Mary in the Middle Ages
Mary in the Middle Ages

Author: Luigi Gambero

Publisher: Ignatius Press

Published: 2010-11-02

Total Pages: 348

ISBN-13: 1681493284

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In his book Mary and the Fathers of the Church, Fr. Luigi Gambero presented a comprehensive survey of Marian doctrine and devotion during the first eight Christian centuries. Mary in the Middle Ages continues this journey up to the end of the fifteenth century, surveying the growth of Marian doctrine and devotion during one of the most important eras of Christian history: the Middle Ages. Fr. Gambero presents the thoughts, words, and prayers of great theologians, bishops, monks, and mystics who witnessed to and promoted the dedication of the Christian people to the Mother of God. Each chapter concludes with readings from the works of these important authors. Many of these texts have never before been translated into English. More than thirty great figures each receive an entire chapter, including such giants as the St. Anselm, St. Bernard, St. Anthony of Padua, St. Bonaventure, St. Albert the Great, St. Thomas Aquinas, St. Brigid of Sweden, and Raymond Lull. "A fascinating picture of one of the foundational elements of modern Catholic theology, namely, devotion. All in all, a worthwhile and informative study of devotion to the Blessed Virgin." -Benedict Groeschel, C.F.R. "This book is indispensable for current students of Mariology." -Kenneth Baker, S.J.

Women and Power in the Middle Ages
Women and Power in the Middle Ages

Author: Mary Erler

Publisher: University of Georgia Press

Published: 1988

Total Pages: 293

ISBN-13: 0820323810

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Power in medieval society has traditionally been ascribed to figures of public authority--violent knights and conflicting sovereigns who altered the surface of civic life through the exercise of law and force. The wives and consorts of these powerful men have generally been viewed as decorative attendants, while common women were presumed to have had no power or consequence. Reassessing the conventional definition of power that has shaped such portrayals, Women and Power in the Middle Ages reveals the varied manifestations of female power in the medieval household and community--from the cultural power wielded by the wives of Venetian patriarchs to the economic power of English peasant women and the religious power of female saints. Among the specific topics addresses are Griselda's manipulation of silence as power in Chaucer's "The Clerk's Tale"; the extensive networks of influence devised by Lady Honor Lisle; and the role of medieval women book owners as arbiters of lay piety and ambassadors of culture. In every case, the essays seek to transcend simple polarities of public and private, male and female, in order to provide a more realistic analysis of the workings of power in feudal society.

The Quest for the Christ Child in the Later Middle Ages
The Quest for the Christ Child in the Later Middle Ages

Author: Mary Dzon

Publisher: University of Pennsylvania Press

Published: 2017-01-25

Total Pages: 421

ISBN-13: 0812293703

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Beginning in the twelfth century, clergy and laity alike started wondering with intensity about the historical and developmental details of Jesus' early life. Was the Christ Child like other children, whose characteristics and capabilities depended on their age? Was he sweet and tender, or formidable and powerful? Not finding sufficient information in the Gospels, which are almost completely silent about Jesus' childhood, medieval Christians turned to centuries-old apocryphal texts for answers. In The Quest for the Christ Child in the Later Middle Ages, Mary Dzon demonstrates how these apocryphal legends fostered a vibrant and creative medieval piety. Popular tales about the Christ Child entertained the laity and at the same time were reviled by some members of the intellectual elite of the church. In either case, such legends, so persistent, left their mark on theological, devotional, and literary texts. The Cistercian abbot Aelred of Rievaulx urged his monastic readers to imitate the Christ Child's development through spiritual growth; Francis of Assisi encouraged his followers to emulate the Christ Child's poverty and rusticity; Thomas Aquinas, for his part, believed that apocryphal stories about the Christ Child would encourage youths to be presumptuous, while Birgitta of Sweden provided pious alternatives in her many Marian revelations. Through close readings of such writings, Dzon explores the continued transmission and appeal of apocryphal legends throughout the Middle Ages and demonstrates the significant impact that the Christ Child had in shaping the medieval religious imagination.

The Experience of Beauty in the Middle Ages
The Experience of Beauty in the Middle Ages

Author: Mary Carruthers

Publisher: Oxford University Press

Published: 2013-04-25

Total Pages: 254

ISBN-13: 019959032X

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Uses lexical analyses of key terms employed by medieval people to valuate their own aesthetic feelings to show how flux and change, and the creative tension of antithetical physical qualities from which all things were thought to be made (cold, hot, dry, wet), govern the pleasures medieval artists sought to produce.

Mary, the Apostles, and the Last Judgment
Mary, the Apostles, and the Last Judgment

Author: Stanislava Kuzmova

Publisher: Trivent Publishing

Published: 2020-12-31

Total Pages: 236

ISBN-13: 6158179302

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This volume presents a timely contribution to the growing body of scholarship on the apocryphal writings and their reception in the Middle Ages, especially in connection with visual representation. It aims to bridge what often remains disconnected, the visual art and the written text, the early Christian roots and medieval reception, the East and the West, as well as methodologies of various disciplines. The studies in this volume firstly investigate issues related to the Virgin Mary, and through them, also the status, function, and identity of women. Mary and the female element thus represent significant models and/or background figures in fields pertaining to theology, religious studies, textual studies, manuscript studies, and art history in a trans-disciplinary perspective. Secondly, the studies focus on the apostles and the Last Judgment, their visual representations and the use of apocryphal sources. The volume is divided in two parts according to two major topics: Part I dealing with Mary in the Apocrypha, and Part II focusing on the Apostles and the Last Judgment.

Medicine, Religion and Gender in Medieval Culture
Medicine, Religion and Gender in Medieval Culture

Author: Naoë Kukita Yoshikawa

Publisher: Boydell & Brewer

Published: 2015

Total Pages: 312

ISBN-13: 184384401X

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An exploration of the relations between medical and religious discourse and practice in medieval culture, focussing on how they are affected by gender.

Marian Devotion in the Late Middle Ages
Marian Devotion in the Late Middle Ages

Author: Andrea-Bianka Znorovszky

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2022-04-19

Total Pages: 234

ISBN-13: 1000579492

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By the late Middle Ages, manifestations of Marian devotion had become multifaceted and covered all aspects of religious, private and personal life. Mary becomes a universal presence that accompanies the faithful on pilgrimage, in dreams, as holy visions, and as pictorial representations in church space and domestic interiors. The first part of the volume traces the development of Marian iconography in sculpture, panel paintings, and objects, such as seals, with particular emphasis on Italy, Slovenia and the Hungarian Kingdom. The second section traces the use of Marian devotion in relation to space, be that a country or territory, a monastery or church or personal space, and explores the use of space in shaping new liturgical practices, new Marian feasts and performances, and the bodily performance of ritual objects.

Mary's Mother
Mary's Mother

Author: Virginia Nixon

Publisher: Penn State Press

Published: 2004

Total Pages: 244

ISBN-13: 9780271024660

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Saint Anne, the mother of Mary, is not a biblical figure. She first appears in a 2nd century apocryphal infancy gospel as part of the story of the saviour's birth and maternal ancestry. Mary's Mother is about the remarkable rise of Anne as a figure of devotion among medieval Christians who found solace in her closeness to Jesus and Mary.

The Virgin Mary in Late Medieval and Early Modern English Literature and Popular Culture
The Virgin Mary in Late Medieval and Early Modern English Literature and Popular Culture

Author: Gary Waller

Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Published: 2011-01-20

Total Pages: 251

ISBN-13: 1139494678

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This book was first published in 2011. The Virgin Mary was one of the most powerful images of the Middle Ages, central to people's experience of Christianity. During the Reformation, however, many images of the Virgin were destroyed, as Protestantism rejected the way the medieval Church over-valued and sexualized Mary. Although increasingly marginalized in Protestant thought and practice, her traces and surprising transformations continued to haunt early modern England. Combining historical analysis and contemporary theory, including issues raised by psychoanalysis and feminist theology, Gary Waller examines the literature, theology and popular culture associated with Mary in the transition between late medieval and early modern England. He contrasts a variety of pre-Reformation texts and events, including popular mariology, poetry, tales, drama, pilgrimage and the emerging 'New Learning', with later sixteenth-century ruins, songs, ballads, Petrarchan poetry, the works of Shakespeare and other texts where the Virgin's presence or influence, sometimes surprisingly, can be found.