During the Counter-Reformation, Jesuits used theater to warn of the dangers of Hell and the guide to the glories of Heaven. Performances of Jacob Bidermann, SJ’s Cenodoxus were no exception, causing some audience members to do penance and leading others into religious vocations.
Links:
Websites about Cenodoxus and Jacob Bidermann can be found here and here and here.
Cenodoxus performed by the Augsburger Puppets
Sources:
Best, Thomas W. Jacob Bidermann. Twayne’s World Authors Series ; Germany TWAS 314. New York: Twayne Publishers, 1975.
Bidermann, SJ. Jakob. Cenodoxus. Translated by D. G. Dyer. Edinburgh Bilingual Library 9. Edinburgh: University Press, 1975.
Bloemendal, Jan. “Receptions and Impact: Early Modern Latin Drama, its Effect on the Audience and its Role in Forming Public Opinion.” Neo-Latin Drama: Forms, Functions, Receptions. Olms, 2008. 7-22.
Dyer, Denys. Jacob Bidermann a Seventeenth Century German Jesuit Dramatist. Cambridge, 1950.
Gorman, Michel John. “Mathematics and Modesty in the Society of Jesus: The Problems of Christoph Grienberger.” The New Science and Jesuit Science: Seventeenth Century Perspectives. Archimedes. Dordrecht ; Boston, MA: Kluwer Academic Publishers, 2003. 1-120.
Herdt, Jennifer A. Putting on Virtue: The Legacy of the Splendid Vices. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2008.
Loyola, SJ. Ignatius. The Spiritual Exercises of Saint Ignatius Loyola: An American Translation from the Final Version of the Exercises, the Latin Vulgate, into Contemporary English. New York: J.F. Wagner, 1968.
Martin, Dennis D. Fifteenth-Century Carthusian Reform: The World of Nicholas Kempf. Studies in the History of Christian Thought v. 49. Leiden ; New York: E.J. Brill, 1992.
Miola, Robert S. “Jesuit drama in early modern England.” Theatre and Religion: Lancastrian Shakespeare. Manchester: Manchester University Press, 2003. 71-86.
Murdoch, Brian. Adam’s Grace: Fall and Redemption in Medieval Literature. Woodbridge, UK ; Rochester, NY: D.S. Brewer, 2000.
Parente, James A. Religious Drama and the Humanist Tradition: Christian Theater in Germany and in the Netherlands, 1500-1680. Studies in the History of Christian Thought v. 39. Leiden ; New York: E.J. Brill, 1987.
Sinn, Christian. “The Figure in the Carpet: Metadramatical Concepts in Jacob Bidermann’s Cenodoxus (1602).” The Play Within the Play: The Performance of Meta-Theatre and Self-Reflection. Internationale Forschungen Zur Allgemeinen Und Vergleichenden Literaturwissenschaft 112. Amsterdam ; New York: Rodopi, 2007. 61-76.
Wild, Christopher J. “Jesuit Theater and the Blindness of Self-Knowledge.” A New History of German Literature. Harvard University Press Reference Library. Cambridge, Mass: Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 2004. 270-274.
Image:
Eustache Le Sueur – Raymond Diocres Repond Apres sa Mort
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#277 – Cenodoxus and the Dangers of Pride
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2 Comments
Near the end of this podcast Fr. Seraphim states:
“Look at what it is that we are doing with our lives. Are we seeking to do good and are we really seeking to do those good things for the sake of God’s glory or for our own. What are our motivations in the things that we do and in the relationships that we have? All the knowledge in the world matters to nothing if we do not have proper discernment and if we do not act on that discernment. Knowledge is necessary, but so is wisdom.”
Thanks for this wonderful bit of wisdom and for a most instructive podcast. To me, this shows yet again the high relevance of Catholic thinking for living a good life.
Best Catholic Podcast of 2001, eh? : )