Debating the Saints' Cults in the Age of Gregory the Great PDF Download

Author: Matthew Dal Santo
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0191626376
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages :

View

Book Description
In Debating the Saints' Cults in the Age of Gregory the Great, Dal Santo argues that the Dialogues, Pope Gregory the Great's most controversial work, should be considered from the perspective of a wide-ranging debate about the saints which took place in early Byzantine society. Like other contemporary works in Greek and Syriac, Gregory's text debated the nature and plausibility of the saints' miracles and the propriety of the saints' cult. Rather than viewing the early Byzantine world as overwhelmingly pious or credulous, the book argues that many contemporaries retained the ability to question and challenge the claims of hagiographers and other promoters of the saints' miracles. From Italy to the heart of the Persian Empire at Ctesiphon, a healthy, sceptical, rationalism remained alive and well. The book's conclusion argues that doubt towards the saints reflected a current of political dissent in the late East Roman or Byzantine Empire, where patronage of Christian saints' shrines was used to sanction imperial autocracy. These far-reaching debates also re-contextualize the emergence of Islam in the Near East.

Author: R. A. Markus
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 9780521586085
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 276

View

Book Description
Markus's new and accessible work is the first full study of Gregory the Great since that of F. H. Dudden (1905) to deal with both Gregory's life and work as well as with his thought and spirituality. With his command of Gregory's works, Markus portrays vividly the daily problems of one of the most attractive characters of the age. Gregory's culture is described in the context of the late Roman educational background and in the context of previous patristic tradition. Markus seeks to understand Gregory as a cultivated late Roman aristocrat converted to the ascetic ideal, caught in the tension between his attraction to the monastic vocation and his episcopal ministry, at a time of catastrophic change in the Roman world. The book deals with every aspect of his pontificate: as bishop of Rome, as landlord of the Church lands, in his relations to the Empire, and to the Western Germanic kingdoms in Spain, Gaul, and, especially, his mission to the English.

Author: Francis Clark
Publisher: BRILL
ISBN: 9004473920
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 479

View

Book Description
This book condenses and updates the author's two-volume work, The Pseudo-Gregorian Dialogues (Brill, 1987), surveying and clarifying the controversy which that work rekindled. It presents the internal and external evidence showing cogently that the famous book which is the sole source of knowledge about the life of St. Benedict was not written by St. Gregory the Great as is traditionally supposed, but by a later counterfeiter. It makes an essential contribution to the current reassessment of early Benedictine history. It also throws much new light on the life and times of St. Gregory, and confutes the age-old accusation that he was "the father of superstition" who by writing the Dialogues corrupted the faith and piety of medieval Christendom.

Author: George E. Demacopoulos
Publisher: University of Notre Dame Pess
ISBN: 026807786X
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 240

View

Book Description
Gregory the Great (bishop of Rome from 590 to 604) is one of the most significant figures in the history of Christianity. His theological works framed medieval Christian attitudes toward mysticism, exegesis, and the role of the saints in the life of the church. The scale of Gregory's administrative activity in both the ecclesial and civic affairs of Rome also helped to make possible the formation of the medieval papacy. Gregory disciplined malcontent clerics, negotiated with barbarian rulers, and oversaw the administration of massive estates that employed thousands of workers. Scholars have often been perplexed by the two sides of Gregory—the monkish theologian and the calculating administrator. George E. Demacopoulos's study is the first to advance the argument that there is a clear connection between the pontiff's thought and his actions. By exploring unique aspects of Gregory's ascetic theology, wherein the summit of Christian perfection is viewed in terms of service to others, Demacopoulos argues that the very aspects of Gregory's theology that made him distinctive were precisely the factors that structured his responses to the practical crises of his day. With a comprehensive understanding of Christian history that resists the customary bifurcation between Christian East and Christian West, Demacopoulos situates Gregory within the broader movements of Christianity and the Roman world that characterize the shift from late antiquity to the early Middle Ages. This fresh reading of Gregory's extensive theological and practical works underscores the novelty and nuance of Gregory as thinker and bishop.

Author: John Moorhead
Publisher: Psychology Press
ISBN: 9780415233897
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 200

View

Book Description
Gregory is one of the big names of the early Western Church, and a great literary figure in his own right. This book presents a systematic picture of Gregory's work as a whole.

Author: Conrad Leyser
Publisher:
ISBN: 0198208685
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 234

View

Book Description
When barbarians invaded the Roman Empire in the years around 400 AD, Christian monks hid their cloisters. Conrad Leyser shows that monks in the early medieval West were, in fact, pioneers in the creation of a new language of moral authority.

Author: George E. Demacopoulos
Publisher: University of Pennsylvania Press
ISBN: 0812245172
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 273

View

Book Description
By emphasizing the ways the Bishops of Rome first leveraged the cult of St. Peter to their advantage, George E. Demacopoulos constructs an alternate account of papal history that challenges the dominant narrative of an inevitable and unbroken rise in papal power from late antiquity through the Middle Ages.

Author: Charles Kannengiesser
Publisher: BRILL
ISBN: 900453153X
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 840

View

Book Description
Through this comprehensive Handbook, the reader will obtain a balanced and cohesive picture of the Early Church. It gives an overall view of the reception, transmission, and interpretation of the Bible in the life and thought of the Church during the first five centuries of Christianity. The print edition is available as a set of two volumes (9789004098152).

Author: Marilyn Dunn
Publisher: A&C Black
ISBN: 1441110135
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 290

View

Book Description
Draws on historical, ethnographical and anthropological studies to create a fresh understanding of Christianization in medieval Europe.

Author: Matthew Gabriele
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 0429950411
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 241

View

Book Description
Apocalypse and Reform from Late Antiquity to the Middle Ages provides a range of perspectives on what reformist apocalypticism meant for the formation of Medieval Europe, from the Fall of Rome to the twelfth century. It explores and challenges accepted narratives about both the development of apocalyptic thought and the way it intersected with cultures of reform to influence major transformations in the medieval world. Bringing together a wealth of knowledge from academics in Britain, Europe and the USA this book offers the latest scholarship in apocalypse studies. It consolidates a paradigm shift, away from seeing apocalypse as a radical force for a suppressed minority, and towards a fuller understanding of apocalypse as a mainstream cultural force in history. Together, the chapters and case studies capture and contextualise the variety of ideas present across Europe in the Middle Ages and set out points for further comparative study of apocalypse across time and space. Offering new perspectives on what ideas of ‘reform’ and ‘apocalypse’ meant in Medieval Europe, Apocalypse and Reform from Late Antiquity to the Middle Ages provides students with the ideal introduction to the study of apocalypse during this period.