In times of flood: Environmental Imagination in Odo of Châteauroux’ (c. 1190–1273) “Sermo in processione facta propter inundationem aquarum”

Abstract

In the 13th century, perhaps in the year 1233, a flood submerged Paris. In the wake of the flood, Odo of Châteauroux, master of theology at the University of Paris, held a sermon as part of a procession organized to protect the city and make the flood cease. This thesis is an analysis of the sermon, “Sermo in processione facta propter inundationem aquarum”. The overarching aim of this thesis is to get a deeper insight into Odo’s interpretations of the Parisian flood and to get a deeper understanding of how the environment and human-environmental relations were imagined and conveyed in the medieval period. Odo interprets the Parisian flood through biblical narratives. He draws on cultural contingent modes of explaining natural disasters—the divine-wrath mode and the eschatological mode—and interprets the flood both as a form of divine punishment directed toward the Parisian community and in light of salvation history. In the analysis, I bring in perspectives from environmental humanities. I argue that Odo’s interpretations of the Parisian flood point to and negotiate between different environmental imaginaries of his time. The divine-wrath mode points to environmental imaginaries where humans are entirely intertwined with their non-human environment and seen as morally accountable for natural degeneration and natural disasters through their sinfulness. The eschatological mode brings in broader temporal and spatial scales in the conceptualization of the environment and human-environmental relations as the contemporary flood is conceptually linked to global, environmental events in the biblical past and future. By applying environmental humanities perspectives in historical studies, we can explore new sides of the past and catch sight of how conceptualizations of the environment and human-environmental relations are culturally contingent and historically changeable.