Constant Mews
Constant Mews (born 1954), D.Phil (Oxon) is Professor of Medieval Thought and Director, Centre for Studies in Religion and Theology,
Early life
Mews is the son of composer, the late Douglas Mews and brother of musician and organist Douglas.[2] He was born in England and spent his childhood there and in New Zealand. He completed his secondary education at St Peter's College, Auckland, New Zealand. He won the Trenwith Cup for History, the Taylor Cup for languages, the Arthur Bolland Cup for English and was the Dux equal (with Richard Segedin) of the college in his final year at St Peter's College in 1971.
Academic career
Mews attended the
Letters of Abelard and Heloise
In 1999 Mews published The Lost Love Letters of Heloise and Abelard. This contains about 113 medieval love letters, edited in 1974 by the German scholar Ewald Koensgen. The letters, ascribed simply to a man and woman, survived because a 15th-century monk copied them for an anthology. Having spent some 20 years studying Abelard's philosophical and theological writings, Mews concluded that the letters (the longest known correspondence between a man and a woman from the medieval period) were written by Abelard and Heloise.[3] In 2005 the historian Sylvain Piron translated the correspondence into French.
Whether the letters were indeed the actual correspondence became a matter of intense scholarly debate in France. Mews and other scholars who support the authenticity case say all the evidence in and around the text points to Abelard and Heloise. Opponents say that is too simple and want definitive proof. They reject accusations of tunnel vision and deny they are motivated by professional envy at not having got there first. "It's not jealousy, it's a question of method," said
Selected works
- "Abelard and his Legacy", Variorum Reprints, London, Ashgate, 2001.
- "Reason and Belief in the Age of Roscelin and Abelard", Variorum Reprints, London, Ashgate, 2002.
- "The Lost Love Letters of Heloise and Abelard: Perceptions of Dialogue in Twelfth-Century France", Palgrave MacMillan, New York, 1999; 2nd edition, 2008.
- "Abelard and Heloise", New York, Oxford University Press, 2005.
- "Cicero and the Boundaries of Friendship in the Twelfth Century", Viator 38/2 (2007), 369–384.
- "Discussing Love: The Epistolae duorum amantium and Abelard's Sic et Non", Journal of Medieval Latin 19 (2009), 130–47.
References
- ^ a b Monash University, Faculty, Constant Mews.
- ISBN 1869350510.
- ^ The Lost Love Letters of Heloise and Abelard
- ^ Jane Sullivan, "Scholars turn medieval letters into a lovers' tiff", The Age, 5 March 2005
- ^ Abelard and Heloise
- ^ Cicero and the Boundaries of Friendship in the Twelfth Century
- ^ Discussing Love: The Epistolae duorum amantium and Abelard’s Sic et Non
External links
- Monash University, Constant Mews, profile and major Publications (Retrieved 21 February 2014)