@article{THESIS,
      recid = {14558},
      author = {Jambrek, Anita},
      title = {"That in the Name of yhs Every Knee Should Bow": Devotion  to the Holy Name of Jesus in the Fifteenth Century},
      publisher = {University of Chicago},
      school = {Ph.D.},
      address = {2025-03},
      number = {THESIS},
      abstract = {The primary objective of my project is to situate devotion  to the Holy Name of Jesus in the realm of intellectual  history. By analyzing the works of three Observant  Franciscans, namely, San Bernardino, Giacomo della Marca,  and Matteo d’Agrigento, I map out how the devotion was  conceived on the ideal level. I focus particularly on their  reading of the abbreviation of the Holy Name (yhs) to show  how it aurally and visually reflects their vision of the  sacramentality of the world and words. There are two parts  to my project. The first part traces the hermeneutics tied  to the abbreviation of the Holy Name (IHC/IH†/IHS/yhs) from  the first century CE through the fifteenth century. In it,  I consider devotion to the Holy Name in the context of  Franciscan spirituality, especially, highlighting the role  of the Incarnation and Glory in Franciscan writings.  Simultaneously, I contend that the abbreviation of the Holy  Name can be seen theologically and artistically as an icon  and a pertinent symbol that resolves the tension between an  ordinary and a sacred name.  The second part of my project  dwells on criticism of the devotion. A guiding question of  the dissertation is: how did the Name of Jesus become  controversial in the fifteenth century? By analyzing the  works of two prominent Augustinians, Andrea Biglia and  Andrea Cascia, I demonstrate how they are creating a crisis  rather than describing one. When it comes to Biglia, I show  that his works were shaped by the humanistic method (i.e. a  historical-critical one), and how his literalistic approach  to the abbreviation of the Holy Name bulldozed the  symbolical-allegorical reading that was propagated by the  Observant Franciscans. Likewise, I map out Cascia’s  apocalyptic imagery to demonstrate how this crisis was  blown out of proportion.  The last part of my project  centers on the indictment of the devotion to the Holy Name  as superstition. In contrast to previous scholarship that  analyzed the actual practices that are tied to the word  ‘superstition,’ I rather ask what the word meant in the  fifteenth century. Because of the purported similarities  between superstitious practices and miracles, I juxtapose  them to show how Franciscans conceived a distinction  between them, especially as I focus on the concept of  causality.},
      url = {http://knowledge.uchicago.edu/record/14558},
      doi = {https://doi.org/10.6082/uchicago.14558},
}