logo
Department of Theology and Religious Studies
   
   
  

If you wish to get in touch with our administrative staff, please see the admin staff contact page.

Image of Mary Cunningham

Mary Cunningham

Lecturer in Historical Theology, Faculty of Arts

Contact

Biography

I was educated at Harvard University, gaining a B.A. in the Department of the Comparative Study of Religion. Here I concentrated on Eastern and Western Church History, with a special interest in Byzantine Theology and Medieval Greek. This was followed by a M.A. and PhD in Byzantine Studies at the University of Birmingham, England. Since 1984 I have lectured in various universities including Queen's University Belfast, King's College London and the University of Birmingham. I joined the Department of Theology and Religious Studies at the University of Nottingham in 2006 and have been here ever since.

Expertise Summary

I can supervise theses in the fields of early Church History, Greek Patristics, and Byzantine or Orthodox Christian theology. I am especially interested in topics that have to do with modes of liturgical expression, such as homiletics and hymnography, and the use of rhetoric in the early Christian and Byzantine Churches. The relationship between Eastern and Western Christendom, especially in the late antique and medieval periods, is another field in which I am becoming involved.

Teaching Summary

I teach a first-year module on the development of Christian thought from the end of the first century through 1600. My upper level modules include 'Asceticism and Sanctity in the Early Christian… read more

Research Summary

I am currently carrying out research on 8th- and 9th-century Byzantine texts on the Virgin Mary. These include sermons and narrative accounts of the Virgin's life. The sermons were mainly written for… read more

Recent Publications

  • CUNNINGHAM, MARY B., 2011. 'The use of the Protevangelion of James in eighth-century homilies on the Mother of God'. In: CUNNINGHAM, MARY B. AND BRUBAKER, LESLIE, ed., The Cult of the Mother of God in Byzantium: Texts and Images Aldershot: Ashgate Publishing. 163-78
  • CUNNINGHAM, MARY B. AND BRUBAKER, LESLIE, ed., 2011. The Cult of the Mother of God in Byzantium: Texts and Images Aldershot: Ashgate Publishing.
  • MARY B. CUNNINGHAM, 2011. 'Energies, Divine' and 'Iconoclasm'. In: I.A. MCFARLAND, D.A.S. FERGUSSON, K. KILBY AND I.R. TORRANCE, ed., The Cambridge Dictionary of Christian Theology Cambridge University Press. 163-64; 231-32
  • MARY B. CUNNINGHAM, 2011. 'Messages in Context: The Reading of Sermons in Byzantine Churches and Monasteries'. In: A. LYMBEROPOULOU, ed., Images of the Byzantine World: Visions, Messages and Meanings.: Studies Presented to Leslie Brubaker Aldershot: Ashgate Publishing. 83-98

I teach a first-year module on the development of Christian thought from the end of the first century through 1600. My upper level modules include 'Asceticism and Sanctity in the Early Christian World', 'Themes in Orthodox Christian Theology', and 'The Virgin Mary in Doctrine and Tradition'. I also teach one module ('The Virgin Mary') in the M.A. Distance Learning course on Church History. I am currently pursuing research on all of these topics.

Current Research

I am currently carrying out research on 8th- and 9th-century Byzantine texts on the Virgin Mary. These include sermons and narrative accounts of the Virgin's life. The sermons were mainly written for feast-days including Mary's nativity, entrance into the temple, conception, annunciation and the deposition of two relics, a robe and a belt, in Constantinople. I published translations and commentaries on twelve eighth-century sermons in a book entitled Wider than heaven. Eighth-century Greek Sermons on the Mother of God (Crestwood, NY: St Vladimir's Seminary Press, 2008). This publication is one of the fruits of an AHRC-funded research project, conducted at the University of Birmingham from 2003-6, on the cult of the Virgin Mary in Byzantium during the period of Iconoclasm (ca. 730-843). Prof Leslie Brubaker and I have also edited a volume of proceedings from a conference, funded by the AHRC and the British Academy, held in August 2006. This book, entitled 'The Cult of the Mother of God in Byzantium: Texts and Images' (Aldershot: Ashgate, 2011), appeared in August 2011. Building on work carried out in my PhD thesis on the 8th-century Byzantine preacher and hymnographer, Andrew of Crete, I remain interested in homilies as a literary form, as the means of educating lay people in the context of the divine liturgy and other liturgical services, and as a conversation between preachers and their audiences. The book which I co-edited with Pauline Allen, Preacher and Audience: Studies in Early Christian and Byzantine Homiletics (Leiden: Brill, 1998) sets out a methodology for studying the reception of sermons, the extent to which rhetoric facilitates understanding and emotional involvement, and the problems of an increasingly 'high-style' form of preaching in the middle and later Byzantine period.

Future Research

My future research will, I hope, follow several avenues: I shall 1) write a detailed study on Marian devotion in 8th-9th-century Byzantium; 2) work on ascetic theology in the early Church; 3) study the encounter between Orthodox and Catholic delegates at the council of Ferrara-Florence in 1438-9. For a report on the progress of this project, which began as a text seminar at the University of Birmingham between 2007 and 2008, see the web-site at: www.syropoulos.co.uk

  • CUNNINGHAM, MARY B., 2011. 'The use of the Protevangelion of James in eighth-century homilies on the Mother of God'. In: CUNNINGHAM, MARY B. AND BRUBAKER, LESLIE, ed., The Cult of the Mother of God in Byzantium: Texts and Images Aldershot: Ashgate Publishing. 163-78
  • CUNNINGHAM, MARY B. AND BRUBAKER, LESLIE, ed., 2011. The Cult of the Mother of God in Byzantium: Texts and Images Aldershot: Ashgate Publishing.
  • MARY B. CUNNINGHAM, 2011. 'Energies, Divine' and 'Iconoclasm'. In: I.A. MCFARLAND, D.A.S. FERGUSSON, K. KILBY AND I.R. TORRANCE, ed., The Cambridge Dictionary of Christian Theology Cambridge University Press. 163-64; 231-32
  • MARY B. CUNNINGHAM, 2011. 'Messages in Context: The Reading of Sermons in Byzantine Churches and Monasteries'. In: A. LYMBEROPOULOU, ed., Images of the Byzantine World: Visions, Messages and Meanings.: Studies Presented to Leslie Brubaker Aldershot: Ashgate Publishing. 83-98
  • CUNNINGHAM, MARY B., 2010. 'The reception of Romanos in Middle Byzantine homiletics and hymnography' Dumbarton Oaks Papers. 62, 251-60
  • CUNNINGHAM, MARY B., 2010. 'The role of faith in the Byzantine worldview'. In: LIZ JAMES, ed., A Companion to Byzantium Oxford: Wiley Blackwell. 149-60
  • CUNNINGHAM, MARY B. AND THEOKRITOFF, ELIZABETH, EDS., 2008. Cambridge Companion to Orthodox Christian Theology Cambridge University Press.
  • CUNNINGHAM, MARY B., 2008. 'Homilies' and 'Clergy, monks and laity'. In: E. JEFFREYS, R. CORMACK AND J. HALDON, ed., The Oxford Handbook of Byzantine Studies Oxford: Oxford University Press. 527-37, 872-81
  • CUNNINGHAM, MARY B., 2008. 'Wider Than Heaven': Eighth-Century Homilies on the Mother of God St Vladimir's Seminary Press.
  • CUNNINGHAM, MARY B., 2007. 'Divine banquet: the Theotokos as a source of spiritual nourishment'. In: LESLIE BRUBAKER, ed., 'Eat, Drink, and Be Merry': Production, Consumption and Celebration of Food and Wine in Byzantium Aldershot: Ashgate Publishing. 235-44
  • CUNNINGHAM, MARY B. AND BRUBAKER, LESLIE, 2007. 'Byzantine veneration of the Theotokos: icons, relics, and eighth-century homilies'. In: H. AMIRAV AND B. TER HAAR ROMENY, ed., From Rome to Constantinople: Studies in Honour of Averil Cameron Leuven: P. Peeters. 235-50
  • CUNNINGHAM, MARY B. AND BRUBAKER, LESLIE, 2007. 'The Christian book in medieval Byzantium'. In: T. NOBLE AND J. SMITH, ed., The Cambridge History of Christianity, vol. 3: Early Medieval Christianity Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. 554-80
  • CUNNINGHAM, MARY B., 2006. 'All-Holy Infant': Byzantine and Western views on the conception of the Virgin Mary St Vladimir's Seminary Quarterly. 50(1-2), 127-48
  • CUNNINGHAM, MARY B., 2004. 'The letter and the spirit: some problems in transmitting patristic texts to a modern audience'. In: M. MULLETT, ed., Metaphrastes, or Gained in Translation Belfast: Queen's University Press. 28-38
  • CUNNINGHAM, MARY B., 2004. 'The meeting of the old and the new: the typology of Mary the Theotokos in Byzantine homilies and hymns'. In: R.N. SWANSON, ed., Studies in Church History: The Church and Mary 39. Woodbridge, Suffolk: Boydell Press. 52-62
  • CUNNINGHAM, M.B., 2003. Dramatic device or didactic tool? The function of dialogue in Byzantine preaching. In: JEFFREYS, E., ed., Rhetoric in Byzantium: papers from the thirty-fifth Spring Symposium of Byzantine Studies, Exeter College, University of Oxford, March 2001 Aldershot: Ashgate. 101-113
  • CUNNINGHAM, MARY B., 2002. Faith in the Byzantine World Lion Hudson.
  • CUNNINGHAM, MARY B., 1999. 'Polemic and exegesis: anti-Judaic invective in Byzantine homiletics' Sobornost incorporating Eastern Churches Review. 46-68
  • CUNNINGHAM, MARY B., 1999. 'Shutting the gates of the soul: spiritual treatises on resisting the passions'. In: LIZ JAMES, ed., Desire and Denial in Byzantium Aldershot: Ashgate Publishing. 23-32
  • CUNNINGHAM, MARY B., 1999. 'The Orthodox Church in Byzantium'. In: ADRIAN HASTINGS, ed., A World History of Christianity London: Cassell. 66-109
  • CUNNINGHAM, MARY B. AND ALLEN, PAULINE, ed., 1998. Preacher and Audience: Studies in Early Christian and Byzantine Homiletics Leiden: Brill.
  • CUNNINGHAM, MARY B., 1998. 'Andrew of Crete: a high-style preacher of the eighth century'. In: CUNNINGHAM, MARY B. AND ALLEN, PAULINE, ed., Preacher and Audience: Studies in Early Christian and Byzantine Homiletics Leiden: Brill. 267-93
  • CUNNINGHAM, MARY B., 1998. 'The Mother of God in early Byzantine homilies' Sobornost incorporating Eastern Churches Review. 53-67
  • CUNNINGHAM, MARY B., 1997. 'Andrew of Crete's homily on Lazarus: the preacher and his audience'. In: E.A. LIVINGSTONE, ed., Studia Patristica: Proceedings of the Twelfth International Conference on Patristic Studies Leuven: P. Peeters.
  • CUNNINGHAM, MARY B. AND BRYER, A.A.M., ed., 1996. Mount Athos and Byzantine Monasticism Aldershot: Ashgate Publishing.
  • CUNNINGHAM, MARY B., 1996. 'The sixth century: a turning-point for Byzantine homiletics?'. In: P. ALLEN AND E. JEFFREYS, ed., The Sixth Century: End or Beginning?: Byzantina Australiensia 10. Brisbane: Centre for Early Christian Studies. 176-86
  • CUNNINGHAM, MARY B., 1995. 'Innovation or mimesis in Byzantine sermons?. In: A.R. LITTLEWOOD, ed., Originality and Innovation in Byzantine Literature, Art and Music Oxford: Oxbow Books. 67-80
  • CUNNINGHAM, MARY B., 1991. The Life of Michael the Synkellos: Text, Translation and Commentary Belfast: Queen's University Press.
  • CUNNINGHAM, MARY B., 1990. 'Preaching and the community'. In: ROSEMARY MORRIS, ed., Church and People in Byzantium Birmingham: The University of Birmingham. 29-47
  • CUNNINGHAM, MARY B., 1986. 'Basil of Seleucia's homily on Lazarus: a new edition' Analecta Bollandiana. 161-84
  • CUNNINGHAM, MARY B and FEATHERSTONE, J.M. AND GEORGIOPOULOU, S., 1983. 'Theodore Metochites' poem to Nikephoros Xanthopoulos: a new edition and translation'. In: Okeanos: A Tribute to I. Sevcenko: Harvard Ukrainian Studies Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press. 100-16

Department of Theology and Religious Studies

University of Nottingham
University Park
Nottingham, NG7 2RD

Contact details