Medieval Civilization: Formation, Fruition, Finality, and Fall
Providing an overall view of the medieval period of Western history, this book maintains a balanced approach to an age that has been romanticized as well as vilified. Written with an eye toward modern readers, who may be perplexed by the hazy Middle Ages, Medieval Civilization provides illuminating details that enable the reader to enjoy a fascinating overview of this stretch of a thousand years. Rather than maintaining a dismissive attitude toward this presumed dark and dank period of human failings, the author banters about and responds to some criticisms of the medieval world by modern critics alongside his telling of the medieval story. Religious presences loom large in this book written about an age of religion and things religious in a way largely foreign to the modern world. The medieval period breathes in this tale of peasants, priests, and kings rather than being autopsied as a museum piece. Terms like scholastic, gothic, mendicant, monk, stigmata, and others are put into medieval contexts for ease of understanding, while a huge slice of Western history, usually looked at suspiciously by modern people, is presented as preparation for understanding much of the modern world.
1123515636
Medieval Civilization: Formation, Fruition, Finality, and Fall
Providing an overall view of the medieval period of Western history, this book maintains a balanced approach to an age that has been romanticized as well as vilified. Written with an eye toward modern readers, who may be perplexed by the hazy Middle Ages, Medieval Civilization provides illuminating details that enable the reader to enjoy a fascinating overview of this stretch of a thousand years. Rather than maintaining a dismissive attitude toward this presumed dark and dank period of human failings, the author banters about and responds to some criticisms of the medieval world by modern critics alongside his telling of the medieval story. Religious presences loom large in this book written about an age of religion and things religious in a way largely foreign to the modern world. The medieval period breathes in this tale of peasants, priests, and kings rather than being autopsied as a museum piece. Terms like scholastic, gothic, mendicant, monk, stigmata, and others are put into medieval contexts for ease of understanding, while a huge slice of Western history, usually looked at suspiciously by modern people, is presented as preparation for understanding much of the modern world.
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Medieval Civilization: Formation, Fruition, Finality, and Fall

Medieval Civilization: Formation, Fruition, Finality, and Fall

by Larry D. Harwood
Medieval Civilization: Formation, Fruition, Finality, and Fall

Medieval Civilization: Formation, Fruition, Finality, and Fall

by Larry D. Harwood

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Overview

Providing an overall view of the medieval period of Western history, this book maintains a balanced approach to an age that has been romanticized as well as vilified. Written with an eye toward modern readers, who may be perplexed by the hazy Middle Ages, Medieval Civilization provides illuminating details that enable the reader to enjoy a fascinating overview of this stretch of a thousand years. Rather than maintaining a dismissive attitude toward this presumed dark and dank period of human failings, the author banters about and responds to some criticisms of the medieval world by modern critics alongside his telling of the medieval story. Religious presences loom large in this book written about an age of religion and things religious in a way largely foreign to the modern world. The medieval period breathes in this tale of peasants, priests, and kings rather than being autopsied as a museum piece. Terms like scholastic, gothic, mendicant, monk, stigmata, and others are put into medieval contexts for ease of understanding, while a huge slice of Western history, usually looked at suspiciously by modern people, is presented as preparation for understanding much of the modern world.

Product Details

ISBN-13: 9781498234894
Publisher: Wipf & Stock Publishers
Publication date: 03/02/2016
Sold by: Barnes & Noble
Format: eBook
Pages: 142
File size: 13 MB
Note: This product may take a few minutes to download.

About the Author

Larry D. Harwood is Professor of Humanities at Viterbo University in Wisconsin. He has authored Denuded Devotion to Christ: The Ascetic Piety of Protestant True Religion in the Reformation (2012), Struggle in a Secular Age (2013), and Putting Philosophy in Its Place: A Preface to the Life of Philosophy (2014). He was a Fulbright Scholar at the University of Lisbon in Portugal in 2008 and is presently writing a book on Bertrand Russell and religion.
Larry D. Harwood is professor emeritus of philosophy and history at Viterbo University in Wisconsin and occasional visiting professor at Tyndale Theological Seminary in Badhoevedorp, Netherlands.

Table of Contents

Preface ix

Acknowledgments xi

Chapter 1 The Classical World and Christian Beginnings, 323 BC-AD 33 1

The Athenian Empire Eclipsed 1

Hellenism to the Ends of the Earth 4

The Mystery Religions 8

The Christian Story 10

A Mystery Religion in the Roman Empire 13

Chapter 2 The Ascending Christian Religion, 33-313 16

The Significance of Jesus 16

Christian Inroads into the Jewish World 19

Christian Inroads into the Roman World 22

Jewish and Christian Futures 24

Christian Expectations and Organization of the Christian Church 26

Chapter 3 Formation of Medieval Civilization, 313-814 31

Christianity after Constantine 31

Christianity after the Roman Empire 36

East and West 40

The Rise of Islam 42

Establishing the Roman Church 45

Chapter 4 Fruits of the Burgeoning Medieval Civilization, 814-1054 49

Charlemagne 49

After the Carolingians 51

Monasticism Grows 55

Reformers and Marauders 59

Christian Advance and Split 61

Chapter 5 From the Heights of Medieval Civilization, 1054-1347 66

Gregorian Reform and Medieval Exuberance 66

New Critics, New Orders, New Learning 70

New Heresies 75

Rise of the Universities and Controversy over Aristotle 76

Rise of Nationalism and the Vernacular 80

Chapter 6 Fall and Descent of Medieval Civilization, 1347-1517 84

The Black Death 84

The Advance of Mysticism 86

Social and Theological Criticism of the Church 89

New Worlds Discovered, the Jews Considered, and the Word Reconsidered 91

Medieval Implosions and Explosions: Science, Weaponry, and the Turks 94

Chapter 7 The Medieval Legacy, 1517-1648 100

Protestant Reformations 100

The Protracted English Reformation 108

The Catholic Reformation and the Wars of Religion 115

The End of the Middle Ages 123

Select Bibliography 127

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