Learning to Learn: Didactic Efficacy and Cognitive Dissonance in the Chester Cycle

Abstract

ABSTRACT Through a close reading of the staging of miracles in the Middle English Chester cycle, this article argues for a reappraisal of the religious didacticism of the medieval mystery cycle tradition. By approaching the Chester cycle’s didactic impetus from the lens of medieval miracle theory, I argue for distinct theoretical parallels between the Thomist formulation of wonder and learning and modern cognitive dissonance theory. The interplay between wonder and dissonance throughout Chester’s miracle episodes reveals how the cycle’s staging of miracles functions to teach spectators not only orthodox doctrine but also a method of learning. Ultimately, Chester’s religious didacticism is rendered efficacious through the sophisticated cognitive interplay between learning and performance, one that medieval thought articulated nearly 700 years prior to recent developments in cognitive theory.