GREENVILLE, Pa.—Thiel College Professor of English and Pedas Endowed Chair of Communication Mary Theresa Hall, Ph.D. recently published a book review of “Sacred and Secular Transactions in the Age of Shakespeare,” which was edited by Katherine Steele Brokaw and Jay Zysk.
The review was published in The Sixteenth-Century Journal: The Journal of Early Modern Studies. The University of Chicago Press published the book review in Volume 55, Numbers 3-4. Brokaw and Zysk invited 10 early modern drama specialists to address the conjoining of the sacred and the secular in select pieces of drama and literature. Ten essays represent the transactions rather than the boundaries that Shakespeare and other early modern writers and dramatists employed in crossing the religious and the secular. Divided into four parts with two or three essays per section—“Defining a Secular Hermeneutics,” “Political and Social Secularities,” “Spaces of the Secular,” and “Secular Aesthetics,”—the book succeeds in selecting various dramas, images from early modern art, and hymns from the Book of Common Prayer that demonstrate the blurring of the boundaries between the sacred and secular and provide a space for reconciliation, counter to the binary view of the dominant Reformation theology. The essays consider such Shakespearean dramas as “All’s Well that Ends Well,” “Much Ado About Nothing,” “Romeo and Juliet,” “Measure for Measure,” “Hamlet,” “Henry V,” “Henry VIII,” and “The Tempest” to prove the permeability of the sacred and the secular in art and in life.
This scholarly volume compellingly argues for the creative juxtaposition and adjoining of the sacred and the secular in the early modern and contemporary world, and the significance of the humanities in demonstrating and underscoring this coalescence.
Additionally, Hall was recognized with a pair of honors in 2024. She was formally recognized as the James Pedas ’50 H ’89 Chair of Communication in February and the first floor of Greenville Hall was named in her honor in May. The first floor of the building built in 1872 by the citizens of Greenville is called Hall Commons.
Hall began teaching at Thiel in 1999. She served as Associate Academic Dean for the College from 2016 to 2018. In 2022, Hall was named the Dietrich Honors Institute Student Advisory Board awarded her the inaugural DHI Professor of the Year Award. Hall has also served the College as the faculty chair. Her work has been published in academic journals and presented at academic conferences. She was also named the Thiel College Professor of the Year for the 2021-2022 academic year, which is a distinguished award given to professors who exemplify service and hard work both in and out of the classroom. Hall received her bachelor’s degree in English and secondary certification in English and French from Seton Hill University; a master’s in literature from Carnegie Mellon University; and a Ph.D. from Duquesne University.
About Thiel College
Thiel College is an independent college founded in the Lutheran tradition. Located in Greenville, Pa., the College offers 60 majors and minors, 24 varsity sports, and an 11:1 student-faculty ratio. The College is also home to a new Master of Science in speech-language pathology and 2Master of Business Administration. Both master’s degree programs offer innovative and accelerated five-year paths which allow students to earn a bachelor’s and master’s degree in five years. The speech-language pathology program also has an accelerated 15-month graduate-level program. The M.B.A. program also has a 12-month post-graduate program.A dedicated faculty paired with dynamic research and internship opportunities produce numerous graduate school and job placements. Coeducational from its beginnings, the College remains committed to combining tradition with innovation as it celebrates 150 years.