Constant Mews - School of Historical Studies Staff

Personal History

Although born in Britain, I received my later secondary education and did my initial university studies in history (BA and MA) in Auckland, New Zealand. Subsequently, I did doctoral study at the University of Oxford, UK , followed by five years (1980-1985) teaching British civilisation at the Universite de Paris III, while pursuing my own studies in medieval thought (focusing on Peter Abelard) in connection with Jean Jolivet, at the Ecole pratique des hautes etudes en sciences religieuses. This was followed as two years as a Leverhulme research fellow at the University of Sheffield, UK , working with Prof. David Luscombe, on editing the writings of Peter Abelard.

I came to Australia in July 1987, when I took up a position at Monash University as Lecturer in the Dept of History. Since then I have become involved in developing the Centre for Studies in Religion and Theology and in promoting studies in religion more generally, with a strong interest in interfaith work. I have had spells of study at the Institute for Advanced Study, Princeton, in 1990 and 2000, and have also taught in Paris, at the Ecole pratique des hautes etudes (Ve section) and in the Ecole des hautes etudes en sciences sociales.

Current Research

Theology, philosophy and communities of learning in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, with particular attention to Paris and issues of gender within religious life.

Music and Aristotelian science in the late 13th century, with particular reference to Johannes de Grocheio.

The cultural & intellectual milieu of Christine de Pizan in the late fourteeth and early fifteenth century, with particular attention to ethical ideas and religious thought.

Commons themes in Islamic, Christian and Jewish thought in the Middle Ages, with particular reference to the prohibition of usury and its relationship to contemporary Islamic finance.

Major Publications

---- 'On Dating the Works of Peter Abelard', Archives d'histoire doctrinale et littéraire du moyen âge 52 (1985); 73-134.
Constant J. Mews & Eligius-Marie Buytaert (eds.), Petri Abaelardi Opera Theologica II, Corpus Christianorum Continuatio Mediaevalis 13, (Turnhout: Brepols, 1987) 613pp.
---- 'Philosophy and Theology 1100-1150: The Search for Harmony', in Françoise Gasparri (ed.), Le XIIe siècle: Mutations et renouveau en France dans la première moitié du XIIe siècle, Cahiers du Léopard d'Or (Paris: Léopard d'Or, 1994), pp. 159-203.
---- Peter Abelard, Authors of the Middle Ages, Vol. II, no. 5 (London, Variorum 1995).
---- 'Interpreting Abelard And Heloise in The Fourteenth And Early Fifteenth Centuries: The Criticisms of Christine de Pizan and Jean Gerson', in Chemins de la pensée médiévale. Études offertes à Zénon Kaluza, ed. Paul J.J.M. Bakker, Emmanuel Faye and Christophe Grellard, Textes et Études du Moyen Âge, 20 (Turnhout: Brepols, 2002), pp. 709-724
---- 'St Anselm and Roscelin: Some New Texts and their Implications II. An Essay on the Trinity and Intellectual Debate 1080-1120', Archives d'histoire doctrinale et littéraire du moyen âge 65 (1998), pp. 39-90.
---- The Lost Love Letters of Heloise and Abelard: Perceptions of Dialogue in Twelfth-Century France (New York: Palgrave, 1999).
---- (ed.), Listen Daughter: the Speculum Virginum and the Formation of Religious Women in the Middle Ages (New York: Palgrave, 2001).
---- 'Hugh Metel, Heloise and Peter Abelard: the Letters of an Augustinian Canon and the Challenge of Innovation in Twelfth-century Lorraine' in Viator 32 (2001), 59-91.
---- 'The Council of Sens (1141): Bernard, Abelard and the Fear of Social Upheaval', Speculum 77.2 (2002), 342-82.
---- Abelard and Heloise, Great Medieval Thinkers (New York: Oxford University Press, 2005).

Areas of Research & Supervision

Medieval studies (particular reference to religious and intellectual history, also issues of gender); history of religious thought, including some 20th century religious thought and interaction with contemporary developments (ecology, gender, process thought etc); honours supervision in early Christian studies, also in 15th-17th century English history.

Teaching

HSY1010 - Medieval Europe
RLT2/3470 - The Religious Quest: Judaism, Christianity and Islam
HSY2/3640 - Christians, Jews and Muslims in the Age of the Crusades
RLT4040 - Islamic thought
RLT4400 - Medieval women and their history