We are delighted to announce the winner of the Volume 2 prize for best article by a graduate student or early career researcher has been awarded to Richard Firth-Godbehere for his article “For ‘Physitians of the Soule’: The roles of ‘flight’ and ‘hatred of abomination’ in Thomas Wright’s The Passions of the Minde in Generall”.
Abstract
This article attempts to understand how Thomas Wright’s 1604 work, The Passions of the Minde in Generall, might have fitted into his overall mission as an English Catholic preacher, particularly when read via Wright’s understanding of Thomas Aquinas’s passion of fuga seu abominatio. Some historians claim that Wright was a controversialist, previously describing The Passions as either a radical departure from Wright’s mission, or the work of a different Thomas Wright. Earlier attempts to find a missionary element within The Passions have been inadequate. Through a close reading of The Passions, specifically analysing Wright’ʹs interpretation of fuga seu abominatio within the context of Wright’s intended readership, the main message of The Passions, and his background, this article suggests a possible reading of the text as a work aimed specifically at fellow English Catholics. To Wright, the passions of hatred of abomination and flight or detestation, derived primarily from Aquinas’s fuga seu abominatio, were not simply a form of disgust, as often assumed, but the potential worldly or otherworldly harm that someone we love, such as a neighbour, might face from the abominable evil of sin and damnation. By linking hatred of abomination, flight or detestation, and Wright’s particular view of sin together, Wright was teaching English Catholics how these passions might be used to cure diseased souls, turning the work into a guide for preaching.
We would like to congratulate all seven contributors to this volume for their exceptional work; their articles can be found in Volume 2: Transitions, Fractures, and Fragments. Special thanks are due to the Centre for Medieval and Early Modern Studies at the University of Western Australia who provided the funds necessary to offer this years’ prize. We are looking forward to publishing Volume 3: Words, Signs, and Feelings throughout 2016, and remind readers that we accept non-themed submissions at any time throughout the year.
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