Bibliography
Alfred K. (Alfred Kentigern)
Siewers s. xx–xxi
Works edited
Contributions to journals
Contributions to edited collections or authored works
Siewers, Alfred K., “The Periphyseon, the Irish ‘Otherworld’, and early medieval nature”, in: Willemien Otten, and Michael I. Allen (eds), Eriugena and Creation: proceedings of the Eleventh International Conference on Eriugenian Studies, held in honor of Edouard Jeauneau, Chicago, 9–12 November 2011, Turnhout: Brepols, 2014. 321–347.
abstract:
The Periphyseon’s definition of nature, developed especially in lengthy discussions of “place” and “Paradise,” shows significant parallels to early Irish traditions of the Otherworld, as well as early Irish art. From its cosmopolitan Irish literary backgrounds, the Periphyseon can be read as a summa of pre-scholastic views of nature. It thus offers a potential supply of alternative ideas and images to environmental philosophy today, drawing on an apophatic framework of mystical hierarchy. But parallels between its model of nature and the Otherworld trope of early Irish literature also help to clarify aspects of the emerging field of environmental semiotics in twenty-first century information theory, which has roots in the “pansemiotics” of medieval Christian cosmology. From a late antique/early medieval milieu, the Periphyseon provides a distinctively fruitful synthesis of classical, biblical, and Greek and Latin patristic thought, with native northwestern European approaches to nature. In tandem with other enduring Irish contributions to world literature and art from that era, it offers a link between pre-modern experiences of creation and postmodern reflections on environmental crisis, in an alternative model echoed today still in cosmology of the Eastern Orthodox Church and the “creation care” movement in the West.
abstract:
The Periphyseon’s definition of nature, developed especially in lengthy discussions of “place” and “Paradise,” shows significant parallels to early Irish traditions of the Otherworld, as well as early Irish art. From its cosmopolitan Irish literary backgrounds, the Periphyseon can be read as a summa of pre-scholastic views of nature. It thus offers a potential supply of alternative ideas and images to environmental philosophy today, drawing on an apophatic framework of mystical hierarchy. But parallels between its model of nature and the Otherworld trope of early Irish literature also help to clarify aspects of the emerging field of environmental semiotics in twenty-first century information theory, which has roots in the “pansemiotics” of medieval Christian cosmology. From a late antique/early medieval milieu, the Periphyseon provides a distinctively fruitful synthesis of classical, biblical, and Greek and Latin patristic thought, with native northwestern European approaches to nature. In tandem with other enduring Irish contributions to world literature and art from that era, it offers a link between pre-modern experiences of creation and postmodern reflections on environmental crisis, in an alternative model echoed today still in cosmology of the Eastern Orthodox Church and the “creation care” movement in the West.
