Christianity Archive
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Thomas Bradwardine: Forgotten Medieval Augustinian
Posted on May 20, 2012 | No CommentsIn spite of this dearth of scholarly publications on Bradwardine, he deserves serious consideration. From a church historical perspective, he represents a resurgence of a relatively pure Augustinianism in the late Middle Ages. -
Byzantine Intelligence Service
Posted on May 20, 2012 | No CommentsThe basis on which the successful administration of the Roman Empire at its zenith was built was the cursus publicus, or the state post. This organization also made the service of intelligence more effective. -
Perfect Virgins and Suicidal Maniacs: Monks in Early Thirteenth-Century Pastoralia
Posted on May 18, 2012 | No CommentsThis summary is of a paper that was the last in the English Cistercian series at Kalamazoo. -
Aereld of Rievaulx and the Creation of An Anglo Saxon Past
Posted on May 18, 2012 | No CommentsThis paper summary is part of a session on English Cistercians and focused on Aelred of Rievaulx and the abbey of Hexum. -
Why All the Fuss about the Body? A Medievalist’s Perspective
Posted on May 4, 2012 | No Commentserhaps some help is to be found in the usual scholarly move of sur- veying the literature. What does the phrase mean in the rapidly increas- ing number of books with the body in the title-an increase only too apparent to anyone who walks these days into a bookstore? -
Recreating Beowulf’s “Pregnant Moment of Poise”: Pagan Doom and Christian Eucatastrophe Made Incarnate in the Dark Age Setting of The Lord of the Rings
Posted on May 4, 2012 | No CommentsThe following chapters will explore how Tolkien fuses themes and imagery from the pagan Norse apocalyptic myth of Ragnarök with Christian apocalyptic imagery and themes in a recreated Dark Age historical setting to create The Lord of the Rings. -
Jerusalem in Medieval Christian Thought
Posted on April 29, 2012 | No CommentsIn the prophetic tradition, the dwelling of God is understood as a spiritual one. Yet, in spite of the expressed manner in which Jerusalem was called The Holy City, an element of imperfection remained. -
Craftsmanship of the Digby Mary Magdalene play
Posted on April 27, 2012 | No CommentsThe Digby Mary Magdalene is contained in the Digby MS. 133 of the Bodlein Library. Included in the Manuscript are three other plays, Killing of the Children, The Conversion of St Paul, and a portion of Wisdom. -
The Verb in Beowulf
Posted on April 26, 2012 | No CommentsThus, in a paper of the nature of this thesis, the Beowulfian novice is limited in scope and must be satisfied, at best, to open a small breach in the subject, examine one segment, focus his attention on one aspect, single out one featture of it, and channel the efforts of his research towards some contribution, no matter how small, to the over- all scholarship in the field. -
The legacy of the 13th Apostle: origins of the East Christian conceptions of church and state relation
Posted on April 26, 2012 | No CommentsIn this article I wish to query the notion that there is a single Eastern Christian religious political theory, such a one that could be stood in opposition to Catholic medieval or early modern Protestant theories of church-state relations... -
The Massacre at Acre–Mark of a Blood-thirsty King?
Posted on April 24, 2012 | No CommentsThe Christian forces in the Holy Land during the mid-to-late-1100s had, for many years, requested assistance to maintain their dwindling and increasingly challenged control in the Holy Land, but no help came. The tenuous rule of Guy of Lusignan, King of Jerusalem, in the mid-1180s, led to further internal conflict. -
Clerical Conceptions of Magic and the Stereotype of the Female Witch
Posted on April 24, 2012 | No CommentsOne of the specific aspects of witchcraft that has seen considerable attention in recent years is its relationship to gender. Both Bailey and Broedel have made admirable contributions to uncovering the historical development of a feminine witch concept. -
Personal Piety or Priestly Persuasion: Evidence of Pilgrimage Bequests in the Wills of the Archdeaconry of Sudbury, 1439-1474
Posted on April 23, 2012 | No CommentsHowever, when we consider the number of individuals, particularly from the lower orders, who actually undertook a pilgrimage at some point in their lives, we find that we actually know remarkably little about them. -
Faith and reason: charting the medieval concept of the infinite
Posted on April 23, 2012 | No CommentsI would like to start with some assumptions. First, I take it for granted that the apposition of negative terms to the Almighty God became quite early an accepted practice in Christianity, which caused in turn that the infinite, as an opposite term to something easily convenient to positive delineation, was admitted in the repertoire of God’s adverbial description. -
Sin, Penance and Purgatory in the Anglo‐Norman Realm: The Evidence of Visions and Ghost Stories
Posted on April 23, 2012 | No CommentsHistorians have tended to explore these two changes of the ‘long twelfth century’ — the reinvention of penance and the rise of purgatory — in isolation from each other. Here I intend to focus on the relationship between the two, and to look in particular at one aspect of it: the implications of theological change for perceptions of the fate of the dead.
