Devotional Culture in Late Medieval England and Europe: Diverse Imaginations of Christ’s Life

Description

Christ’s life, as related through the Gospel narratives and early Apocrypha, was subject to a riot of literary-devotional adaptation in the medieval period. This collection provides a series of groundbreaking studies centring on the devotional and cultural significance of Christianity’s pivotal story during the Middle Ages. The collection represents an important milestone in terms of mapping the meditative modes of piety that characterize a number of Christological traditions, including the Meditationes vitae Christi and the numerous versions it spawned in both Latin and the vernacular. A number of chapters in the volume track how and why meditative piety grew in popularity to become a mode of spiritual activity advised not only to recluses and cenobites as in the writings of Aelred of Rievaulx, but also reached out to diverse lay audiences through the pastoral regimens prescribed by devotional authors such as the Carthusian prior Nicholas Love in England and the Parisian theologian and chancellor of the University of Paris, Jean Gerson. Through exploring these texts from a variety of perspectives - theoretical, codicological, theological - and through tracing their complex lines of dissemination in ideological and material terms, this collection promises to be invaluable to students and scholars of medieval religious and literary culture. Front Matter ("Title Page", "Copyright Page", "Table of Contents", "List of Illustrations", "Acknowledgements", "Abbreviations"), p. i Free Access Introduction, p. 1 Stephen Kelly, Ryan Perry https://doi.org/10.1484/M.MCS-EB.5.103035 New Light on the Date and Authorship of the Meditationes vitae Christi, p. 17 Peter Tóth, Dávid Falvay https://doi.org/10.1484/M.MCS-EB.5.103036 Adolescence and Interiority in Aelred’s Lives of Christ, p. 107 Denise L. Despres https://doi.org/10.1484/M.MCS-EB.5.103037 The Life of Christ in Meditative Texts in Late Medieval France, p. 127 Maureen Boulton https://doi.org/10.1484/M.MCS-EB.5.103038 Out of Egypt, Into England: Tales of the Good Thief for Medieval English Audiences, p. 147 Mary Dzon https://doi.org/10.1484/M.MCS-EB.5.103039 The Disappearing Book in The Revelation of the Hundred Pater Nosters, p. 243 Marlene Villalobos Hennessy https://doi.org/10.1484/M.MCS-EB.5.103040 The Passion Cycle in English Wall Paintings and Manuscript Art: Readers and Spectators in Midlands Communities in the Later Medieval Period, p. 267 Rachel Canty, David Griffith https://doi.org/10.1484/M.MCS-EB.5.103041 ‘To Move the Mind’: Scenes from Christ’s Life on Faversham’s Painted Pillar, p. 291 Sheila Sweetinburgh https://doi.org/10.1484/M.MCS-EB.5.103042 ‘Þynke ai of criste’: Compassionate Thought in The Prickynge of Love, p. 315 Sarah Macmillan https://doi.org/10.1484/M.MCS-EB.5.103043 Heaven and Health: Middle English Devotion to Christ in its Therapeutic Contexts, p. 335 Daniel McCann https://doi.org/10.1484/M.MCS-EB.5.103044 Living in the Time of Christ: Margery Kempe’s ‘Devoute Ymaginacion’, p. 363 Elizabeth Scarborough https://doi.org/10.1484/M.MCS-EB.5.103045 ‘Þenke we sadli on his deeþ’: The Hours of the Cross as a Short Passion Meditation, p. 385 Eleanor McCullough https://doi.org/10.1484/M.MCS-EB.5.103046 Patroness of Orthodoxy: Elizabeth Berkeley, John Walton, and the Middle English Storie of Asneth, a West Midlands Devotional Text, p. 405 Heather A. Reid https://doi.org/10.1484/M.MCS-EB.5.103047 Translating Access and Authority at Syon Abbey, p. 443 Paul J. Patterson https://doi.org/10.1484/M.MCS-EB.5.103048 Through the Looking Glass: Reflections of Christ’s ‘trewe louers’ in Nicholas Love’s Mirror of the Blessed Life of Jesus Christ, p. 461 Katie Ann-Marie Bugyis https://doi.org/10.1484/M.MCS-EB.5.103049 The Pepysian ‘Meditation on Christ’s Passion’, p. 487 Mayumi Taguchi https://doi.org/10.1484/M.MCS-EB.5.103050 Exemplary Speech in the Life of the Virgin Mary and the Christ: Dublin, Trinity College, MS 423, p. 511 Barbara Zimbalist https://doi.org/10.1484/M.MCS-EB.5.103051 Medieval English Religious Plays as Early Fifteenth-Century Vernacular Theology: the Case Against, p. 533 Pamela M. King https://doi.org/10.1484/M.MCS-EB.5.103052 Belief and Knowledge in Love’s Mirror, p. 553 Valerie Allen https://doi.org/10.1484/M.MCS-EB.5.103053 The Fifteenth Century as the Golden Age of Women’s Theology in English: Reflections on the Earliest Reception of Julian of Norwich, p. 573 Kathryn Kerby-Fulton https://doi.org/10.1484/M.MCS-EB.5.103054 ‘Hospitable Reading’ in a Fifteenth-Century Passion and Eucharistic Meditation, p. 593 Sarah James https://doi.org/10.1484/M.MCS-EB.5.103055 A Geographical Postscript, p. 607 Michael G. Sargent https://doi.org/10.1484/M.MCS-EB.5.103056 Back Matter ("Index of Manuscripts", "Index of Names", "Titles in Series"), p. 635