Rowman & Littlefield Publishers
Pages: 254
•
Trim: 6¼ x 9¼
978-0-7425-5471-9 • Hardback • July 2007 • $136.00 • (£105.00)
978-0-7425-5472-6 • Paperback • July 2007 • $49.00 • (£38.00)
978-0-7425-7519-6 • eBook • July 2007 • $46.50 • (£36.00)
James L. Halverson is professor of history and chair of social sciences at Judson College.
Introduction
Part I: The Extent of Christianization in the Early Middle Ages
Chapter 1: Some Historical Reidentification and the Christianization of Kent
Chapter 2: Background to Augustine's Mission to Anglo-Saxon England
Chapter 3: The Barbarian Conversion from Paganism to Christianity
Chapter 4: Popular Religion in Late Saxon England: Elf Charms in Context
Chapter 5: Forgetful of Their Sex: Female Sanctity and Society, ca. 500–1100
Chapter 6: The Rise of Western Christendom
Part II: The Development of Christendom
Chapter 7: The Knight, the Lady, and the Priest: The Making of Modern Marriage in Medieval France
Chapter 8: Knightly Piety and the Lay Response to the First Crusade
Chapter 9: Sword, Mitre, and Cloister: Nobility and the Church in Burgundy
Chapter 10: Under Crescent and Cross: The Jews in the Middle Ages
Chapter 11: To the Glory of Her Sex
Part III: The Apostolic Life
Chapter 12: Religious Movements in the Middle Ages
Chapter 13: Religious Poverty and the Profit Economy in Medieval Europe
Chapter 14: Holy Anorexia
Chapter 15: Women Mystics and Eucharistic Devotion in the Thirteenth Century
Chapter 16: The Devil's World: Heresy and Society, 1100–1300
Part IV: Popular Religion in the Late Middle Ages
Chapter 17: Religious Life in Germany on the Eve of the Reformation
Chapter 18: The Stripping of the Altars: Traditional Religion in England, ca. 1400–1580
Chapter 19: Religion and the Decline of Magic
Chapter 20: Women in the Late Medieval English Parish
Chapter 21: The Magnificent Ride: The First Reformation in Hussite Bohemia
Twenty-two well-written and informative essays.
— Sixteenth Century Journal
Halverson has assembled a wonderful set of readings on the changing nature of medieval Christendom. The selections chosen here reflect old and new approaches and the ongoing work of scholars to questions about what made the Middle Ages Christian, or whether they were Christian at all. Halverson is sensitive to change over time, and also to changing methodologies and angles of approach. I imagine readers coming away with a much richer sense of the debates—still current!—surrounding Europe's religious inheritance.
— John Van Engen, University of Notre Dame
Demonstrating the various ways in which Christianity shaped medieval culture, this book will be warmly embraced in many medieval European history classrooms as well as in courses on medieval Christianity. Because the readings deal with religion from social and cultural perspectives, it will be valuable even in courses that are not specifically focused on religion.
— Deanna Klepper, Boston University
Broadly based for use in survey classes on Medieval Europe
Ideal for courses on Religion and Culture in Medieval Europe, History of Medieval Christianity, Medieval Popular Religion, and Women and Religion
Invaluable for instructors who are faced with teaching medieval courses outside their area of specialization
Opening essay and introductions to each section and selection frame the readings and provide a strong conceptual framework
Challenges students to think critically about the disagreements among the historians represented in the selections
Stimulates classroom discussion by presenting articles that offer differing viewpoints and interpretations of primary sources
Integrates women's roles naturally and chronologically into the larger historical narrative