The Oxford Handbook of Medieval Christianity

by John H. Arnold (Editor)

Overview

The Oxford Handbook of Medieval Christianity takes as its subject the beliefs, practices, and institutions of the Christian Church between 400 and 1500AD. It addresses topics ranging from early medieval monasticism to late medieval mysticism, from the material wealth of the Church to the spiritual exercises through which certain believers might attempt to improve their souls. Each chapter tells a story, but seeks also to ask how and why "Christianity" took particular forms at particular moments in history, paying attention to both the spiritual and otherwordly aspects of religion, and the material and political contexts in which they were often embedded.

This Handbook is a landmark academic collection that presents cutting-edge interpretive perspectives on medieval religion for a wide academic audience, drawing together thirty key scholars in the field from the United States, the UK, and Europe. Notably, the Handbook is arranged thematically, and focusses on an analytical, rather than narrative, approach, seeking to demonstrate the variety, change, and complexity of religion throughout this long period, and the numerous different ways in which modern scholarship can approach it. While providing a very wide-ranging view of the subject, it also offers an important agenda for further study in the field.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780198811176
Publisher:	Oxford University Press
Publication date:	10/03/2017
Series:	Oxford Handbooks
Edition description:	Reprint
Pages:	608
Sales rank:	1,142,442
Product dimensions:	6.70(w) x 9.60(h) x 1.10(d)

About the Author

John H. Arnold studied at the Centre for Medieval Studies, University of York, and worked first at UEA and then at Birkbeck, University of London. He became Professor of Medieval History at Birkbeck in 2007. He is author of various books and articles on medieval history, and has published also on modern historiography and the history of gender.

Table of Contents

Abbreviations and conventionsList of ContributorsIntroduction1. Introduction: A History of Medieval Christianity, John H. ArnoldMethods2. Histories and Historiographies of Medieval Christianity, John H. Arnold3. Religion, Belief, and Society: Anthropological Approaches, Simon Yarrow4. Material Culture and Medieval Christianity, Beth Williamson5. Medieval Christianity in a World Historical Perspective, R. I. MooreSpaces6. The Boundaries of Christendom and Islam: Iberia and the Latin Levant, Amy Remensnyder7. Christianizing Kingdoms, Sverre Bagge8. Monastic Landscapes and Society, Wendy Davies9. Civic Religion, Nicholas Terpstra10. Localized Faith: parochial and domestic spaces, Katherine L. FrenchPractices11. Continuity and Change in the Institutional Church, Ian Forrest12. Pilgrimage, Marcus Bull13. Using Saints: Intercession, Healing, Sanctity, Gabor Klaniczay14. Missarum sollemnia: Eucharistic Rituals in the Middle Ages, Eric Palazzo15. Penitential Varieties, Rob Meens16. Spiritual Exercises: The Making of Interior Faith, Robert L. A. ClarkIdeas17. Fear, Hope, Death, and Salvation, Arnold Angenendt18. Reform, Clerical Culture, and Politics, Maureen C. Miller19. Intellectuals and the Masses: Oxen and she-asses in the medieval Church, Peter Biller20. 'Popular' religious culture(s), Laura A. Smoller21. Doubts and the absence of faith, Dorothea WelteckeIdentities22. Medieval Monasticisms, Constance H. Berman23. Mysticism and the Body, Rosalynn Voaden24. Christianity and Its Others: Jews, Muslims, and Pagans, Sara Lipton25. Christian experiences of religious non-conformism, Grado Giovanni MerloPower26. The Church as Lord, George Dameron27. Christianizing Political Discourses, Geoffrey Koziol28. Religion in the age of Charlemagne, Janet L. Nelson29. Papal Authority and Its Limitations, Kathleen G. Cushing30. Bishops, Education and Discipline, Sarah HamiltonConclusion31. Looking back from the Reformation, R. Po-chia HsiaIndex

Editorial Reviews

"This is an important contribution to the scholarship on Western European Christianity in the middle ages (c. 400- c.1500), offering a nuanced and variegated depiction of medieval Western Christianity... The volume will be of interest to scholars, at various stages: the chapters indicate the present state of scholarship on crucial facets of medieval Christianity; and several offer suggestions for future lines of research." —Joseph Wawrykow, Religious Studies Review

From the Publisher