Brill's Companions to the Christian Tradition – serie

Between the third and sixteenth centuries, penance (the acts or gestures performed to atone for transgression, usually with an interest in the salvation of the penitent’s soul) was a crucial mode of participation in both society and the cosmos. Penance was incorporated into political and legal negotiations, it erupted in improvisational social dramas, it was subject to experimentation and innovation, and it saturated western culture with images of contrition, suffering, and reconciliation. During the late antique, medieval, and early modern periods, rituals for the correction of human errors became both sophisticated and popular. Creativity in penitential expression reflects the range and complexity of social and spiritual situations in which penance was vital. Using hitherto unconsidered source materials, the contributors chart new views on how in western culture, human conduct was modulated and directed in patterns shaped by the fearsome yet embraced practices of penance.Contributors are R. Emmet McLaughlin, Rob Meens, Kevin Uhalde, Claudia Rapp, Dominique Iogna-Prat, Abigail Firey, Karen Wagner, Joseph Goering, H. Ansgar Kelly, Torstein Jørgensen, Wietse de Boer, Ronald K. Rittgers, Gretchen Starr-LeBeau, and Jodi Bilinkoff.

Throughout the Middle Ages dialectical disputation was the prevailing method of scholarly inquiry. In the fifteenth century, however, humanists challenged the scholastic method, proposing instead historical and philological approaches. This volume focuses on the polemic over the right approach to biblical studies. It describes manifestations of the controversy, ranging from its beginnings in quattrocento Italy to Germany, Spain, France, the Netherlands, and scholars associated with the papal court in the sixteenth century. Erasmus, the most prominent biblical humanist of his day, served as a lightning rod for many of the controversies discussed here and has also received much attention from modern scholars. The chapters offered here seek to lend a voice also to Erasmus’ critics and to right the balance in a historical narrative that has traditionally favoured the humanists. Contributors are John Monfasani, Daniel Menager, Carlos del Valle Rodríguez, Alejandro Coroleu, Charles Fantazzi, Guy Bedouelle, James Farge, Cecilia Asso, Marcel Gielis, Paolo Sartori, Paul F. Grendler, Nelson H. Minnich, Ronald K. Delph

A Companion to Catholicism and Recusancy in Britain and Ireland is an edited collection of nineteen essays written by a range of experts and some newer scholars in the areas of early modern British and Irish history and religion. In addition to English Catholicism, developments in Ireland, Scotland, and Wales, as well as ongoing connections and interactions with Continental Catholicism, are well incorporated throughout the volume. Many currents of the latest scholarship are addressed and advanced, including religious minorities and exiles, women and gender studies, literary and material culture, religious identity construction, and, within Catholic studies, the role of laity as well as clergy, and of female as well as male religious. In all, these essays significantly advance the movement of early modern British and Irish Catholicism from the historiographical margins to an evolving, but ultimately more capacious and accurate, historical mainstream.

This handbook provides a comprehensive survey of current scholarship on Anabaptist and Spiritualist history and theology from 1521 to 1700. Since the last half of the twentieth century, the historiography of the Radical Reformation has been the focus of vigorous and creative debate. The volume–broadly cast in terms of geographic scope and topical coverage–carefully untangles the fluid boundaries of Spiritualism and Anabaptism in Early Modern European history. In addition to a narrative summary, each chapter also provides a bibliography of sources and current scholarship, and concludes with suggestions for future research. This handbook will serve a generation of students as the standard reference work on Anabaptism and Spiritualism.Contributors include: Geoffrey Dipple, Michael Driedger, Hans-Jürgen Goertz, Brad Gregory, Sigrun Haude, Ralf Klötzer, John D. Rempel, John D. Roth, Martin Rothkegel, C. Arnold Snyder, James Stayer, Piet Visser, and R. Emmet McLaughlin.Originally published in hardcover.

The division of the Church or Schism that took place between 1378 and 1417 had no precedent in Christianity. No conclave since the twelfth century had acted as had those in April and September 1378, electing two concurrent popes. This crisis was neither an issue of the authority claimed by the pope and the Holy Roman Emperor nor an issue of authority and liturgy. The Great Western Schism was unique because it forced upon Christianity a rethinking of the traditional medieval mental frame. It raised question of personality, authority, human fallibility, ecclesiastical jurisdiction and taxation, and in the end responsibility in holding power and authority. This collection presents the broadest range of experiences, center and periphery, clerical and lay, male and female, Christian and Muslim. Theology, including exegesis of Scripture, diplomacy, French literature, reform, art, and finance all receive attention.

Richard Hooker was a learned philosophical theologian and engaged polemicist of the later sixteenth century who explained and defended the Elizabethan religious and political settlement, and shaped definitively the self-understanding of the English ecclesiastical establishment for centuries to come. This Companion to Richard Hooker brings together a representative body of contributors with a view to offering a summary of the current state of scholarly debate and a synthesis of emerging trends in criticism. Contributions to this volume reflect the major current trends of scholarly opinion on Hooker’s place within the mainstream of Protestant reform. This Companion aims to provide a comprehensive and systematic introduction to Richard Hooker’s life, works, thought, reputation, and influence.Contributors are: Rudolph P. Almasy, Daniel Eppley, Lee W. Gibbs, Egil Grislis, William Harrison, W. Speed Hill, Ranall Ingalls, Dean Kernan, Torrance Kirby, Diarmaid MacCulloch, A. S. McGrade, W. David Neelands, W. Brown Patterson, Debora K. Shuger, Corneliu C. Simuţ, John K. Stafford, Paul Stanwood, James F. Turrell, and the Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr. Rowan Williams.

Literature on confessionalization has opened new vistas for considering early-modern Christianity and its place in Western social-political contexts, but the ecclesiastical cultures of the period need further research and analysis to refine our focus on how Christians lived in their own communities and related to society at large. This volume’s essays assess eight elements of Lutheran life (its foundation in sixteenth-century processing of Luther’s legacy, university teaching, preaching, catechesis, devotional literature, popular piety, church and society, church and secular government) and two geographical areas (Nordic and Baltic lands, the kingdom of Hungary) to orient readers to current scholarly discussion and suggest further avenues for exploration and evaluation. Each offers perspectives on Lutherans’ attempts to practise their faith in the world.Contributors are: Kenneth Appold, Gerhard Bode, Susan Boettcher, Christopher Boyd Brown, Robert Christman, David Daniel, Irene Dingel, Robert von Friedeburg, Mary Jane Haemig, and Eric Lund.

Medieval commentary writing has often been described as a way of "doing philosophy," and not without reason. The various commentaries on Aristotle's Categories we have from this period did not simply elaborate a dialectical exercise for training students; rather, they provided their authors with an unparalleled opportunity to work through crucial philosophical problems, many of which remain with us today. As such, this unique commentary tradition is important not only in its own right, but also to the history and development of philosophy as a whole. The contributors to this volume take a fresh look at it, examining a wide range of medieval commentators, from Simplicius to John Wyclif, and discussing such issues as the compatibility of Platonism with Aristotelianism; the influence of Avicenna; the relationship between grammar, logic, and metaphysics; the number of the categories; the status of the categories as a science realism vs. nominalism; and the relationship between categories.

The extraordinarily diverse oeuvre of Juan Luis Vives, marked by great erudition and originality, still remains very little known in the English-speaking world. This collection of essays considers his life and the influence of his writings, and examines some of his chief works. These include his books on the education of women and on the relief of the poor, his numerous political writings, and his huge encyclopedic treatise, De disciplinis, a comprehensive critical and systematic review of universal learning and the state of the academic disciplines at the beginning of the sixteenth century. Subsequent chapters discuss Vives's ideas on the soul, especially his analysis of the emotions, his contribution to rhetoric and dialectic and a posthumous defense of the Christian religion in dialogue form.Contributors are Enrique Gonzalez Gonzalez, Catherine Curtis, Peter Mack, Valerio Del Nero, Edward V. George.

The reception and interpretation of the writings of St Paul in the early modern period forms the subject of this volume, from late medieval Paulinism and the beginnings of humanist biblical scholarship and interpretation, through the ways that theologians of various confessions considered Paul. Beyond the ways that theological voices construed Paul, several articles examine how Pauline texts impacted other areas of early modern life, such as political thought, the regulation of family life, and the care of the poor. Throughout, the volume makes clear the importance of Paul for all of the confessions, and denies the confessionalism of previous historiography. The chapters, written by experts in the field, offer a critical overview of current research, and introduce the major themes in Pauline interpretation in the Reformation and how they are being interpreted at the start of the 21st century.Honorable Mention Roland H. Bainton Book Prize 2010; Category Reference Works.

The great Florentine Protestant reformer Peter Martyr Vermigli (1499-1562) made a unique contribution to the scriptural hermeneutics of the Renaissance and Reformation, where classical theories of interpretation derived from Patristic and Scholastic sources engaged with new methods drawn from Humanism and Hebraism. Vermigli was one of the pioneers of the sixteenth century in acknowledging and harnessing the biblical scholarship of the medieval Rabbis. His eminence in the Catholic Church in Italy (until 1542) was followed by an equally distinguished career as theologian and exegete in Protestant Europe where he was professor successively in Strasbourg, Oxford, and finally in Zurich. The Companion consists of 24 essays divided among five themes addressing Vermigli’s international career, hermeneutical method, biblical commentaries, major theological topics, and his later influence.Contributors include: Scott Amos, Michael Baumann, Jon Balserak, Luca Baschera, Maurice Boutin, Emidio Campi, John Patrick Donnelly SJ, Max Engammare, Gerald Hobbs, Frank James III, Gary Jenkins, Robert Kingdon, Torrance Kirby, William Klempa, Joseph McLelland, Charlotte Methuen, Christian Moser, David Neelands, Peter Opitz, Herman Selderhuis, Daniel Shute, David Wright, and Jason Zuidema.

This collection provides a new, authoritative and challenging study of the life and works of Ælfric of Eynsham, the most important vernacular religious writer in the history of Anglo-Saxon England. The contributors include almost all of the key Ælfric scholars working today and some important newer voices. Each of the chapters is a cutting-edge piece of work which addresses one aspect of Ælfric’s works or career. The chapters are organised topically, rather than by chronology, genre or biography, and between them cover the entire Ælfrician corpus and the major contextual issues; consideration of Ælfric’s Latin writings is carefully integrated with that of his Old English works. Ælfric studies are currently a central element of Anglo-Saxon studies, but while to date there has been a great deal of detailed work on some aspects of Ælfric, this collection provides the first overview.Contributors: Hugh Magennis, Joyce Hill, Christopher A. Jones, Mechthild Gretsch, M. R. Godden, Catherine Cubitt, Thomas N. Hall, Robert K. Upchurch, Mary Swan, Clare A. Lees, Gabriella Corona, Kathleen Davis, Jonathan Wilcox, Aaron J Kleist and Elaine Treharne.

The nature of mendicancy as it developed among various religious orders during the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries is the subject of considerable debate. In spite of this, little in the way of a comprehensive review of the phenomenon as a whole has been undertaken. What has been done has either been order-specific (with an emphasis on the Friars Minor) or has focused on points of special conflict regarding the mendicant ideal (University debates, Spiritual Franciscans). Little work exists on the roots of mendicancy, or on the creative ways in which mendicancy was understood (and deprecated) in various quarters. Few studies try to bring together both the theory and practice of religious mendicancy. The effect that events had in molding and changing the mendicant ideal is also often neglected, as are the ways in which it was independently and creatively appropriated by individuals and groups. Needless to say, all of this is strange for a movement that most are content to label “Mendicant.” Perhaps it may even be the case that “mendicancy” is not useful as a descriptive concept. The purpose and intention of this handbook is to offer an analysis of the term and to present an up-to-date and comprehensive introduction to the phenomenon of religious mendicancy in the central and later middle ages. It provides a contextualized guide that will introduce the central issues in contemporary scholarship regarding the mendicant orders. This project approaches the controversies from a multitude of angles and unites in one volume the insights of different disciplines such as social and intellectual history, literary analysis, and theology.The present work is divided into three main sections, I) The origins and foundations of medieval mendicancy, II) The development and articulation of mendicant ideals, III) The reception and appropriation of mendicancy in the middle ages. The chapters herein serve as a solid point of departure for advanced students and scholars.

Clare of Assisi: Life, Writings and Spirituality examines Clare not merely as an obedient footnote to the friars, but as a Franciscan founder in her own right who kept primitive Franciscan ideals alive into the middle of the thirteenth century and transposed them into a woman’s key. Bringing together the best of international research, the text examines Clare’s importance within the early Franciscan milieu and her contribution to the thirteenth-century women's movement. It studies the radicalism of Clare's Franciscan choice, her life within the Monastery of San Damiano, her politicking with Agnes of Prague for the "privilege of poverty," and her uniqueness among other women in Gregory IX's Damianite ordo. Following this historical study are critical translations and literary analyses of Clare's four letters to Agnes of Prague as well as a new translation and commentary on Clare’s Forma Vitae.

Never before has there appeared in English such a collection of essays concerning Alexander the Great's legacy in world literature. From Greek and Latin works of the Classical Period through Medieval texts in Syriac, Persian, Coptic, Arabic, Ethiopic and Hebrew, as well the European languages, the fourteen chapters cover the gamut of Alexander literary studies as compiled by some of the foremost scholars in each field, bringing the reader up-to-date on everything Alexander. These experts share their results after years of investigation in the field, and, in doing so, point the reader toward the essence of each of the myriad of Alexander romances, while at the same time including copious notes and bibliography to prepare the reader for his or her own Alexander journey.Contributors include: Richard Stoneman, Saskia Dönitz, Daniel Selden, Josef Wiesehöfer, David Ashurst, Laurence Harf-Lancner, Danielle Buschinger, Juan Pedro Monferrer Sala, Roberta Morosini, Maura Lafferty, Peter Kotar, David Zuwiyya

Humanist prejudice famously made medieval angelology the paradigm of ludicrous speculation with its caricature of “How many angels can dance on the head of a pin?” The truth is quite the opposite: many of medieval philosophy’s most original and ingenious contributions actually came to light in discussions of angelology. In fact, angelology provided an ideal context for discussing issues such as the structure of the universe, the metaphysical texture of creatures (e.g. esse-essentia composition and the principle of individuation), and theories of time, knowledge, freedom, and linguistics—issues which, for the most part, are still highly relevant for contemporary philosophy. Because this specifically philosophical interest in angels developed mainly during the course of the thirteenth and early fourteenth century, this volume centers on the period from Bonaventure to Ockham. It also, however, discusses some original positions by earlier thinkers such as Augustine and Anselm of Canterbury. Its nine thorough studies bring to light some neglected but highly fascinating aspects of medieval philosophy, thus filling an important gap in the literature.Contributors include: Richard Cross, Gregory T. Doolan, H.J.M.J. Goris, Tobias Hoffmann, Peter King, Timothy B. Noone, Giorgio Pini, Bernd Roling, and John F. Wippel.

This book meets an obvious need in English language studies on Meister Eckhart. It is the first handbook on Eckhart for graduate and undergraduate students. It is divided into three parts. Part one deals with the life, works, career, and trial; Greek, Jewish, and Arabic philosophical sources, and some central philosophical ideas. Part two examines Eckhart as a Latin exegete, vernacular preacher, Eckhart's understanding of God, Eckhart as a reader of Maimonides and in relation to women's spirituality. Part three deals with the reception of Eckhart and his works from the fourteenth century to the twenty-first century. It covers fourteenth-century German readers of Eckhart, the fifteenth-century reader Nicholas of Cusa, the sixteenth-seventeenth-century reader Valentine Weigel, the reception of Eckhart in German idealism and romanticism and Eckhart and philosophy in the twentieth century. There is an epilogue on mysticism and philosophy in Eckhart and an appendix on Dominican education in the Middle Ages.Contributors include Walter Senner OP, Allesandra Beccarisi, Dagmar Gottschall, Loris Sturlese, Tamar Tsopurashvili, Jennifer Hart Weed, Jeremiah Hackett, Udo Kern, Alessandro Palazzo, Eliza Rubino, Donald F. Duclow, Bruce Millem, Markus Enders, Yossef Schwartz, Lydia Wegener, Jack C. Marler, Nadia Bray, Elizabeth Brient, Fiorella Rettucci, Andrew Weeks, Cyril O'Regan, Dermot Moran, Karl Albert and Paul Dietrich

Few authors of the Latin Middle Ages have been the subject of so much attention as Marsilius of Padua (c. 1275-1342/43). Known primarily for his Defensor pacis, Marsilius quickly garnered for himself the reputation of being a heretic as well as a schismatic. At the same time, however, it became evident that he was perhaps one of the brightest - if not most dangerous - thinkers of the fourteenth century. The political ideas and activities of Marsilius of Padua have engendered a substantial literature and numerous debates. The present volume serves as a much needed guide to the life and works of the Paduan thinker. It provides readers with a scholarly treatment and evaluation of the various interpretative schools and debates concerning Marsilus based on the latest relevant research. As such, the present volume will appeal to scholars interested in the importance and influence of one of the greatest authors of the European Middle Ages. Contributors include: Gerson Moreno-Riaño, Cary J. Nederman, Frank Godthardt, William Courtenay, Michael Sweeney, Gianluca Briguglia, Takashi Shogimen, Roberto Lambertini, Bettina Koch, and Thomas Izbicki.

Henry of Ghent, who taught in the theology faculty in Paris from c. 1275 until his death in 1293, was an original, pivotal, and influential thinker. Henry’s theories on a wide range of theological and philosophical topics led to a transformation of scholastic thought in the years shortly after the death of Thomas Aquinas. The Companion to Henry of Ghent is an introduction to his thought. It first addresses the historical context of Henry: his writings, his participation in the events of 1277, and Muslim philosophical influences. The volume continues with an examination of his theology, metaphysics, epistemology, and ethics. It concludes with an examination of two authors whom he influenced: John Duns Scotus and Pico della Mirandola.Contributors include: Amos Edelheit, Juan Carlos Flores, Bernd Goehring, Ludwig Hödl, Tobias Hoffman, Jules Janssens, Marialucrezia Leone, Steven Marrone, Martin Pickavé, Roland Teske, SJ, Robert Wielockx, Gordon Wilson

Winner of the 2011 SCSC Bainton Prize for Reference WorksThe “canon” of Hispanic mysticism is expanding. No longer is our picture of this special brand of early modern devotional practice limited to a handful of venerable saints. Instead, we recognize a wide range of “marginal” figures as practitioners of mysticism, broadly defined. Neither do we limit the study of mysticism necessarily to the Christian religion, nor even to the realm of literature. Representations of mysticism are also found in the visual, plastic and musical arts. The terminology and theoretical framework of mysticism permeate early modern Hispanic cultures. Paradoxically, by taking a more inclusive approach to studying mysticism in its “marginal” manifestations, we draw mysticism—in all its complex iterations—back toward its rightful place at the center of early modern spiritual experience.Contributors: Colin Thompson, Alastair Hamilton, Christina Lee, Clara E. Herrera, Darcy Donahue, Elena del Río Parra, Evelyn Toft, Fernando Durán López, Francisco Morales, Freddy Domínguez, Glyn Redworth, Jane Ackerman, Jessica Boon, José Adriano de Freitas Carvalho, Luce López-Baralt, María Carrión, Maryrica Lottman, and Tess Knighton.

This book offers the first comprehensive overview of the Catholic Enlightenment in Europe. It surveys the diversity of views about the structure and nature of the movement, pointing toward the possibilities for further research. The volume presents a series of comprehensive treatments on the process and interpretation of Catholic Enlightenment in France, Spain, Portugal, Poland, the Holy Roman Empire, Malta, Italy and the Habsburg territories. An introductory overview explores the varied meanings of Catholic Enlightenment and situates them in a series of intellectual and social contexts. The topics covered in this book are crucial for a proper understanding of the role and place not only of Catholicism in the eighteenth century, but also for the social and religious history of modern Europe.Contributors include: Jeffrey D. Burson, Richard Butterwick, Frans Ciappara, Harm Klueting, Ulrich L. Lehner, Michael Printy, Mario Rosa, Evergton Sales Souza, and Andrea J. Smidt.

It has been called “the most singular centaur that religion and science have ever produced” (Franz Boll). Astrology as a cultural form has puzzled and fascinated generations of humankind. It reached its apogee in the European Renaissance, when it flourished in literature, political expression, medicine, art, and all the other areas of endeavor catalogued in this unique collection. Brill’s Companion to Renaissance Astrology brings together a wide array of expertise from around the globe to explain the method and matter of this cultural form, including the Arab and Classical heritage, the medieval tradition, the clash with organized religion, the influence on knowledge and the competition with newly emerging ways of knowing, summarizing the current state of research and suggesting new paths.Contributors include: Giuseppe Bezza, Dieter Blume, Claudia Brosseder, Brendan Dooley, William Eamon, Ornella Faracovi, Hiro Hirai, Wolfgang Hübner, Eileen Reeves, Steven Vanden Broecke, and Graziella Federici Vescovini.

The study of pastoral care in the middle ages has seen a resurgence in recent years. Scholars are now approaching this subject less from their respective ecclesiastical or parochial biases and more out of an effort to understand the significant role pastors (secular and religious) had in the shaping of medieval society at large. This book explores some of the new ways scholars are approaching this topic. Using a variety of sources and disciplinary angles: theology, preaching, catechesis, confessional literature, visitation records, monastic cartularies and the like, these studies show the many and varied ways in which pastoral care came to play such an important role in the day to day lives of medieval people.Contributors include: C. Colt Anderson, Michelle Armstrong-Partida, Beth Allison Barr, Sabrina Corbellini, Alexandra da Costa, Laura Michele Diener, William Dohar, James Ginther, Joe Goering, Ann M. Hutchison, Greg Peters, C. Matthew Phillips, Andrew Reeves, Ronald J. Stansbury, Susan M.B. Steuer, Mathilde van Dijk, and Anne T. Thayer.

The articles in this volume focus upon Boethius's extant works: his De arithmetica and a fragmentary De musica, his translations and commentaries on logic, his five theological texts, and, of course, his Consolation of Philosophy. They examine the effects that Boethian thought has exercised upon the learning of later generations of scholars--including, to a degree, scholars of the 21st century. The field of Boethian Studies has enjoyed a continuous history of works that treat either the entire Boethian tradition or major aspects of it. This volume offers a comprehensive study, and its construction is systematic, considering Boethius's works both as central to the disciplines that they represent and to the areas of scholarly interest that they influenced, and it is framed by articles on the historical contexts in which those works were produced.Contributors include: Noel Harold Kaylor, Jr., Stephen McCluskey, Rosalind C. Love, Jean-Yves Guillaumin, Siobhan Nash-Marshall, John Casey, Paul E. Szarmach, Christine Hehle, Glynnis M. Cropp, Dario Bancato, Ian Johnson, Mark T. Rimple, Ann E. Moyer, Fabio Troncarelli, and Philip Edward Phillips.

Brill's Companion to Aelred of Rievaulx explores the life, works, and thought of Aelred, Cistercian abbot of Rievaulx Abbey from 1147 to 1167. As well as introducing the three genres of his works —sermons, spiritual teaching, and history— scholars survey such central topics as Marian devotion, love and friendship, the sacramental nature of community, lay spirituality, and saints’ lives. The work also includes the first supplement to the Bibliotheca aelrediana secunda, listing publications by and about Aelred from between 1996 and 2015. Aelred is rapidly becoming one of the best-known and most loved of the 12th-century Cistercians; this book provides welcome new insights into his contributions to the spiritual and political concerns of his place and time.Contributors are Damien Boquet, Pierre-André Burton, Marsha L. Dutton, Elizabeth Freeman, Daniel M. La Corte, Marie Anne Mayeski, Domenico Pezzini, John R. Sommerfeldt, and Katherine Yohe.

The Roman Curia is the oldest extant body of institutional administration in the world. Indeed, it was the prototype for the development of centralized government in the monarchies of the Middle Ages. Further, it was the administrative backbone of the first worldwide organization in human history. It developed policies, laws, and procedures that continue to affect the entire world. This book offers scholarly contributions from the origins of the Curia to the early modern period.Contributors include Barbara Bombi, Elena Bonora, Bruce Brasington, Sandro Carocci, Peter D. Clarke, Maria Teresa Fattori, Massimo Carlo Giannini, Anthony Lappin, Rita Lizzi Testa, Rosamond McKitterick, Dominic Moreau, Bronwen Neil, Miles Pattenden, Giovanni Pizzorusso, Donald Prudlo, Kirsi Salonen, Cesare Santus, and Danica Summerlin.

Bernard of Clairvaux is perhaps the most controversial figure of Western Europe's vibrant twelfth century. Unlike Abelard, who is seen as a proponent of modern thinking, Bernard is often relegated to the darkest corner of the Middle Ages. Nothing is easy with Bernard, but these fresh evaluations of him and their reviews of recent scholarship enable the reader to make a more balanced evaluation of the man, his writings, and his impact on his period. Bernard emerges as a multifaceted figure who sought to reform monasticism and ended up becoming a saint with an appeal to virtually all classes in medieval society. Bernard lives on today with the lay and monastic scholars who continue to find new layers of meaning in his writings. Contributors include Christopher Holdsworth, Michael Casey, James France, Diane Reilly, John Sommerfeldt, Mette B. Bruun, Burcht Pranger, Chrysogonus Waddell, E. Rozanne Elder, and Brian Patrick McGuire.

The Eucharist in the European Middle Ages was a multimedia event. First and foremost it was a drama, a pageant, a liturgy. The setting itself was impressive. Stunning artwork adorned massive buildings. Underlying and supporting the liturgy, the art and the architecture was a carefully constructed theological world of thought and belief. Popular beliefs, spilling over into the magical, celebrated that presence in several tumultuous forms. Church law regulated how far such practice might go as well as who was allowed to perform the liturgy and how and when it might be performed. This volume presents the medieval Eucharist in all its glory combining introductory essays on the liturgy, art, theology, architecture, devotion and theology.Contributors include: Celia Chazelle, Michael Driscoll, Edward Foley, Stephen Edmund Lahey, Lizette Larson-Miller, Ian Christopher Levy, Gerhard Lutz, Gary Macy, Miri Rubin, Elizabeth Saxon, Kristen Van Ausdall and Joseph Wawrykow.

Joachim of Fiore (c.1135-1202) remains one of the most fascinating and enigmatic figures of medieval Christianity. In his own time, he was an influential advisor to the mighty and powerful, widely respected for his prophetic exegesis and decoding of the apocalypse. In modern times, many thinkers, from Thomas Müntzer to Friedrich Engels, have hailed him as a prophet of progress and revolution. Even present-day theologians, philosophers and novelists were inspired by Joachim’s vision of a Third Age of the Holy Spirit. However, at no time was Joachim an uncontroversial figure. Soon after his death, the church authorities became suspicious about the explosive potential of his theology, while more recently historians held him accountable for the fateful progressivism of Western Civilization. Contributors are: Frances Andrews, Valeria De Fraja, Alfredo Gatto, Peter Gemeinhardt, Sven Grosse, Massimo Iiritano, Bernard McGinn, Matthias Riedl, and Brett Edward Whalen.