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• W2002302374 abstract "Chapter 5 of Aers' study, Reflections on Gower as 'Sapiens in Ethics and Politics', was originally published in 1998 in R.F. Yeager's Re-Visioning Gower, and it was reviewed in JGN 18, no. 1, p. 17. A bit more briefly: Aers attacks Gower's reputation as a coherent moral philosopher by laying out some of more obvious contradictions in his thought. Gower's advocacy of evangelical pacifism in VC Books 3 and 6, for instance, cannot be reconciled with unironic celebration of aristocratic violence in his advice to young King Richard to follow example of his father (p. 107). Such a contradiction, Aers points out, was encouraged by medieval church, where it had become normalized and internalized (p. 110). It is also allowed by structure of VC, in which the units . . . are paratactically sealed off from each other rather than brought into dialogue. . . . [VC's] becomes a powerful impediment to moral inquiry, to sustained critical reflection on difficulties that are raised. The protects poet from having to confront sharp contradictions in his ethics, let alone from having to explore their sources in traditions he inherits and culture he inhabits (p. 110; his italics). The same sort of failure can be found in CA, in which poet condemns church for degeneracy of its practices and for mystification of its claims of spiritual authority yet upholds church against Wycliffites whose criticism he echoes. Are we being invited to cultivate ironic reflections on grounds of all doctrine, on grounds of all claims to unfeigned, uninvented authority in matters concerning divine? (p. 117). No, Aers concludes; to a paratactic mode corresponds a paratactic moralism (p. 118). This provocative essay now stands in company of chapters on Chaucer, Langland, Gawain-poet, and Wyclif. Each of these Aers situates among competing discourses on faith, ethics, and nature of church in late fourteenth-century England, when Wyclif and his followers raised questions about orthodox institutions and practices that prompted an increasing rigidity of doctrine and an increasing harshness of both ecclesiastical and secular attempts to control public discourse on theological topics. In such an atmosphere, each author inevitably takes stands with both doctrinal and politi-cal implications. One of Aers' principal themes, indeed, is that doctrinal is political, not only because of increasing involvement of secular institutions in ecclesiastical matters but also because of common understanding on all sides of these debates that was not a purely personal commitment but membership and participation in congregation of faithful. The preference of some modern readers to imagine faith apart from institutions in which it is embodied provides opening for Aers' examination of Chaucer. He considers implications of Griselda's unquestioning obedience of Walter in context of contemporary discussions of faith and ethics, and he places it in contrast to very different notions of obedience to authority embodied in Second Nun's Tale. He also examines Chaucer's references to sacraments. The absence of any allusion to eucharist, even in description of Parson, suggests that Chau-cer's depiction of church would have been congenial to his Wycliffite acquaintances even though Chaucer makes no pronouncement in favor of Wyclif's cause. The Gawain-poet comes off as rather breezy and superficial in his treatment of issues of faith and eth-ics in Aers' discussion. The heroic figure in Aers' study is Langland, who wrestles in a profound act of faith with very issues that Aers examines, but who is not exempt from falling into his own contradictions, particularly on social issues, as Aers observes. Aers also finds a deep contradiction in Wyclif's notions of Christian discipleship, particularly for laity, which he attributes to theologian's own class interests and to his nationalistic politics. There is much more in these chapters than these few comments reveal, and Aers argues his case with both learning and conviction. The reason for offering even briefest summary of other portions of book here is to give some indication of how Gower comes off by comparison to his contemporaries in Aers' hands, now that chapter on Gower appears in its proper company. And in that context one has to feel that Aers has simply taken Gower considerably less seriously than he has others. The contradiction in VC is an easy target, and if Gower does not carve out a sufficiently sophisticated position on church reform, it is also true that structure of church is not a central issue in CA. CA is centrally concerned, however, with issues of faith and ethics. In Genius, it gives us a priest who has duties both to God and to a sometimes tyrannical God of Love, and who must therefore mediate between them. In Book 7, moreover, Genius offers a lengthy discussion of duties owed to secular authority (including unjust authority) and to God. Much of poem can be read as a lengthy meditation on sources of moral authority, raising questions that Gower did not reflect on to same extent in his two earlier long works. Anyone deeply familiar with CA will find repeated echoes of issues that Gower addresses in chapters in Aers' book that are not concerned with Gower, and it is a bit of a disappointment to see poem treated so superficially when its turn finally comes. Aers has a point to make about Gower, but it is a small one, and there is room for much larger. [PN. Copyright The John Gower Society. JGN 20.1]" @default.
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• W2002302374 title "Faith, Ethics and Church: Writing in England, 1360-1409" @default.
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