Eve’s Sin, Woman’s Fault: A Medieval View
The fall of Adam and Eve has been a favourite theme in literary and religious literature down through the ages both with Christian and non-Christian authors.
Augustine and the Master of the Sentences
This begs the question, what were the Sentences exactly, who was Peter Lombard and what did he have to do with Augustine?
How medieval theologians debated the humanity of Jesus Christ
New research out of the University of Helsinki shows some of the fascinating and differing viewpoints medieval theologians had about the humanity of Christ.
Medieval Gospel Commentary, lost for 1500 years – now translated and online
The earliest Latin Commentary on the Gospels, lost for over 1500 years, has been rediscovered and made available in English for the first time, thanks to research from the University of Birmingham.
Medieval Ideas of the Multiverse
To most of the theologians in Paris, anything not forbidden by logical contradiction was possible for God.
The Resurrection of Jesus and Human Beings in Medieval Christian and Jewish Theology and Polemical Literature
This article will first look at intra-religious discussion among medieval Christians and Jews about resurrection in general to see how they understood it theologically in their respective religious communities.
Pain in Medieval and Modern Contexts
The interplay between Christian religious belief and medicine in the High Middle Ages was complicated.
‘As If Augustine Had Said’: Textual Interpretation and Augustinian Ambiguity in a Medieval Debate on Predestination
This paper reevaluates a sample of Hincmar’s writings in the 840s and 850s to argue that he sought to make explicit what Augustine had left unclear regarding predestination by appealing to common standards of orthodoxy in the forms of additional patristic authors, conciliar judgments, and liturgical practices.
Good versus Evil: Representations of the Monstrous in Thirteenth Century Anglo-French Apocalypse Manuscripts
This paper examines one of the oldest ideological conflicts of all time: that between the divine powers of good and evil in the Book of Revelation, as represented in thirteenth century Anglo-French apocalypse manuscripts.
Augustine of Hippo and the Art of Ruling in the Carolingian Imperial Period
This thesis investigates how the political thought of Augustine of Hippo was understood and modified by Carolingian-era writers to serve their own distinctive purposes.
Diorasis denied: Opposition to clairvoyance in Byzantium from late Antiquity to the eleventh century
This article treats the phenomenon of clairvoyance, the ability to know the thoughts of others that set holy men apart from ordinary human beings who had to make inferences from a person’s outward appearance.
Good Dog/Bad Dog: Dogs in Medieval Religious Polemics
From its positive attributes, the dog became a Christian symbol for conscientious prelates and preachers who guarded the community from the devil and applied the dog’s curative properties to heal the community of sin.
The Ten Commandments in the Medieval Schools
There was surprisingly little discussion of the ten commandments in the period between Augustine of Hippo (d. 430) and the schools that grew up in twelfth-century Paris, which specialised in teaching the Bible and theology.
God is Great, God is Good: Medieval Conceptions of Divine Goodness and the Problem of Hell
Medieval views of both divine goodness and the doctrine of hell are examined and shown to be incompatible with our best understandings of goodness. The only manner in which God could be good to those in hell – by permitting their continued existence – is not sufficient to outweigh ‘the dreadful pains of eternal fire’.
Is woman just a mutilated male? Adam and Eve in the theology of Thomas Aquinas
In this chapter I propose to deal directly with some of the contested passages and argue that their meaning is not always what it seems to be at first sight: their textual and theoretical context, developments in Aquinas’s thought and the historical background offer clues for alternative readings.
The Story of Exodus: The Anglo-Saxon Version
The clever authors of these Anglo-Saxon biblical poems knew their audiences, engaging readers and listeners by retelling Old Testament stories in an epic way that was both familiar and beloved.
Science and Religion in the Middle Ages
Why did science and natural philosophy suffer such disparate fates in the two great civilizations of Christendom and Islam?
The End of the Ancient Other World: Death and Afterlife between Late Antiquity and the Early Middle Ages
Peter Brown gives lectures on ‘Gloriosus Obitus: Death and Afterlife 400-700 AD’ and ‘The Decline of the Empire of God: From Amnesty to Purgatory’
The Western Calendar – ‘Intolerabilis, Horribilis, et Derisbilis’ – Four Centuries of Discontent
We, with our cut and dried view of time-keeping, we who gather together to celebrate events four hundred tropical years after they have occurred, are all to easily incline to overlook the real reason for all the fuss in the Middle Ages about calendar reform.
Neither Cursed Nor Possessed: Mental Abnormality in the Late Middle Ages
I plan to address the more formal ecclesiastical proscriptions regarding mental abnormality.
Embracing Death, Celebrating Life: Reflections on the Concept of Martyrdom in the Order of the Knights Templar
Although research on the concept of martyrdom during the era of the Crusades has gained considerable prominence, it has rarely been applied to the Knights Templar. This is surprising, as the Templars were the first military order and paved the way for a new monastic development; they were devoted to warfare only; and they, together with the other military orders, but unlike most Crusaders, established a permanent presence in the hostile environment of the Holy Land, consequently facing the threat of death both regularly and frequently.
Could Christ Have Been Born a Woman? A Medieval Debate
There appears to have been continuing interest in questions about the sex of God, for in the 1150s Peter Lombard raised the issue in a new form, asking in book three of the Sentences whether God could have assumed humanity in the female sex.
‘Such a great multitude’: Biblical numerology as a literary device in Nauigatio Sancti Brendani
This presentation will begin by briefly summarizing the text, presenting evidence for its intended audience and purpose, defining Biblical numerology and outlining its role in Jewish and Christian textual traditions up to the early medieval period. Then the presentation will provide a handful of examples in the use of Biblical numerology in Nauigatio.
The Host in the late Middle Ages: superstitions, faith, miracles and magic
The problem of taking and metabolizing Christ had been a major concern in Medieval times.