Dr Michael Hahn
Programme Leader for Postgraduate Programmes in Christian Spirituality, Sarum College
Michael Hahn is a theologian, medievalist and church historian working primarily on the history and development of Christian mysticism and on Franciscan spirituality and theology. He has particular experience researching the lives and theologies of Francis of Assisi, Clare of Assisi, Bonaventure and Angela of Foligno.
Michael leads the postgraduate programmes in Christian spirituality at Sarum College in Salisbury and is also the tutor in the history of Christianity at the University of London. Additionally, he is a research affiliate at the Ruusbroec Institute for the Study of the History of Spirituality in the Low Countries at the University of Antwerp and at the Margaret Beaufort Institute of Theology in Cambridge.
Previously he has taught at the University of St Andrews, York St John University and the University of Toronto, and was an Andrew Mellon Postdoctoral Research Fellow at the Pontifical Institute of Medieval Studies. Alongside John Arblaster, Michael has received funding for a four-year research project examining the late medieval and early modern reception history of Angela of Foligno, considering the changing perception and reception of medieval female theologians as teachers of theology.
Publications
Michael is currently completing two book projects:
A monograph with Routledge, called Bonaventure, Angela of Foligno and the Mystical Theologies of Early Franciscans.
An edited collection for Brill’s Companions to the Christian Traditions series, co-edited with Pablo Acosta-García, A Companion to Angela of Foligno.
Additionally, Michael has several articles and book chapters in print or 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.
‘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, 2024.
‘Becoming Nothing in Christianity, Sufism and Buddhism: Why Christian annihilation is not nirvana. A response to Barbara Newman.’ In The Bloomsbury Handbook to Comparative Mysticism. Edited by Louise Nelstrop and Saeko Yazaki. London: Bloomsbury, 2023.
‘Hagiographic Memorization and Performance: Angela of Foligno’s sources for the life and spirituality of Francis of Assisi.’ In Hoghe minne es deen vor dander: Essays on the Christian Mystical Tradition. Edited by John Arblaster. Turnhout: Brepols, 2024.
‘Angela of Foligno: Teacher of 21st-century Theologians in the Time of COVID-19?’ In Pandemic Reflections: Saint Francis and the Lepers Catch Up with COVID. Edited by Geof-frey Karabin. Cambridge: Ethics Press, 2023.
‘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.
‘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.
‘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.
Five other solicited contributions to edited books are currently being written, with one journal article currently under peer review.