjoyable and productive experience. The first thing to note is the name of the module: "historiography" and not "history". This module is NOT a course in Carmelite history - 10 units of study would be nowhere nearly long enough to set out the whole of Carmelite history, or even a period or topic within it. This course is about how various events, people, movements and so in the Carmelite past have been presented, analysed and interpreted by historians and others. Inevitably and naturally we shall be drawing on incidents in history, but this is not the principal object of the module. Rather we shall be looking at the assumptions, the standpoints and perspectives of those who seek to understand and in some way present what they see as key moments in the past of the Carmelite Order. Those who engage in this task are not necessarily professionally trained historians, nor do they claim to be writing professional histories, but in the disciplines of theology and spirituality, where many of these people work, they inevitably draw on and to an extent create Carmelite history. The aim of this module is to offer an examination of these authors in order to develop a greater awareness and understanding of the various points of view that have been expressed. We hope to achieve this aim by encouraging a critical reading of a number of texts from both Carmelite and non-Carmelite authors. In particular we shall be setting out some basic guidelines for reading a historical text which can be applied across the whole range of Carmelite history.

The assigned reading for each of the ten units of this module is listed in the table below. This material will be made available as part of the module but you might consider locating some background reading material on Carmelite Historiography in the library of one of the houses of the Carmelite friars or nuns that is located near you. In their submitted assessments, students should will be expected to show that they have engaged with the relevant assigned reading.

Unit	Assigned Reading
1	Arthur Marwick, The New Nature of History: Knowledge, Evidence Language. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, 2001, ch. 2, pp. 22-50.
2	Peter Novick, That Noble Dream: The "Objectivity Question" and the American Historical Profession. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1988, ch. 14, pp. 469-521.
3	Elias Friedman, The Latin Hermits of Mount Carmell: A Study in Carmelite Origins. Rome: Teresianum, 1979, ch 7, pp. 157-169.
4	Joachim Smet, “The Carmelite Rule after 750 years”, Carmelus 44 (1997) 21-47. Bruno Secondin, “What is the Heart of the Rule”, in Albert’s Way: The First North American Congress on the Carmelite Rule, ed. Michael Mulhall, Rome: Institutum Carmelitanum, 1989, ch. 4, pp. 93-132.
5	Andrew Jotischky, The Carmelites and Antiquity: Mendicants and their Pasts in the Middle Ages. Oxford: University Press, 2002, ch 1, pp. 12-25.
6	Richard Copsey, “Simon Stock and the Scapular Vision” in The Hermits from Mount Carmel, Carmel in Britain vol. 3, edited by Richard Copsey, Rome: Edizioni Carmelitane, 2004, pp. 75-112. Originally in Journal of Ecclesiastical History 50 (1999) 652-683. David Blanchard, “The Scapular: A Global Sign and Symbol” in Carmel and Mary: Theology and History of a Devotion, ed. John Welch, Washington DC: Carmelite Institute, 2002, pp.165-178.
7	Richard Copsey, “The Ignea sagitta and its readership” in The Hermits from Mount Carmel, Carmel in Britain vol. 3, edited by Richard Copsey, Rome: Edizioni Carmelitane, 2004, pp. 17-28. Originally in Carmelus 46 (1999) 166-173.
8	Kevin Alban, “The Ignea sagitta and the Second Council of Lyons” in The Carmelite Rule, 1207-2007: proceedings of the Lisieux Conference, 4-7 July 2005, Textus et studia historica Carmelitana, v. 28, Roma: Edizioni Carmelitane, 2008, pp. 91-112.
9	Joachim Smet, The Carmelites: A History of the Brothers of Our Lady of Mount Carmel, vol. 1, Ca. 1200 AD until the Council of Trent, revised edition, Darien: Illinois, 1988, ch. 5, pp. 61-77.
10	Joachim Smet, The Carmelites: A History of the Brothers of Our Lady of Mount Carmel, vol. 1, Ca. 1200 AD until the Council of Trent, revised edition, Darien: Illinois, 1988, ch. 6, pp. 78-87.

Module Tutor: Kevin Alban OCarm

 

The module is divided into 10 units, with a formative assessment and two questionnaires, spread over the period of the module, and a final examination at the end.

Once posted, each unit will be available until the end of the module. The dates on which each of the units, and the other material for this module is available in the calendar in the Student Section.

	Item
	Unit01
	Unit02
	Formative Assessment
	Unit03
	Unit04
	Unit05
	Unit06
	Questionnaire01
	Unit07
	Unit08
	Unit09
	Unit10
	Questionnaire02
	Examination Questions

Please click HERE to access the STUDENT SECTION for module start and end dates

During the listed dates, you can click on the relevant unit to access it. Once you have successfully accessed and studied the material in each set of units, please click on the relevant Formative Assessment or Questionnaire to access it when it is launched. Read the questions and write your answers under each question. Then upload your answers to the Turnitin website.

One question must be chosen from the three final Examination Questions posted and your paper answering the question of your choice should be uploaded to the Turnitin website by the required date.

 

Copyright:

The author of the course holds the copyright to this material (text, graphic and other); distribution to family or friends, or publication (including on internet) of any part of the material is not permitted without the author’s explicit written permission.

© Kebin Alban OCarm and Cibi