Dr Michael Hahn

Research Associate

Academic Summary

Pontifical Institute of Mediaeval Studies, Postdoctoral Pontifical Licence in Mediaeval Studies, 2021-present
University of St Andrews, PhD in Historical and Systematic Theology, 2016-2020
University of Oxford (Oriel College), MSt in Ecclesiastical History, 2015-2016
University of St Andrews, MA (Undergraduate) in Theological Studies, 2011-2015

Research interests

Franciscan spirituality, mystical theology, medieval theology, Church history, gender and theology

Affiliations

Programme Leader for Postgraduate Programmes in Christian Spirituality at Sarum College, Salisbury
Tutor in the History of Christianity at University of London
Affiliated Researcher at the Ruusbroec Institute, University of Antwerp

Publications

Monographs

In Progress: Bonaventure, Angela of Foligno and Late-Medieval Mystical Theologies: Annihilation, Hierarchization and the Spirituality of Franciscans. Monograph under contract with Routledge’s ‘Contemporary Theological Explorations in Mysticism’ series. Manuscript to be submitted March 2023.

Edited Books

In Progress: Edited with Pablo Acosta-García. A Companion to Angela of Foligno. Brill Companions to the Christian Tradition, 500-1800. Under contract. Manuscript to be submitted September 2024.

Peer-Reviewed Journal Articles and Book Chapters

Forthcoming: ‘Poverty and Gender.’ In A Cultural History of Poverty in the Medieval Age (800-1450). Edited by Eliza Buhrer. A Cultural History of Poverty, vol. 2. London: Bloomsbury, 2024; forthcoming. [Accepted November 2021.]
Forthcoming: ‘God as Lover.’ In The T&T Clark Encyclopedia of Christian Theology. Edited by Jana Bennett, Jason Fout, Stephen Cone and Asle Eikrem. London: T&T Clark, 2023; forthcoming. Solicited contribution. [Accepted August 2022.]
Forthcoming: ‘Becoming nothing in Christianity, Sufism and Buddhism: Why Christian annihilation is not nirvāṇa. A response to Barbara Newman.’ In The Bloombsury Handbook to Comparative Mysticism. Edited by Louise Nelstrop and Saeko Yazaki. London: Bloomsbury, 2023. Solicited contribution. [Accepted March 2023.]
Forthcoming: ‘Angela of Foligno.’ In The Palgrave Encyclopedia of Medieval Women’s Writing in the Global Middle Ages. Edited by Michelle M. Sauer, Diane Watt, Liz Herbert McAvoy. London: Palgrave Macmillan, 2023; forthcoming. Solicited contribution. [Accepted December 2022.]
Forthcoming: ‘Kenotic Christology and Annihilation in Clare of Assisi and Angela of Foligno.’ In Medieval Mystical Women in the West: Growing in the Height of Love. Edited by Rob Faesen and John Arblaster. Contemporary Theological Explorations in Christian Mysticism. Abingdon: Routledge, 2023; forthcoming. Solicited contribution. [Accepted November 2021.]
2016: ‘Pourquoi les reliques de Saint André de Fife n’attirèrent jamais autant de pèlerins que celles de Saint Jacques à Compostelle?’ Compostelle: Cahiers du Centre d’Études, de Recherches et d’Histoire Compostellanes 19 (2016): 10-28.

Popular Publications and Outputs

2022: ‘St Angela of Foligno on her Feast Day.’ Franciscan Publishing, online blog; available at: https://www.franciscanpublishing.com/st-angela-of-foligno-on-her-feast-day/.
2021: Interview with A. J. Langley. ‘Michael Hahn on Angela of Foligno.’ My Favourite Mystic. Podcast; available at: https://anchor.fm/myfavouritemystic.
2019: ‘Who is Cusanus?’ Cusanus Society of UK and Ireland, November 2019, available at: https://cusanussociety.wp.st-andrews.ac.uk/who-is-cusanus/.
2019: ‘The Medieval Cult of Saints: Vulgar Compromises or Divine Experiments?’ Understanding Theology. July 2019, available at: http://www.understandingtheology.org/2019/07/the-medieval-cult-of-saints/

Other details

Michael has taught at St Andrews, York St John and as a guest lecturer at Toronto, and now runs the MA programme in Christian Spirituality at Sarum College in Salisbury. As well as finishing work on his book on Bonaventure, Angela of Foligno and Late-Medieval Mystical Theologies, Michael is currently working on two other projects on Angela of Foligno. First, alongside Pablo Acosta-García, Michael is editing A Companion to Angela of Foligno for Brill, which brings together scholars from the US, Canada, the UK, France, Spain, Italy and Poland to provide an up-to-date companion to Angela, the first in English, and the first in over 25 years in any language. Second, alongside John Arblaster and Anna Dlabakova recently received 450,000 EUR funding from the FWO (Research Foundation, Flanders) to conduct a four-year research project entitled “From Penitent Umbrian Laywoman to the ‘Teacher of Theologians’: How was Angela of Foligno made Magistra Theologorum?” which investigates various case studies from different geographical and confessional perspectives to map out and probe Angela’s theological influence on major figures, and the changing perception of her as a theological teachers in the years between Angela’s death in 1309 and the early to mid-17^th century when Angela was called Magistra Theologorum by the Dutch Jesuit Maximilian Sandaeus in 1624 which was then repeated in the Acta Sanctorum.