Studies on Medieval Empathies ed. by Karl F. Morrison and Rudolph M. Bell (review)

Although the Latin language possesses no word for empathy, it is clear from this volume that ‘fellow-feeling’ was recognised as part of interaction and bonding long before the neologism Einfühlung emerged from German philology in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. Generated from a conference held at Rutgers University in 2008, this collection of essays is the first to focus on empathy in a medieval context. The volume is not a traditional festschrift in honour of Karl F. Morrison, but offers an ‘intense inquiry’ where he may be seen as both active participant and protagonist (p. xi). The contents often respond to Morrison’s particular interests and ideas, creating a volume that is largely cohesive and honours his scholarly enquiry in this field.

Morrison opens the volume with a tour de force on the evolution of empathy from pre-Christian Antiquity to the late Middle Ages. Concentrating on its theological underpinnings and the cognitive system to which it belongs, Morrison suggests that empathy was expressed through both love and cruelty. He not only foregrounds many of the essays to come but provides a valuable conceptual framework for the volume. Eleven articles divided into four sections follow. In the first part, Giselle de Nie shows how St Martin was ‘humanised’ by Paulinus of Périgueux (c. 460–70), not only to make him a recognisable and compassionate spiritual model but also one who, through the use of affective mimesis, could induce empathy in the reader or listener. In a similar vein, Constance B. Bouchard examines the re-written lives of several saints from early medieval Gaul and concludes that their renewal assisted in establishing an empathetic relationship between the saints and those who read their vitae. Ending the first section, Rachel Fulton Brown expertly analyses the intercessory role of saints in Anselm of Canterbury’s prayers and shows how empathy could bring the sinner closer to God.

In the second section, Michael Allen applies ‘philological empathy’ to Lupus of Ferrières’s Epistola 1 in order to discover the text ‘from within’, while Herbert L. Kessler argues for the curative power of empathetic visualisation in an essay that works alongside de Nie’s study. In the third part, Barbara Newman and Bernard McGinn both explore empathy with God. Newman investigates the doctrine of co-inherence using the analogy of mystical pregnancy found in late medieval hagiographical texts. This piece is complemented by McGinn’s analysis of the development of active and contemplative love. Marcia L. Colish ends this section on a different note, examining Raymond Lull’s ecumenical empathies in The Book of the Gentile and the Three Sages. In the final division, Sabine MacCormack and Thomas F. X. Noble explore the ‘dissonances’ and limits of medieval empathy by analysing the change in late antique and late medieval conceptions of hell (MacCormack) and the persistence of the idea of Rome (Noble). Richard Kieckhefer closes the volume by investigating the ways historians have expressed empathy, or related attitudes, towards the inquisitors. This approach allows the reader to consider how empathy can help in reaching a deeper level of understanding.

In his opening line, Morrison observes that the history of empathy has yet to be written. What follows is a series of essays that open up a field of study by examining empathy from a range of disciplinary standpoints. This rich volume will undoubtedly stimulate further interest in the study of empathy as the History of Emotions continues to engross scholars.