Marvin Lee Anderson, Ph.D.

Sessional Instructor 

416-778-8046
marvin.anderson@utoronto.ca

Education

B.A. (Magna Cum Laude) Trinity College, Chicago
M.A. Religious Studies, Mundelein College, Chicago
Ph.D. Theology, University of St. Michael’s College, Toronto

Personal statement

I have been a Fellow at the Centre for Renaissance and Reformation Studies (CRRS) at Victoria College, University of Toronto, since 2010. I was delighted to teach a new online summer course (2021), Mysticism and Monasticism in Context: Love, Longing, and Belonging, at AST in the midst of Covid-19. We studied the late medieval women Christian mystics who not only endured pandemics during their lifetime, but charges of heresy and systemic suppression by the church. Their courageous voices have stood the test of time and anchor us amidst the chaos of our world with their poignant testimonies of divine love, freedom and joy.

This summer I will be supervising a Directed Study for the AST summer session (as I did last summer), Rural Context and Culture for Ministry, in conjunction with Rural Routes Through the Holy, which is meeting in PEI from June 15-17, 2023. I have taught M.Div. courses on various aspects of rural ministry and rural communities including “Theology of the Land” for more than thirty years in more than a dozen theological colleges and seminaries in North America. For more information on courses, workshops and publications on rural ministry and communities, refer to my personal website: www.ruraljustified.com.

Courses taught on the history of Christianity

Society, Culture, and Religion in the Renaissance and Reformation; Late Medieval Mysticism and the Roots of Dissent; Spiritual Forerunners of the Reformation; Early Church History; Luther; Witches, Mystics and Free Spirits

Previous teaching positions

Sessional Lecturer, Department of History, University of Toronto
Sessional Lecturer, Department for the Study of Religion, University of Toronto
Visiting Instructor, Chair of Town and Country Ministries, Saint Paul School of Theology, Kansas City, Missouri
Sessional Lecturer, Emmanuel College, Knox College, and Toronto School of Theology

Research interests

Import of late medieval Rhineland German mysticism and spiritual movements, i.e., the Beguines, Marguerite Porete, Meister Eckhart, Johannes Tauler and Henry Suso, and the Theologia Germanica on the sixteenth-century Radical Reformation          

Organizer of major international conference

Coordinated the 32nd annual meeting (2019) of The Eckhart Society in Leeds, U.K. (http://www.eckhartsociety.org) on the topic: “Eckhart and the Radical Reformation.” All the papers, including my own, have been published in Medieval Mystical Theology.

Relevant link on personal website to course: http://www.ruraljustified.com/Course2.html

Recent publications

  • “For Land’s Sake,” in The Land is Us, Listening to Indigenous Voices. Jesuit Forum for Social Faith and Justice (2021): www.ltiv.ca
  • “‘Hearing the Inner Word’: The Eckhartian Roots of Radical Dissent and ‘Enthusiasm,’ Medieval Mystical Theology, vol. 29/2, 2020.
  • “Fighting the Thirty Years’ War on Two Fronts: Religious Intolerance and Militant Nationalism as Threats to Christ’s Presence in the World,” in Reframing Reformation: Understanding Religious Difference in Early Modern Europe, ed. Nicholas Terpstra (Toronto: CRRS, 2020).
  • “Are You Heavy Laden? A Healing Liturgy of Lament,” Liturgy, Liturgy in Rural Settings, v 32/4, 2017.

Academic Societies

  • Renaissance Society of America
  • Sixteenth Century Society and Conference
  • The Eckhart Society U.K.