Arthur Versluis
- Published in print:
- 2006
- Published Online:
- October 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780195306378
- eISBN:
- 9780199850914
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195306378.001.0001
- Subject:
- Religion, History of Christianity
This book provides an investigation into the intellectual origins of totalitarianism. The book unveils the connections between heretic-hunting in early and medieval Christianity, and the emergence of ...
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This book provides an investigation into the intellectual origins of totalitarianism. The book unveils the connections between heretic-hunting in early and medieval Christianity, and the emergence of totalitarianism in the 20th century. It shows how secular political thinkers in the 19th century inaugurated a tradition of defending the Inquisition, and how Inquisition-style heretic-hunting later manifested across the spectrum of 20th-century totalitarianism. This book begins with early Christianity, and traces heretic-hunting as a phenomenon through the middle ages and right into the 20th century, showing how the same inquisitional modes of thought recur both on the political Left and on the political Right.Less
This book provides an investigation into the intellectual origins of totalitarianism. The book unveils the connections between heretic-hunting in early and medieval Christianity, and the emergence of totalitarianism in the 20th century. It shows how secular political thinkers in the 19th century inaugurated a tradition of defending the Inquisition, and how Inquisition-style heretic-hunting later manifested across the spectrum of 20th-century totalitarianism. This book begins with early Christianity, and traces heretic-hunting as a phenomenon through the middle ages and right into the 20th century, showing how the same inquisitional modes of thought recur both on the political Left and on the political Right.
Judith Herrin
- Published in print:
- 2013
- Published Online:
- October 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780691153018
- eISBN:
- 9781400845224
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Princeton University Press
- DOI:
- 10.23943/princeton/9780691153018.001.0001
- Subject:
- History, World Medieval History
This volume explores the political, cultural, and ecclesiastical forces that linked the metropolis of Byzantium to the margins of its far-flung empire. Focusing on the provincial region of Hellas and ...
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This volume explores the political, cultural, and ecclesiastical forces that linked the metropolis of Byzantium to the margins of its far-flung empire. Focusing on the provincial region of Hellas and Peloponnesos in central and southern Greece, the book shows how the prestige of Constantinople was reflected in the military, civilian, and ecclesiastical officials sent out to govern the provinces. It evokes the ideology and culture of the center by examining different aspects of the imperial court, including diplomacy, ceremony, intellectual life, and relations with the church. Particular topics treat the transmission of mathematical manuscripts, the burning of offensive material, and the church's role in distributing philanthropy. The book contrasts life in the capital with provincial life, tracing the adaptation of a largely rural population to rule by Constantinople from the early medieval period onward. The letters of Michael Choniates, archbishop of Athens from 1182 to 1205, offer a detailed account of how this highly educated cleric coped with life in an imperial backwater, and demonstrate a synthesis of ancient Greek culture and medieval Christianity that was characteristic of the Byzantine elite. The chapters draw together a significant body of scholarship on problems of empire. The book features a general introduction, two previously unpublished essays, and a concise introduction to each essay that describes how it came to be written and how it fits into the book's broader analysis of the unusual brilliance and longevity of Byzantium.Less
This volume explores the political, cultural, and ecclesiastical forces that linked the metropolis of Byzantium to the margins of its far-flung empire. Focusing on the provincial region of Hellas and Peloponnesos in central and southern Greece, the book shows how the prestige of Constantinople was reflected in the military, civilian, and ecclesiastical officials sent out to govern the provinces. It evokes the ideology and culture of the center by examining different aspects of the imperial court, including diplomacy, ceremony, intellectual life, and relations with the church. Particular topics treat the transmission of mathematical manuscripts, the burning of offensive material, and the church's role in distributing philanthropy. The book contrasts life in the capital with provincial life, tracing the adaptation of a largely rural population to rule by Constantinople from the early medieval period onward. The letters of Michael Choniates, archbishop of Athens from 1182 to 1205, offer a detailed account of how this highly educated cleric coped with life in an imperial backwater, and demonstrate a synthesis of ancient Greek culture and medieval Christianity that was characteristic of the Byzantine elite. The chapters draw together a significant body of scholarship on problems of empire. The book features a general introduction, two previously unpublished essays, and a concise introduction to each essay that describes how it came to be written and how it fits into the book's broader analysis of the unusual brilliance and longevity of Byzantium.
Rebecca Krug
- Published in print:
- 2017
- Published Online:
- September 2017
- ISBN:
- 9781501705335
- eISBN:
- 9781501708169
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Cornell University Press
- DOI:
- 10.7591/cornell/9781501705335.001.0001
- Subject:
- Literature, Early and Medieval Literature
Since its rediscovery in 1934, the fifteenth-century Book of Margery Kempe has become a canonical text for students of medieval Christian mysticism and spirituality. Its author was a ...
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Since its rediscovery in 1934, the fifteenth-century Book of Margery Kempe has become a canonical text for students of medieval Christian mysticism and spirituality. Its author was a fifteenth-century English laywoman who, after the birth of her first child, experienced vivid religious visions and vowed to lead a deeply religious life while remaining part of the secular world. After twenty years, Kempe began to compose with the help of scribes a book of consolation, a type of devotional writing found in late medieval religious culture that taught readers how to find spiritual comfort and how to feel about one's spiritual life. This book shows how and why Kempe wrote her Book, arguing that in her engagement with written culture she discovered a desire to experience spiritual comfort and to interact with fellow believers who also sought to live lives of intense emotional engagement. An unlikely candidate for authorship in the late medieval period given her gender and lack of formal education, Kempe wrote her Book as a revisionary act. This book shows how the Book reinterprets concepts from late medieval devotional writing (comfort, despair, shame, fear, and loneliness) in its search to create a spiritual community that reaches out to and includes Kempe, her friends, family, advisers, and potential readers. It offers a fresh analysis of the Book as a written work and draws attention to the importance of reading, revision, and collaboration for understanding both Kempe's particular decision to write and the social conditions of late medieval women's authorship.Less
Since its rediscovery in 1934, the fifteenth-century Book of Margery Kempe has become a canonical text for students of medieval Christian mysticism and spirituality. Its author was a fifteenth-century English laywoman who, after the birth of her first child, experienced vivid religious visions and vowed to lead a deeply religious life while remaining part of the secular world. After twenty years, Kempe began to compose with the help of scribes a book of consolation, a type of devotional writing found in late medieval religious culture that taught readers how to find spiritual comfort and how to feel about one's spiritual life. This book shows how and why Kempe wrote her Book, arguing that in her engagement with written culture she discovered a desire to experience spiritual comfort and to interact with fellow believers who also sought to live lives of intense emotional engagement. An unlikely candidate for authorship in the late medieval period given her gender and lack of formal education, Kempe wrote her Book as a revisionary act. This book shows how the Book reinterprets concepts from late medieval devotional writing (comfort, despair, shame, fear, and loneliness) in its search to create a spiritual community that reaches out to and includes Kempe, her friends, family, advisers, and potential readers. It offers a fresh analysis of the Book as a written work and draws attention to the importance of reading, revision, and collaboration for understanding both Kempe's particular decision to write and the social conditions of late medieval women's authorship.
Elisheva Carlebach
- Published in print:
- 2001
- Published Online:
- October 2013
- ISBN:
- 9780300084108
- eISBN:
- 9780300133066
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Yale University Press
- DOI:
- 10.12987/yale/9780300084108.003.0003
- Subject:
- Religion, Judaism
This chapter discusses the obsession of medieval Christianity with gathering Jewish converts. It states that despite being frequently asked to convert by well-intentioned missionaries and the elite ...
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This chapter discusses the obsession of medieval Christianity with gathering Jewish converts. It states that despite being frequently asked to convert by well-intentioned missionaries and the elite clerics, medieval Jews experienced rejection and distrust from others. It examines the different images of the unchanging nature of Jewish converts and the Christian's suspicion towards Jewish converts. The discussion then looks at the violence that the Christians showed towards the Jews in an effort to coerce them into converting, which also played a role in punishing criminals. It then looks at how Jews viewed baptism as a form of deception and the push that was given to the Jewish converts to prove themselves to the Christians by attacking Judaism and Jews.Less
This chapter discusses the obsession of medieval Christianity with gathering Jewish converts. It states that despite being frequently asked to convert by well-intentioned missionaries and the elite clerics, medieval Jews experienced rejection and distrust from others. It examines the different images of the unchanging nature of Jewish converts and the Christian's suspicion towards Jewish converts. The discussion then looks at the violence that the Christians showed towards the Jews in an effort to coerce them into converting, which also played a role in punishing criminals. It then looks at how Jews viewed baptism as a form of deception and the push that was given to the Jewish converts to prove themselves to the Christians by attacking Judaism and Jews.
Bernhard Maier
- Published in print:
- 2015
- Published Online:
- January 2016
- ISBN:
- 9780719097317
- eISBN:
- 9781781708569
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Manchester University Press
- DOI:
- 10.7228/manchester/9780719097317.003.0002
- Subject:
- History, British and Irish Modern History
The chapter outlines the salient features of early Irish ecclesiastical organisation. Some characteristic forms of liturgy, piety and devotion are indicated. Among the issues addressed is the ...
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The chapter outlines the salient features of early Irish ecclesiastical organisation. Some characteristic forms of liturgy, piety and devotion are indicated. Among the issues addressed is the relationship between pagan past and Christian present in early medieval Ireland. This is an essential factor not only for the grafting of the new religion onto forms of Celtic thought and culture, but also for how in later centuries the Irish would look to their ‘Celtic past’ for a sense of themselves. Some consideration is given to the Irish contribution to the Christianisation of north Britain and areas of mainland continental Europe. It also raises the question of whether or not there was a distinctively Celtic form of Christianity. Finally, the chapter explores the issue of the formative influences of this early period on the post-Norman developments in Irish religion, society and identity.Less
The chapter outlines the salient features of early Irish ecclesiastical organisation. Some characteristic forms of liturgy, piety and devotion are indicated. Among the issues addressed is the relationship between pagan past and Christian present in early medieval Ireland. This is an essential factor not only for the grafting of the new religion onto forms of Celtic thought and culture, but also for how in later centuries the Irish would look to their ‘Celtic past’ for a sense of themselves. Some consideration is given to the Irish contribution to the Christianisation of north Britain and areas of mainland continental Europe. It also raises the question of whether or not there was a distinctively Celtic form of Christianity. Finally, the chapter explores the issue of the formative influences of this early period on the post-Norman developments in Irish religion, society and identity.
Gananath Obeyesekere
- Published in print:
- 2012
- Published Online:
- November 2015
- ISBN:
- 9780231153621
- eISBN:
- 9780231527309
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Columbia University Press
- DOI:
- 10.7312/columbia/9780231153621.003.0005
- Subject:
- Religion, Philosophy of Religion
This chapter analyzes the rich visionary traditions in medieval Christianity. It first analyzes the visions of Julian of Norwich, the first known female author in England. These visions are recorded ...
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This chapter analyzes the rich visionary traditions in medieval Christianity. It first analyzes the visions of Julian of Norwich, the first known female author in England. These visions are recorded in two texts, both of which begin with Julian's wish for three things: a vivid perception of Christ's Passion; bodily sickness; and for God to give her three wounds. It then attempts to understand the symbolic meanings of dryness by interrogating a study on the parallelism between the “holy anorexia” of Christian female religious virtuosos and anorexia nervosa, the neurotic condition afflicting modern-day females. Next, it examines the notion of fasting females and the spiritual nourishment that sustained them through St. Teresa of Avila (1515–1582). The remainder of the chapter discusses Margery Kempe, born around 1373, and her unique relation to Jesus, that is, her continual weeping and crying whenever she recollects his Passion.Less
This chapter analyzes the rich visionary traditions in medieval Christianity. It first analyzes the visions of Julian of Norwich, the first known female author in England. These visions are recorded in two texts, both of which begin with Julian's wish for three things: a vivid perception of Christ's Passion; bodily sickness; and for God to give her three wounds. It then attempts to understand the symbolic meanings of dryness by interrogating a study on the parallelism between the “holy anorexia” of Christian female religious virtuosos and anorexia nervosa, the neurotic condition afflicting modern-day females. Next, it examines the notion of fasting females and the spiritual nourishment that sustained them through St. Teresa of Avila (1515–1582). The remainder of the chapter discusses Margery Kempe, born around 1373, and her unique relation to Jesus, that is, her continual weeping and crying whenever she recollects his Passion.
Erin Lambert
- Published in print:
- 2017
- Published Online:
- November 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780190661649
- eISBN:
- 9780190661670
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/oso/9780190661649.003.0002
- Subject:
- Music, History, Western
Chapter 1 explores the central role that the promise of universal resurrection and its enactment in the liturgy played in the constitution of the late medieval Christian community of faith. Together, ...
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Chapter 1 explores the central role that the promise of universal resurrection and its enactment in the liturgy played in the constitution of the late medieval Christian community of faith. Together, it argues, raised voices and the promise of the resurrection of the dead created the ideal of a universal Christian community that was to remain forever united and that was bound together by a shared experience of ritual. The chapter presents a case study of the ways in which resurrection pervaded the aural, visual, and material culture of Nuremberg, particularly in the commemoration of the dead with the Requiem Mass and the Office of the Dead. Throughout the late medieval city, sounds, objects, and gestures defined a community of faith that was understood to encompass all Christians from the time of Christ until the apocalypse.Less
Chapter 1 explores the central role that the promise of universal resurrection and its enactment in the liturgy played in the constitution of the late medieval Christian community of faith. Together, it argues, raised voices and the promise of the resurrection of the dead created the ideal of a universal Christian community that was to remain forever united and that was bound together by a shared experience of ritual. The chapter presents a case study of the ways in which resurrection pervaded the aural, visual, and material culture of Nuremberg, particularly in the commemoration of the dead with the Requiem Mass and the Office of the Dead. Throughout the late medieval city, sounds, objects, and gestures defined a community of faith that was understood to encompass all Christians from the time of Christ until the apocalypse.
Mark Chinca
- Published in print:
- 2020
- Published Online:
- July 2020
- ISBN:
- 9780198861980
- eISBN:
- 9780191894787
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/oso/9780198861980.001.0001
- Subject:
- Literature, Early and Medieval Literature, European Literature
Meditating about death and the afterlife was one of the most important techniques that Christian societies in medieval and early modern Europe had at their disposal for developing a sense of ...
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Meditating about death and the afterlife was one of the most important techniques that Christian societies in medieval and early modern Europe had at their disposal for developing a sense of individual selfhood. Believers who regularly and systematically reflected on the inevitability of death and the certainty of eternal punishment in hell or reward in heaven would acquire an understanding of themselves as unique persons defined by their moral actions; they would also learn to discipline themselves by feeling remorse for their sins, doing penance, and cultivating a permanent vigilance over their future thoughts and deeds. The book covers a crucial period in the formation and transformation of the technique of meditating on death: from the thirteenth century, when a practice that had mainly been the preserve of a monastic elite began to be more widely disseminated among all segments of Christian society, to the sixteenth, when the Protestant Reformation transformed the technique of spiritual exercise into a Bible-based mindfulness that avoided the stigma of works piety. The book discusses the textual instructions for meditation as well as the theories and beliefs and doctrines that lay behind them; the sources are Latin and vernacular and enjoyed widespread circulation in Roman Christian and Protestant Europe during the period under consideration.Less
Meditating about death and the afterlife was one of the most important techniques that Christian societies in medieval and early modern Europe had at their disposal for developing a sense of individual selfhood. Believers who regularly and systematically reflected on the inevitability of death and the certainty of eternal punishment in hell or reward in heaven would acquire an understanding of themselves as unique persons defined by their moral actions; they would also learn to discipline themselves by feeling remorse for their sins, doing penance, and cultivating a permanent vigilance over their future thoughts and deeds. The book covers a crucial period in the formation and transformation of the technique of meditating on death: from the thirteenth century, when a practice that had mainly been the preserve of a monastic elite began to be more widely disseminated among all segments of Christian society, to the sixteenth, when the Protestant Reformation transformed the technique of spiritual exercise into a Bible-based mindfulness that avoided the stigma of works piety. The book discusses the textual instructions for meditation as well as the theories and beliefs and doctrines that lay behind them; the sources are Latin and vernacular and enjoyed widespread circulation in Roman Christian and Protestant Europe during the period under consideration.
Steven A. Epstein
- Published in print:
- 2015
- Published Online:
- August 2016
- ISBN:
- 9781501700507
- eISBN:
- 9781501703614
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Cornell University Press
- DOI:
- 10.7591/cornell/9781501700507.003.0004
- Subject:
- History, European Medieval History
This chapter examines the distinctive and revealing aspects of Jacopo's work and his original contributions to standard narratives. It looks at some of the saints' lives included in the Legenda Aurea ...
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This chapter examines the distinctive and revealing aspects of Jacopo's work and his original contributions to standard narratives. It looks at some of the saints' lives included in the Legenda Aurea (Golden Legend), beginning with the evangelists Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John; followed by the quartet of Michael the Archangel, John the Baptist, Mary Magdalene, and Paul. Three classic authorities for medieval Christianity—Augustine, Gregory the Great, and Bernard of Clairvaux—credited Jacopo for how he viewed the history of theological thought. In addition, contemporary thirteenth-century figures Dominic (1170–1221), Francis (1182/83–1226), Peter Martyr (1206–52), and Elizabeth of Hungary (1207–31) provide insights on how Jacopo responded to the world in which he lived.Less
This chapter examines the distinctive and revealing aspects of Jacopo's work and his original contributions to standard narratives. It looks at some of the saints' lives included in the Legenda Aurea (Golden Legend), beginning with the evangelists Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John; followed by the quartet of Michael the Archangel, John the Baptist, Mary Magdalene, and Paul. Three classic authorities for medieval Christianity—Augustine, Gregory the Great, and Bernard of Clairvaux—credited Jacopo for how he viewed the history of theological thought. In addition, contemporary thirteenth-century figures Dominic (1170–1221), Francis (1182/83–1226), Peter Martyr (1206–52), and Elizabeth of Hungary (1207–31) provide insights on how Jacopo responded to the world in which he lived.
Matthew Bryan Gillis
- Published in print:
- 2017
- Published Online:
- March 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780198797586
- eISBN:
- 9780191839153
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198797586.003.0001
- Subject:
- History, European Medieval History, History of Religion
Gottschalk of Orbais was an exceptional religious dissenter and heretic in the Carolingian Empire, whose Christianity required cooperation with ecclesiastical superiors and willing participation in ...
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Gottschalk of Orbais was an exceptional religious dissenter and heretic in the Carolingian Empire, whose Christianity required cooperation with ecclesiastical superiors and willing participation in religious correction. The Introduction surveys the book’s approaches in relation to historiography on Gottschalk and on the Carolingian Empire, emphasizing how this study interprets his literary and spiritual self-representations, his Augustinian-based theology of predestination, his modes of argument, his prophetic claims to martyrdom and miraculous powers, and his shocking defiance to bishops as strategies for influencing contemporaries in changing political circumstances. In the larger history of medieval heresy and dissent, Gottschalk’s case reveals how the Carolingian Empire preserved order within the church through coercive reform. The hierarchy compelled Christians to accept correction of perceived sins and errors, while punishing as sources of spiritual corruption those rare dissenters who resisted its authority.Less
Gottschalk of Orbais was an exceptional religious dissenter and heretic in the Carolingian Empire, whose Christianity required cooperation with ecclesiastical superiors and willing participation in religious correction. The Introduction surveys the book’s approaches in relation to historiography on Gottschalk and on the Carolingian Empire, emphasizing how this study interprets his literary and spiritual self-representations, his Augustinian-based theology of predestination, his modes of argument, his prophetic claims to martyrdom and miraculous powers, and his shocking defiance to bishops as strategies for influencing contemporaries in changing political circumstances. In the larger history of medieval heresy and dissent, Gottschalk’s case reveals how the Carolingian Empire preserved order within the church through coercive reform. The hierarchy compelled Christians to accept correction of perceived sins and errors, while punishing as sources of spiritual corruption those rare dissenters who resisted its authority.
Irving Singer
- Published in print:
- 2009
- Published Online:
- August 2013
- ISBN:
- 9780262512732
- eISBN:
- 9780262315128
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- The MIT Press
- DOI:
- 10.7551/mitpress/9780262512732.003.0007
- Subject:
- Philosophy, General
This chapter discusses the model of thinking put forth by Dante in his effort to establish harmony between human love and religious love. This model has been put to good use by philosophers in the ...
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This chapter discusses the model of thinking put forth by Dante in his effort to establish harmony between human love and religious love. This model has been put to good use by philosophers in the Italian Renaissance, most importantly by Marsilio Ficino, whose goal was simple; he endeavored to combine Plato’s philosophy with the orthodox dogmas of the Christian faith. Ficino, who dedicated himself to Platonism and became a parish priest, aiming to be wholly Platonic and wholly Christian, searched for complementary truths in each tradition so that he could strengthen both. It can be argued that his mission had already been accomplished, since medieval Christianity cannot be understood without its Platonic element. Ficino himself did not feel that his attempts to merge Platonism and Christianity were in any way revolutionary.Less
This chapter discusses the model of thinking put forth by Dante in his effort to establish harmony between human love and religious love. This model has been put to good use by philosophers in the Italian Renaissance, most importantly by Marsilio Ficino, whose goal was simple; he endeavored to combine Plato’s philosophy with the orthodox dogmas of the Christian faith. Ficino, who dedicated himself to Platonism and became a parish priest, aiming to be wholly Platonic and wholly Christian, searched for complementary truths in each tradition so that he could strengthen both. It can be argued that his mission had already been accomplished, since medieval Christianity cannot be understood without its Platonic element. Ficino himself did not feel that his attempts to merge Platonism and Christianity were in any way revolutionary.
Sethina Watson
- Published in print:
- 2020
- Published Online:
- August 2020
- ISBN:
- 9780198847533
- eISBN:
- 9780191882210
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/oso/9780198847533.003.0010
- Subject:
- History, European Medieval History, History of Religion
The conclusion reflects on some of the main findings from the book, especially its implications for a view of the relationship between church and world. It considers the changing efforts of ...
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The conclusion reflects on some of the main findings from the book, especially its implications for a view of the relationship between church and world. It considers the changing efforts of law-makers to engage with welfare across a millennium, stressing what is most significant in their diverse responses: a consistent understanding of the character and role of a xenodochium or hospital, as something imagined and made by any of the faithful. It was a model not merely recognized but cultivated by law-makers and prelates. Welfare was an obligation incumbent on any Christian, not merely to see, but to recognize the humanity in even the most wretched stranger. This obligation, fundamental to salvation, lay at the heart of Christian society and so medieval Christianity itself.Less
The conclusion reflects on some of the main findings from the book, especially its implications for a view of the relationship between church and world. It considers the changing efforts of law-makers to engage with welfare across a millennium, stressing what is most significant in their diverse responses: a consistent understanding of the character and role of a xenodochium or hospital, as something imagined and made by any of the faithful. It was a model not merely recognized but cultivated by law-makers and prelates. Welfare was an obligation incumbent on any Christian, not merely to see, but to recognize the humanity in even the most wretched stranger. This obligation, fundamental to salvation, lay at the heart of Christian society and so medieval Christianity itself.
Richard Sowerby
- Published in print:
- 2016
- Published Online:
- September 2016
- ISBN:
- 9780198785378
- eISBN:
- 9780191827303
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198785378.001.0001
- Subject:
- Religion, Religion and Society, Theology
In the modern world, angels perhaps seem to be no more than a symbol—something encountered only on the top of Christmas trees, or seemingly emblematic of Christian beliefs at their most traditional ...
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In the modern world, angels perhaps seem to be no more than a symbol—something encountered only on the top of Christmas trees, or seemingly emblematic of Christian beliefs at their most traditional and unchanging. But in the Middle Ages men and women thought differently. Some offered prayers intended to secure angelic assistance for the living and the dead; others erected stone monuments carved with images of winged figures; and still others made angels the subject of poetic endeavour and theological scholarship. This wealth of material has never been fully explored, and was once dismissed as the detritus of a superstitious age. This book offers a different perspective, by using angels as a prism through which to study the changing religious culture of an unfamiliar age. Focusing on one corner of medieval Europe which produced an abundance of material relating to angels, Richard Sowerby investigates the way that ancient beliefs about angels were preserved and adapted in England during the Anglo-Saxon period. Between the sixth century and the eleventh, the convictions of Anglo-Saxon men and women about the world of the spirits underwent a gradual transformation. This book is the first to explore that transformation, and to show the ways in which the Anglo-Saxons tried to reconcile their religious inheritance with their own perspectives about the world, human nature, and God.Less
In the modern world, angels perhaps seem to be no more than a symbol—something encountered only on the top of Christmas trees, or seemingly emblematic of Christian beliefs at their most traditional and unchanging. But in the Middle Ages men and women thought differently. Some offered prayers intended to secure angelic assistance for the living and the dead; others erected stone monuments carved with images of winged figures; and still others made angels the subject of poetic endeavour and theological scholarship. This wealth of material has never been fully explored, and was once dismissed as the detritus of a superstitious age. This book offers a different perspective, by using angels as a prism through which to study the changing religious culture of an unfamiliar age. Focusing on one corner of medieval Europe which produced an abundance of material relating to angels, Richard Sowerby investigates the way that ancient beliefs about angels were preserved and adapted in England during the Anglo-Saxon period. Between the sixth century and the eleventh, the convictions of Anglo-Saxon men and women about the world of the spirits underwent a gradual transformation. This book is the first to explore that transformation, and to show the ways in which the Anglo-Saxons tried to reconcile their religious inheritance with their own perspectives about the world, human nature, and God.
Mark Chinca
- Published in print:
- 2020
- Published Online:
- July 2020
- ISBN:
- 9780198861980
- eISBN:
- 9780191894787
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/oso/9780198861980.003.0001
- Subject:
- Literature, Early and Medieval Literature, European Literature
Christian devotional culture took very seriously the instruction of the Bible maxim “In all thy works remember thy last end [memorare novissima tua] and thou shalt never sin” (Sirach 7:40). From it ...
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Christian devotional culture took very seriously the instruction of the Bible maxim “In all thy works remember thy last end [memorare novissima tua] and thou shalt never sin” (Sirach 7:40). From it were derived all kinds of practices and schemes for meditating on the so-called “last things”: death, judgment, hell, heaven, and (once the belief was codified dogmatically) purgatory. The introduction explains why the period from the thirteenth to the sixteenth century was crucial for the dissemination and transformation of instructions for meditating on death and the afterlife, and draws attention to the importance of written texts in enabling and supporting individual believers in their daily routines of devotion and meditation.Less
Christian devotional culture took very seriously the instruction of the Bible maxim “In all thy works remember thy last end [memorare novissima tua] and thou shalt never sin” (Sirach 7:40). From it were derived all kinds of practices and schemes for meditating on the so-called “last things”: death, judgment, hell, heaven, and (once the belief was codified dogmatically) purgatory. The introduction explains why the period from the thirteenth to the sixteenth century was crucial for the dissemination and transformation of instructions for meditating on death and the afterlife, and draws attention to the importance of written texts in enabling and supporting individual believers in their daily routines of devotion and meditation.
Michael Cook
- Published in print:
- 2017
- Published Online:
- July 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780198748496
- eISBN:
- 9780191811081
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/oso/9780198748496.003.0007
- Subject:
- Religion, Islam
This chapter compares early-medieval Christian and Islamic ideas regarding the acceptability or otherwise of pagan law under the monotheist dispensation. It argues that by and large there is a clear ...
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This chapter compares early-medieval Christian and Islamic ideas regarding the acceptability or otherwise of pagan law under the monotheist dispensation. It argues that by and large there is a clear contrast between the two approaches. The default attitude among early-medieval Christians is that pagan law is acceptable in the absence of specific grounds for rejecting it, whereas the default among Muslims is that it is unacceptable unless there are specific grounds for adopting it. The chapter also seeks to identify the motivations involved—both the reasons actually advanced by jurists on both sides and the underlying historical causes of the divergence.Less
This chapter compares early-medieval Christian and Islamic ideas regarding the acceptability or otherwise of pagan law under the monotheist dispensation. It argues that by and large there is a clear contrast between the two approaches. The default attitude among early-medieval Christians is that pagan law is acceptable in the absence of specific grounds for rejecting it, whereas the default among Muslims is that it is unacceptable unless there are specific grounds for adopting it. The chapter also seeks to identify the motivations involved—both the reasons actually advanced by jurists on both sides and the underlying historical causes of the divergence.
Wolfgang Ernst
- Published in print:
- 2012
- Published Online:
- May 2013
- ISBN:
- 9780823249800
- eISBN:
- 9780823252480
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Fordham University Press
- DOI:
- 10.5422/fordham/9780823249800.003.0003
- Subject:
- Religion, Religion and Society
This chapter presents a media-archaeological approach to the study of religion and technology in order to reformulate religious practices in technological terms. The chapter focuses on the historical ...
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This chapter presents a media-archaeological approach to the study of religion and technology in order to reformulate religious practices in technological terms. The chapter focuses on the historical development of mechanical clocks, from their origins in the monasteries of mediaeval Christian Europe to the oscillating time-keeping mechanisms that lie at the basis of modern computers. The author argues that, despite the original religious and cultural goals that fostered the development of mechanical time-keeping, the history of the oscillating clock reveals a non-cultural, techno-poetical element at work, as demonstrated in the chapter's analysis of one of the clock's key mechanisms: the anchor escapement. Once set in motion, the anchor mechanism of the oscillating clock operated according to its own its technical logic, resulting in the generation of time-based media processes that challenge our very conceptions of historical narrative and the place of religion therein.Less
This chapter presents a media-archaeological approach to the study of religion and technology in order to reformulate religious practices in technological terms. The chapter focuses on the historical development of mechanical clocks, from their origins in the monasteries of mediaeval Christian Europe to the oscillating time-keeping mechanisms that lie at the basis of modern computers. The author argues that, despite the original religious and cultural goals that fostered the development of mechanical time-keeping, the history of the oscillating clock reveals a non-cultural, techno-poetical element at work, as demonstrated in the chapter's analysis of one of the clock's key mechanisms: the anchor escapement. Once set in motion, the anchor mechanism of the oscillating clock operated according to its own its technical logic, resulting in the generation of time-based media processes that challenge our very conceptions of historical narrative and the place of religion therein.
Matthew Bryan Gillis
- Published in print:
- 2017
- Published Online:
- March 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780198797586
- eISBN:
- 9780191839153
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198797586.001.0001
- Subject:
- History, European Medieval History, History of Religion
Heresy and Dissent in the Carolingian Empire: The Case of Gottschalk of Orbais recounts the history of an exceptional ninth-century religious outlaw. Frankish Christianity required obedience to ...
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Heresy and Dissent in the Carolingian Empire: The Case of Gottschalk of Orbais recounts the history of an exceptional ninth-century religious outlaw. Frankish Christianity required obedience to ecclesiastical superiors, voluntary participation in reform, and the belief that salvation was possible for all baptized believers. Yet Gottschalk—a mere priest—developed a controversial, Augustinian-based theology of predestination, claiming that only divine election through grace enabled eternal life. Gottschalk preached to Christians within the Frankish empire—including bishops—and non-Christians beyond its borders, scandalously demanding they confess his doctrine or be revealed as wicked reprobates. Even after his condemnations for heresy in the late 840s, Gottschalk continued his activities from prison thanks to monks who smuggled his pamphlets to a subterranean community of supporters. This study reconstructs the career of the Carolingian Empire’s foremost religious dissenter in order to imagine that empire from the perspective of someone who worked to subvert its most fundamental beliefs. Examining the surviving evidence (including his own writings), this book analyzes Gottschalk’s literary and spiritual self-representations, his modes of argument, his prophetic claims to martyrdom and miraculous powers, and his shocking defiance to bishops as strategies for influencing contemporaries in changing political circumstances. In the larger history of medieval heresy and dissent, Gottschalk’s case reveals how the Carolingian Empire preserved order within the church through coercive reform. The hierarchy compelled Christians to accept correction of perceived sins and errors, while punishing as sources of spiritual corruption those rare dissenters who resisted its authority.Less
Heresy and Dissent in the Carolingian Empire: The Case of Gottschalk of Orbais recounts the history of an exceptional ninth-century religious outlaw. Frankish Christianity required obedience to ecclesiastical superiors, voluntary participation in reform, and the belief that salvation was possible for all baptized believers. Yet Gottschalk—a mere priest—developed a controversial, Augustinian-based theology of predestination, claiming that only divine election through grace enabled eternal life. Gottschalk preached to Christians within the Frankish empire—including bishops—and non-Christians beyond its borders, scandalously demanding they confess his doctrine or be revealed as wicked reprobates. Even after his condemnations for heresy in the late 840s, Gottschalk continued his activities from prison thanks to monks who smuggled his pamphlets to a subterranean community of supporters. This study reconstructs the career of the Carolingian Empire’s foremost religious dissenter in order to imagine that empire from the perspective of someone who worked to subvert its most fundamental beliefs. Examining the surviving evidence (including his own writings), this book analyzes Gottschalk’s literary and spiritual self-representations, his modes of argument, his prophetic claims to martyrdom and miraculous powers, and his shocking defiance to bishops as strategies for influencing contemporaries in changing political circumstances. In the larger history of medieval heresy and dissent, Gottschalk’s case reveals how the Carolingian Empire preserved order within the church through coercive reform. The hierarchy compelled Christians to accept correction of perceived sins and errors, while punishing as sources of spiritual corruption those rare dissenters who resisted its authority.
Anke Finger, Rainer Guldin, and Gustavo Bernardo
- Published in print:
- 2011
- Published Online:
- August 2015
- ISBN:
- 9780816674787
- eISBN:
- 9781452947211
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of Minnesota Press
- DOI:
- 10.5749/minnesota/9780816674787.003.0006
- Subject:
- Philosophy, General
This chapter talks about “fiction” as it is used in scientific contexts and describes Vilém Flusser’s efforts to close the gap between the natural sciences and the humanities through Don Ihde’ ...
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This chapter talks about “fiction” as it is used in scientific contexts and describes Vilém Flusser’s efforts to close the gap between the natural sciences and the humanities through Don Ihde’ Expanding Hermeneutics. It discusses Flusser’s essay Da ficcao (Of Fiction), in which Flusser enumerates assorted imaginations where the world is similar to deceptive fiction, such as the Platonists who insisted that people are merely perceive shadows and medieval Christianity who thought of the world as a nightmare invented by the devil. According to Flusser, the known world has always existed as an effigy and that reality as a whole cannot be ascertained.Less
This chapter talks about “fiction” as it is used in scientific contexts and describes Vilém Flusser’s efforts to close the gap between the natural sciences and the humanities through Don Ihde’ Expanding Hermeneutics. It discusses Flusser’s essay Da ficcao (Of Fiction), in which Flusser enumerates assorted imaginations where the world is similar to deceptive fiction, such as the Platonists who insisted that people are merely perceive shadows and medieval Christianity who thought of the world as a nightmare invented by the devil. According to Flusser, the known world has always existed as an effigy and that reality as a whole cannot be ascertained.
Matthew Bryan Gillis
- Published in print:
- 2017
- Published Online:
- March 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780198797586
- eISBN:
- 9780191839153
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198797586.003.0009
- Subject:
- History, European Medieval History, History of Religion
Gottschalk of Orbais was an exceptional ninth-century religious dissenter and heretic in the Carolingian Empire, whose literary and spiritual self-representations, his Augustinian-based theology of ...
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Gottschalk of Orbais was an exceptional ninth-century religious dissenter and heretic in the Carolingian Empire, whose literary and spiritual self-representations, his Augustinian-based theology of predestination, his modes of argument, his prophetic claims to martyrdom and miraculous powers, and his shocking defiance to bishops were strategies for influencing contemporaries in changing political circumstances. In the larger history of medieval heresy and dissent, Gottschalk’s case reveals how the Carolingian Empire preserved order within the church through coercive reform. The hierarchy compelled Christians to accept correction of perceived sins and errors, while punishing as sources of spiritual corruption those rare dissenters who resisted its authority. Yet the important role of patrons and supporters throughout Gottschalk’s career also shows how individuals within the Carolingian Empire sought to protect their allies from the severe aspects of the empire’s system whenever possible.Less
Gottschalk of Orbais was an exceptional ninth-century religious dissenter and heretic in the Carolingian Empire, whose literary and spiritual self-representations, his Augustinian-based theology of predestination, his modes of argument, his prophetic claims to martyrdom and miraculous powers, and his shocking defiance to bishops were strategies for influencing contemporaries in changing political circumstances. In the larger history of medieval heresy and dissent, Gottschalk’s case reveals how the Carolingian Empire preserved order within the church through coercive reform. The hierarchy compelled Christians to accept correction of perceived sins and errors, while punishing as sources of spiritual corruption those rare dissenters who resisted its authority. Yet the important role of patrons and supporters throughout Gottschalk’s career also shows how individuals within the Carolingian Empire sought to protect their allies from the severe aspects of the empire’s system whenever possible.