Jahrbuch für Antike und Christentum, -. Edited by Johannes Hahn and others. Pp. + bla... more Jahrbuch für Antike und Christentum, -. Edited by Johannes Hahn and others. Pp. + black-and-white and colour plates. Münster: Aschendorff, . €. ; JEH () ; doi:./S As these essays show, the dissociation of Christianity from its pagan milieu was effected sometimes by the rejection, sometimes by the transformation of existing models. Johannes Hahn ('Tausend Schrecken des Gesetze') concludes that Coptic zealots of the fourth century were not instruments of imperial or ecclesiastical policy. Anne-Isabelle Bouton-Touboulic ('Poésie et mythe dans le Contra Academicos') finds the equivalent of a Platonic myth in Augustine's account of the primitive Academy, which (like his quotations of poetry) is designed to guide the reader from love of beauty to love of wisdom. Daniel Röthlisberger ('Die capitis velatio') observes that, in requiring men to pray with heads uncovered, Paul denies them the social status that was conferred on the pagan celebrant by his veil. All the examples of the formula pro voto suo collected by Ulrike Emig ('Pro voto suo') come from Christian sites. According to Elizabeth Panell ('Entwicklung der Ikonographie'), the pagan iconography of marriage was first adopted by Christian artists in their depictions of the saints. Gerhard Steigerwald ('Die edelsteingeschmückten Städte Jerusalem') deciphers a mosaic in which the Jerusalem of this world is adorned with the sapphires that apocalyptic bestows on the heavenly city. Peter Grossman ('Zur Entstehung des ḫ urus') identifies the seventh century as the era in which a room was first set apart for the use of the clergy in the basilica. Rainer Warland ('Byzanc und der Alemannia') discovers a peculiar appropriation of pagan heroic imagery in a Gothic disc of similar date. M. J. EDWARDS CHRIST CHURCH, OXFORD Religious conversion. History, experience and meaning. Edited by Ira Katznelson and Miri Rubin. Pp. ix + incl. figs. Farnham-Burlington, VT: Ashgate, . £. JEH () ; doi:./S Ira Katznelson and Miri Rubin's collective volume offers a welcome addition to scholarship on religious conversion, a subject that poses distinctive challenges and opportunities for historians. With its 'centre of gravity' in medieval and
Visitors to the Chapel of the Holy Blood (consecrated 1396) in Pulkau, Lower Austria, may view a ... more Visitors to the Chapel of the Holy Blood (consecrated 1396) in Pulkau, Lower Austria, may view a magnificent winged altarpiece with carved scenes of the crucifixion. The wing panels contain paintings of high standard, attributed to a master of the Danube School, Nicholas Breu, who painted them around 1520. These panels are no longer available for public viewing, perhaps because of their content: they depict a desecration of the sacramental wafer, the host, by a group of Jews. The alleged sacrile ge, dating to 1338, had disastrous consequences for the Jews. According to the chronicler John of Viktring, the Jews were despoiled of their treasures, drowned, burnt, beheaded, eviscerated. Whole families were destroyed, including children in their cribs. This latter motif is repeated in a magnificent series of paintings executed by Paolo Uccello (1465 X 8) on the predella for the altarpiece of the Communion of the Apostles in the Ducal Palace in Urbino. In one scene, a Jewish family stands transfixed as a Christian mob batters down the door to their house, alerted to a host desecration by the miraculous flow of blood through the walls of the house. One of the two Jewish children weeps in terror, while a younger sibling clings to the mother 's skirts. A subsequent panel shows the same family, bound together at the stake, as the flames consume them.
ticulating that faith and acting it out in ritual and ethics in quite different fashions» 1. «Her... more ticulating that faith and acting it out in ritual and ethics in quite different fashions» 1. «Heresy» indeed usually appears in quotation marks-except in the volume on the years 1815-1914 where one of the editors dispenses with the quotation marks when describing some branches of Catholic Modernism as heretical 2. In most of the volumes, movements branded as heretical receive sympathetic treatment. And the use of «World» reflects another leitmotiv, namely an emphasis on Christianity's global reach and regional diversity. Inevitably the volume on the 20 th century includes two chapters devoted exclusively to Latin America, one to the Caribbean, six to Africa and Asia, and one to Oceania, as well as the six devoted exclusively to Europe and North America. But the volume on the years c.300-600 emphasises the fact that Christianity reached as far east as China and as far south as Ethiopia in that period. Editors were also required to focus on the experiences of the «ordinary Christian» and to consider the social and cultural impact of Christianity as broadly as possible. Another required field was the relationship of Christianity with other faiths or, in more recent times, with secularism and atheism. One major strategic decision by the steering group was to treat Eastern Christianity from the 12 th century to the present day in a separate volume, while the other volumes covering this period would concentrate on Western Christianity and those forms of Christianity stemming from it. Within this general framework editors were free to decide which themes to highlight and which kinds of historian to choose as collaborators. Margaret Mitchell and Frances Young in Origins to Constantine gave more space than the other editors to theology, a major part of the volume being entitled «The Shaping of Christian Theology». Frederick Norris and Augustine Casiday edited Constantine to c.600. They placed special emphasis on the geographical spread of Christianity in that period and on the gradualness of the process by which what became «Christendom» was christianised. Early Medieval Christianity, c.600-c.1100, edited by Julia Smith and Thomas Noble, gave special attention to «Christianity as Lived Experience», including «Birth and Death», «Last Things» and «Gender and the Body». This volume benefited from the fact that Noble, who is based at Notre Dame, the famous Catholic university in Indiana, was able to obtain funding from his university for a conference of his authors, whereas contributors to the other volumes were to a large degree working on their own. Christianity in Western Europe, c.1100-c.1500, edited by Miri Rubin and Walter Simon, highlighted «The Erection of Boundaries», including those between men and women and between heaven and hell, but more especially between Catholic Christianity and those outside, in
In Emotion and Devotion Miri Rubin explores the craft of the historian through a series of studie... more In Emotion and Devotion Miri Rubin explores the craft of the historian through a series of studies of medieval religious cultures. In three original chapters she approaches the medieval figure of the Virgin Mary with the aim of unravelling meaning and experience. Hymns and miracle tales, altarpieces and sermons – a wide range of sources from many European regions – are made to reveal the creativity and richness which they elicited in medieval people, women and men, clergy and laity, people of status and riches as well as those of modest means. The first chapter, "The Global 'Middle Ages'," considers the current historiographical frame for the study of religious cultures and suggests ways in which the Middle Ages can be made more global. Next, "Mary, and Others" examines the polemical situations around Mary, and the location of Muslims and Jews within them. The third chapter, "Emotions and Selves," tracks the sentimental education experienced by Europeans in the late Middle Ages through devotional encounters with the figure of the Virgin Mary in word, image and sound. Each year one scholar of world fame is invited to present lectures in the framework of the Natalie Zemon Davis Annual Lecture Series at the Central European University, Budapest. This is the second volume in the series of published lectures
‘People and their life styles’ explores the routines of family and community life in rural settle... more ‘People and their life styles’ explores the routines of family and community life in rural settlements and urban centres, in private, and in public. It shows that the people of the ‘Middle Ages’ were not so different from us. Social status and gender were highly consequential. Some activities were associated with kinship, others with the search for protection. People sometimes joined others in their efforts—in a trade guild or a religious fraternity—but they also sought out patronage and guidance, from individuals who were stronger, richer, or more expert than themselves. The habit of association was strong in the European tradition.
Jahrbuch für Antike und Christentum, -. Edited by Johannes Hahn and others. Pp. + bla... more Jahrbuch für Antike und Christentum, -. Edited by Johannes Hahn and others. Pp. + black-and-white and colour plates. Münster: Aschendorff, . €. ; JEH () ; doi:./S As these essays show, the dissociation of Christianity from its pagan milieu was effected sometimes by the rejection, sometimes by the transformation of existing models. Johannes Hahn ('Tausend Schrecken des Gesetze') concludes that Coptic zealots of the fourth century were not instruments of imperial or ecclesiastical policy. Anne-Isabelle Bouton-Touboulic ('Poésie et mythe dans le Contra Academicos') finds the equivalent of a Platonic myth in Augustine's account of the primitive Academy, which (like his quotations of poetry) is designed to guide the reader from love of beauty to love of wisdom. Daniel Röthlisberger ('Die capitis velatio') observes that, in requiring men to pray with heads uncovered, Paul denies them the social status that was conferred on the pagan celebrant by his veil. All the examples of the formula pro voto suo collected by Ulrike Emig ('Pro voto suo') come from Christian sites. According to Elizabeth Panell ('Entwicklung der Ikonographie'), the pagan iconography of marriage was first adopted by Christian artists in their depictions of the saints. Gerhard Steigerwald ('Die edelsteingeschmückten Städte Jerusalem') deciphers a mosaic in which the Jerusalem of this world is adorned with the sapphires that apocalyptic bestows on the heavenly city. Peter Grossman ('Zur Entstehung des ḫ urus') identifies the seventh century as the era in which a room was first set apart for the use of the clergy in the basilica. Rainer Warland ('Byzanc und der Alemannia') discovers a peculiar appropriation of pagan heroic imagery in a Gothic disc of similar date. M. J. EDWARDS CHRIST CHURCH, OXFORD Religious conversion. History, experience and meaning. Edited by Ira Katznelson and Miri Rubin. Pp. ix + incl. figs. Farnham-Burlington, VT: Ashgate, . £. JEH () ; doi:./S Ira Katznelson and Miri Rubin's collective volume offers a welcome addition to scholarship on religious conversion, a subject that poses distinctive challenges and opportunities for historians. With its 'centre of gravity' in medieval and
Visitors to the Chapel of the Holy Blood (consecrated 1396) in Pulkau, Lower Austria, may view a ... more Visitors to the Chapel of the Holy Blood (consecrated 1396) in Pulkau, Lower Austria, may view a magnificent winged altarpiece with carved scenes of the crucifixion. The wing panels contain paintings of high standard, attributed to a master of the Danube School, Nicholas Breu, who painted them around 1520. These panels are no longer available for public viewing, perhaps because of their content: they depict a desecration of the sacramental wafer, the host, by a group of Jews. The alleged sacrile ge, dating to 1338, had disastrous consequences for the Jews. According to the chronicler John of Viktring, the Jews were despoiled of their treasures, drowned, burnt, beheaded, eviscerated. Whole families were destroyed, including children in their cribs. This latter motif is repeated in a magnificent series of paintings executed by Paolo Uccello (1465 X 8) on the predella for the altarpiece of the Communion of the Apostles in the Ducal Palace in Urbino. In one scene, a Jewish family stands transfixed as a Christian mob batters down the door to their house, alerted to a host desecration by the miraculous flow of blood through the walls of the house. One of the two Jewish children weeps in terror, while a younger sibling clings to the mother 's skirts. A subsequent panel shows the same family, bound together at the stake, as the flames consume them.
ticulating that faith and acting it out in ritual and ethics in quite different fashions» 1. «Her... more ticulating that faith and acting it out in ritual and ethics in quite different fashions» 1. «Heresy» indeed usually appears in quotation marks-except in the volume on the years 1815-1914 where one of the editors dispenses with the quotation marks when describing some branches of Catholic Modernism as heretical 2. In most of the volumes, movements branded as heretical receive sympathetic treatment. And the use of «World» reflects another leitmotiv, namely an emphasis on Christianity's global reach and regional diversity. Inevitably the volume on the 20 th century includes two chapters devoted exclusively to Latin America, one to the Caribbean, six to Africa and Asia, and one to Oceania, as well as the six devoted exclusively to Europe and North America. But the volume on the years c.300-600 emphasises the fact that Christianity reached as far east as China and as far south as Ethiopia in that period. Editors were also required to focus on the experiences of the «ordinary Christian» and to consider the social and cultural impact of Christianity as broadly as possible. Another required field was the relationship of Christianity with other faiths or, in more recent times, with secularism and atheism. One major strategic decision by the steering group was to treat Eastern Christianity from the 12 th century to the present day in a separate volume, while the other volumes covering this period would concentrate on Western Christianity and those forms of Christianity stemming from it. Within this general framework editors were free to decide which themes to highlight and which kinds of historian to choose as collaborators. Margaret Mitchell and Frances Young in Origins to Constantine gave more space than the other editors to theology, a major part of the volume being entitled «The Shaping of Christian Theology». Frederick Norris and Augustine Casiday edited Constantine to c.600. They placed special emphasis on the geographical spread of Christianity in that period and on the gradualness of the process by which what became «Christendom» was christianised. Early Medieval Christianity, c.600-c.1100, edited by Julia Smith and Thomas Noble, gave special attention to «Christianity as Lived Experience», including «Birth and Death», «Last Things» and «Gender and the Body». This volume benefited from the fact that Noble, who is based at Notre Dame, the famous Catholic university in Indiana, was able to obtain funding from his university for a conference of his authors, whereas contributors to the other volumes were to a large degree working on their own. Christianity in Western Europe, c.1100-c.1500, edited by Miri Rubin and Walter Simon, highlighted «The Erection of Boundaries», including those between men and women and between heaven and hell, but more especially between Catholic Christianity and those outside, in
In Emotion and Devotion Miri Rubin explores the craft of the historian through a series of studie... more In Emotion and Devotion Miri Rubin explores the craft of the historian through a series of studies of medieval religious cultures. In three original chapters she approaches the medieval figure of the Virgin Mary with the aim of unravelling meaning and experience. Hymns and miracle tales, altarpieces and sermons – a wide range of sources from many European regions – are made to reveal the creativity and richness which they elicited in medieval people, women and men, clergy and laity, people of status and riches as well as those of modest means. The first chapter, "The Global 'Middle Ages'," considers the current historiographical frame for the study of religious cultures and suggests ways in which the Middle Ages can be made more global. Next, "Mary, and Others" examines the polemical situations around Mary, and the location of Muslims and Jews within them. The third chapter, "Emotions and Selves," tracks the sentimental education experienced by Europeans in the late Middle Ages through devotional encounters with the figure of the Virgin Mary in word, image and sound. Each year one scholar of world fame is invited to present lectures in the framework of the Natalie Zemon Davis Annual Lecture Series at the Central European University, Budapest. This is the second volume in the series of published lectures
‘People and their life styles’ explores the routines of family and community life in rural settle... more ‘People and their life styles’ explores the routines of family and community life in rural settlements and urban centres, in private, and in public. It shows that the people of the ‘Middle Ages’ were not so different from us. Social status and gender were highly consequential. Some activities were associated with kinship, others with the search for protection. People sometimes joined others in their efforts—in a trade guild or a religious fraternity—but they also sought out patronage and guidance, from individuals who were stronger, richer, or more expert than themselves. The habit of association was strong in the European tradition.
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