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"In its most basic form, the rosary is a series of prayers and meditations designed to bring the worshiper closer to God through the Virgin Mary. But, as Anne Winston-Allen shows, there was no single text of the rosary prayer: different versions, some in German and some in Latin, evolved over the course of the late Middle Ages as communities of believers experimented with their own forms. She also finds that rosary prayers were influenced by secular, even courtly literature that used images of the rose and rose garden; in the rosary, Mary is the Mystical Rose.".
Late Medieval and Renaissance art was surprisingly pushy; its architecture demanded that people move through it in prescribed patterns, its sculptures played elaborate games alternating between concealment and revelation, while its paintings charged viewers with imaginatively moving through them. Viewers wanted to interact with artwork in emotional and/or performative ways. This inventive and personal interface between viewers and artists sometimes conflicted with the Church’s prescribed devotional models, and in some cases it complemented them. Artists and patrons responded to the desire for both spontaneous and sanctioned interactions by creating original ways to amplify devotional exper...
Reading Catechisms, Teaching Religion makes two broad arguments. First, the sixteenth century witnessed a fundamental transformation in Christians’, Catholic and Evangelical, conceptualization of the nature of knowledge of Christianity and the media through which that knowledge was articulated and communicated. Christians had shared a sense that knowledge might come through visions, images, liturgy; catechisms taught that knowledge of ‘Christianity’ began with texts printed on a page. Second, codicil catechisms sought not simply to dissolve the material distinction between codex and person, but to teach catechumens to see specific words together as texts. The pages of catechisms were visual—they confound precisely that constructed modern bipolarity, word/image, or, conversely, that modern bipolarity obscures what sixteenth-century catechisms sought to do.
This volume makes the wide-ranging work of German women writers visible to a wider audience. It is the first work in English to provide a chronological introduction to and overview of women's writing in German-speaking countries from the Middle Ages to the present day. Extensive guides to further reading and a bibliographical guide to the work of more than 400 women writers form an integral part of the volume, which will be indispensable for students and scholars of German literature, and all those interested in women's and gender studies.
The German theologian and religious reformer, Martin Luther was the catalyst of the sixteenth century Protestant Reformation. Luther set on course a movement that reformulated the basic tenets of Christian belief, resulting in the division of Western Christendom between Roman Catholicism and the new Protestant traditions. One of the most influential figures in the history of Christianity, Luther produced a wide body of works, challenging the authority and office of the Pope by teaching that the Bible is the only source of divinely revealed knowledge. His landmark translation of the Bible into the German vernacular made religion more accessible to everyday people, having a tremendous impact o...
Luther is a six volume biography of Martin Luther, German professor of theology and the Church reformer, famous for his Ninety-five Theses of 1517 and recognized as a seminal figure in the Protestant Reformation. The aim of the work was to present accurate historical and psychological portrait of Luther's personality, which is still a mystery from many points of view. While presenting Luther's psychological picture the author chooses to do so in Luther's own words, analyzing his writings and letters. Analyzing Luther's writings he opts not to write about Luther's teachings and the history of dogma, but reaches deeper in his endeavor to supply an exact portrayal of Luther as a whole, which should emphasize various aspects of his mind and character.
This book examines discourses around infertility and views of childlessness in medieval and early modern Europe. Whereas in our own time reproductive behaviour is regulated by demographic policy in the interest of upholding the intergenerational contract, premodern rulers strove to secure the succession to their thrones and preserve family heritage. Regardless of status, infertility could have drastic consequences, above all for women, and lead to social discrimination, expulsion, and divorce. Rather than outlining a history of discrimination against or the suffering of infertile couples, this book explores the mechanisms used to justify the unequal treatment of persons without children. Exploring views on childlessness across theology, medicine, law, demonology, and ethics, it undertakes a comprehensive examination of ‘fertility’ as an identity category from the perspective of new approaches in gender and intersectionality research. Shedding light on how premodern views have shaped understandings our own time, this book is highly relevant interest to students and scholars interested in discourses around infertility across history.
This is not just another book on the perennial issue of male headship. In contrast to those many who regard Christianity as the great source of male domination, this book argues that authentic Christianity does not teach that husbands have spiritual superiority over their wives, and its authors listen to and engage voices that still claim that it does. Written by distinguished Protestant and Roman Catholic scholars, the book first demonstrates how deep strands of the Christian tradition have always taught an ethic of gender mutuality, sowing the seeds for what is today called the "equal-regard marriage." Though patriarchy was pervasive in the ancient world surrounding early Christianity and ...
Die Rosenkranzbruderschaft stellt eine echte Innovation in der Jenseitsvorsorge um 1500 dar. Anders als die lokal agierenden Bruderschaften war sie nicht mehr an einen einzelnen Ort gebunden. Vielmehr sollten die verschiedenen Niederlassungen als Teile eines Ganzen, als ein transregionaler Verbund verstanden werden. Aufgrund dieser innovativen Organisation konnte die Rosenkranzbruderschaft ihren Mitgliedern eine heilseffiziente Jenseitsvorsorge in Aussicht stellen: Während die Gebetsverpflichtung für die einzelnen Brüder und Schwestern signifikant reduziert werden konnte, schien das gemeinsam akkumulierte Heilsreservoir der Bruderschaft gleichzeitig ins schier Unermessliche zu wachsen. Im Konzept der Rosenkranzbruderschaft ging es mithin nicht darum, dass die einzelnen Mitglieder möglichst viel beteten, sondern, dass möglichst viele Brüder und Schwestern beteten. Diese heilseffiziente Jenseitsvorsorge wird hier erstmals auf einer breiten Quellengrundlage und im Vergleich zu den traditionellen, lokal agierenden Bruderschaften untersucht.
On July 16, 1505, Martin Luther, then a student at the University of Erfurt, invited his friends and acquaintances to a farewell supper. He wished to see them about him for the last time before his approaching retirement to the cloister. “The bright, cheerful young fellow,” as his later pupil, Mathesius, calls him, was a favourite in his own circle. Those assembled to bid him farewell, amongst whom were also “honest, virtuous maidens and women,” were doubtless somewhat taken aback at their friend’s sudden determination to leave the world; but Luther was outwardly “beyond measure cheerful” and showed himself so light of heart that he played the lute while the wine-cup circled ro...