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František Šmahel in cooperation with Ota Pavlíček, eds., A Companion to Jan Hus . (Brill’s Companions to the Christian Tradition 54.) Leiden and Boston: Brill, 2015. Pp. x, 447; 5 color and 2 black-and-white figures. $210. ISBN: 978-90-04-28055-7.Table of contents available online at http://www.brill.com/products/reference-work/companion-jan-hus (accessed 22 January 2016)

2016; University of Chicago Press; Volume: 92; Issue: 1 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1086/689850

2040-8072

Howard Louthan,

Religious, Philosophical, and Educational Studies

Previous articleNext article FreeReviewsFrantišek Šmahel in cooperation with Ota Pavlíček, eds., A Companion to Jan Hus. (Brill’s Companions to the Christian Tradition 54.) Leiden and Boston: Brill, 2015. Pp. x, 447; 5 color and 2 black-and-white figures. $210. ISBN: 978-90-04-28055-7.Table of contents available online at http://www.brill.com/products/reference-work/companion-jan-hus (accessed 22 January 2016)Howard LouthanHoward LouthanUniversity of Minnesota Search for more articles by this author PDFPDF PLUSFull Text Add to favoritesDownload CitationTrack CitationsPermissionsReprints Share onFacebookTwitterLinked InRedditEmailQR Code SectionsMoreFor an individual who had such an impact on late-medieval Europe and then inspired a subsequent generation of early modern reformers, it is frankly surprising that there is not a broader body of English-language scholarship on Bohemia’s most famous religious dissident, Jan Hus. That is not to say, of course, that scholarship on Hus is lacking. The Czechs for generations have produced a steady stream of literature on their national martyr. There are also specialized societies that sponsor events such as the biennial conference, the Bohemian Reformation and Religious Practice, which for over two decades has provided a forum for scholars working on the religious history and theological developments of this region from the fourteenth to seventeenth centuries. But language barriers are significant, and the reach of the BRRP is limited, which makes the appearance of this volume such an important event. For an anglophone audience A Companion to Jan Hus is without doubt the best introduction to the life and work of this critical reformer.The Companion, a compilation of eleven essays, is a product of an international team of Hus scholars working on three continents. Though not surprisingly the volume has a decided tilt to Hus’s thought and theology, the editors carefully picked topics that ensured a range of coverage. The first chapter, Ota Pavlíček’s useful biographical overview, sets the tone of the entire volume. Subsequent articles investigate the background and precursors of the Hussite Reformation, Hus’s career in the pulpit, the social and political dimension of his thought, an examination of his trial, and his literary contributions. Three essays in particular consider Hus’s afterlife, the ways in which his life was commemorated in ritual, liturgy, and art, both in the Bohemian lands and abroad. Particularly important are the essays examining Hus as preacher and teacher. Pavel Soukup, the author of a recent German biography of Hus, has composed a marvelous overview of his homiletic material. Though there is a growing body of literature on late-medieval preaching, Western scholars have often relegated Hus to the margins or have ignored him altogether, but, as Soukup illustrates, study of Hus’s homiletic activity has tremendous potential. According to one estimate, he delivered more than three thousand five hundred sermons at Prague’s Bethlehem Chapel. Fourteen collections of his sermons still survive. In her study of Hus’s “vernacular theology” Pavlína Rychterová illustrates how a scholar can work from this type of material and shed new light on his reform program. Rychterová examines one of Hus’s most important Czech texts, Expositions of the Profession of Faith, the Ten Commandments and the Lord’s Prayer. Though Hus intended the treatise as an outline of basic Christian teaching, it does highlight his exegetical approach. Rychterová includes a wonderful excursus on Hus’s interpretation of Nehemiah 13. Hus portrays Nehemiah as the ideal secular prince and draws a direct comparison between Nehemiah’s Jerusalem and Charles IV’s Prague. As Nehemiah strove to purify the faith of his people, so the Luxembourg emperor sought a grand renewal of his kingdom’s religious and cultural life, including a reform of the Czech language.What emerges from these essays when considered in toto? Is there a new composite picture of Hus that we can piece together from these various articles? For more than six centuries Hus has been a divisive figure. Some have saluted him as a great nationalist hero and dynamic reformer while others have condemned him as a heretic or dismissed him as a mediocre theologian whose ideas were unoriginal. The assessment of Stephen Lahey reflects a balanced view that is representative of the volume as a whole. Lahey analyzes what was in essence Hus’s doctoral dissertation, a commentary on Peter Lombard’s Sentences. Lahey concludes that though the young Hus may not have been a brilliant theological mind, he ably represented a conservative Augustinian tradition that rejected an excessive reliance on Aristotle and was more than capable of holding his own against other churchmen of his day. Lahey’s essay also speaks to a healthy tension that runs through the entire Companion. Unlike Luther’s Reformation of the sixteenth century, the movement that Hus launched really inspired no parallel phenomenon outside the Czech lands. To what extent, then, was Hus sui generis, a figure best understood within a tighter nationalist framework, a product of a specific Bohemian religious culture? Or should scholars endeavor to place him within the broader context of late-medieval Europe as they examine his homiletics, politics, and social thought? Though all the contributors would recognize the importance of combining both perspectives, individually they tend to favor one end of the spectrum over the other. The divide seems to be at least partially generational, an older cohort of scholars favoring a more nationalist orientation, while a younger places the emphasis on the European. Though this debate will certainly continue, its very presence enriches the field and bodes well for the future. Just within the past decade, a new generation of anglophone scholars has emerged who are taking the study of fourteenth- and fifteenth-century Bohemia in promising new directions. Previous articleNext article DetailsFiguresReferencesCited by Speculum Volume 92, Number 1January 2017 The journal of the Medieval Academy of America Article DOIhttps://doi.org/10.1086/689850 Copyright 2017 by the Medieval Academy of America. All rights reserved. For permission to reuse, please contact [email protected]PDF download Crossref reports no articles citing this article.