Arnold J.H. (ed.) The Oxford Handbook of Medieval Christianity

Oxford; New York: Oxford University Press, 2014. — 624 p. — (Oxford Handbooks). — ISBN: 978-0-19-958213-6.This volume brings together the latest scholarship on the beliefs, practices, and institutions of the Christian Church between 400 and 1500 AD. The Oxford Handbook of Medieval Christianity is about the beliefs, practices, and institutions of the Roman Church between 400 and 1500AD, and brings together in one volume a host of cutting-edge analysis. The book does not primarily provide a chronological narrative, but rather seeks to demonstrate the variety, change, and complexity of religion across this long period, and the numerous different ways in which modern scholarship can approach it. It presents the work of thirty academic authors, from the US, the UK, and Europe, addressing topics that range from early medieval monasticism to late medieval mysticism, from the material wealth of the Church to the spiritual exercises through which certain believers might attempt to improve their souls. Each chapter tells a story, but seeks also to ask how and why "Christianity" took on a particular shape at a particular moment, paying attention to both the spiritual and otherwordly aspects of religion, and the very material and political contexts in which they were often embedded. The book aims to be an indispensable guide to future discussion in the field.John H. Arnold studied at the Centre for Medieval Studies, University of York, and worked first at UEA and then at Birkbeck, University of London. He became Professor of Medieval History at Birkbeck in 2007. He is author of various books and articles on medieval history, and has published also on modern historiography and the history of gender.Histories and historiographies of medieval Christianity / John H. Arnold
Religion, belief, and society: anthropological approaches / Simon Yarrow
Material culture and medieval Christianity / Beth Williamson
Medieval Christianity in a world historical perspective / R.I. Moore
The boundaries of Christendom and Islam: Iberia and the Latin levant / Amy G. Remensnyder
Christianizing kingdoms / Sverre Bagge
Monastic landscapes and society / Wendy Davies
Civic religion / Nicholas Terpstra
Localized faith: parochial and domestic spaces / Katherine L. French
Continuity and change in the institutional church / Ian Forrest
Pilgrimage / Marcus Bull
Using saints: intercession, healing, sanctity / Gábor Klaniczay
Missarum sollemnia: eucharistic rituals in the Middle Ages / Eric Palazzo
Penitential varieties / Rob Meens
Spiritual exercises: the making of interior faith / Robert L.A. Clark
Fear, hope, death, and salvation / Arnold Angenendt
Reform, clerical culture, and politics / Maureen C. Miller
Intellectuals and the masses: oxen and she-asses in the medieval church / Peter Biller
'Popular' religious culture(s) / Laura A. Smoller
Doubts and the absence of faith / Dorothea Weltecke
Medieval monasticisms / Constance H. Berman
Mysticism and the body / Rosalynn Voaden
Christianity and its others: Jews, Muslims, and pagans / Sara Lipton
Christian experiences of religious non-conformism / Grado Giovanni Merlo
The church as lord / George Dameron
Christianizing political discourses / Geoffrey Koziol
Religion in the age of Charlemagne / Janet L. Nelson
Papal authority and its limitations / Kathleen G. Cushing
Bishops, education, and discipline / Sarah Hamilton
Conclusion: looking back from the Reformation / Ronnie Po-chia Hsia