Holy Instruction, Demonic Deceit, and the Body: A Translation of Jean Gerson’s Sermon on Angels (Collatio de Angelis)

Abstract

ABSTRACT Jean Gerson (1363–1429), theologian and chancellor of the University of Paris, is well known for his writings on the “discernment of spirits.” Gerson’s Sermon on Angels (1392), translated here, provides his earliest thoughts on judging the supernatural. In it, Gerson explains how angels instruct and demons seduce the cognitive faculties of men and women. The related challenges of authenticating true religious visions and exposing demonic or naturalistic fakes led Gerson to doubt some would-be visionaries and even question the role of visionary evidence in canonization trials. While these doubts are also articulated in his later, better-known treatises on discernment, he describes how he came to those conclusions here, in an exploration of the physiology of visions and demonic deception. Gerson’s sermon highlights the delicate role that cognition plays in assessing supernatural experiences and helps to explain the criticisms of ascetic practices included in his later treatises on spiritual discernment.