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Winner of the 2013 La corónica International Book Award, given annually by the Modern Language Association Division on Medieval Hispanic Languages, Literatures, and Cultures for the best monograph published on Medieval Hispanic Languages, Literatures, and Cultures. Gamblers, cheats, womanizers and thieves, and cranky reformers who wanted their old Order back, flesh-and-blood men with complicated desires and knotty dispositions. Opening a rich trove of sources – the annual chapter acts of the Dominican Order’s Province of Aragon – Michael Vargas uncovers the costly successes and institutional weaknesses that contributed to the distressing realities of Dominican conventual life in the troubled fourteenth century. Taming a Brood of Vipers finds Dominican friars engaged in activities very much at odds with our sense of the way it should have been, but removing the moral overlay makes the conflict and apparent indiscipline in Dominican religious communities more intelligible and more appreciably human.
This volume deals with the trinitarian debate in early eighteenth-century England. Samuel Clarke's trinitarian thought represents a reappraisal of that doctrine in the light of early modern philosophy and close Patristic study. This work utilizes current studies on the fourth-century debate, recent evaluations of Latitudinarianism, and previously unpublished theological manuscripts of Sir Isaac Newton's, to shed light on Clarke's treatment of this central Christian doctrine. The conclusion calls for a reclassification of Clarke's thought by historians of doctrine. The volume is organized in three parts. The first examines Clarke's intellectual milieu, the second treats his use of sources, and the third evaluates his role in the Trinitarian controversy. Students of Latitudinarianism, the doctrine of the Trinity and Isaac Newton's thought will all profit from this discussion. In addition, those interested in the relationship between science and religion will benefit.
This book examines how Johannes Buxtorf's works helped to transform seventeenth-century Hebrew studies from the hobby of a few experts into a recognized academic discipline. The first two chapters examine Buxtorf's career as a professor of Hebrew and as an editor and censor of Jewish books in Basel. Successive chapters analyze his anti-Jewish polemical books, grammars and lexicons, and manuals for Hebrew composition and literature, including the first bibliography devoted to Jewish books. The final chapters treat his work in biblical studies, examining his contribution to Targum and Massorah studies, and his position on the age and doctrinal authority of the Hebrew vowel points. The chapters on anti-Jewish polemics and the vowel points will interest Jewish historians and Church historians.
This volume deals with the Federal theology of Johannes Cocceius, who lived in the seventeenth century (1603-1669). German by birth, he taught at Bremen, Franeker and Leiden, where he was Professor of Theology (1650-1669). As foremost biblical interpreter he sought to formulate a Covenant theory which described all of human history by introducing the structure of consecutive covenants or foedera. The book poses a surprising alternative to the readings of earlier scholarship on Cocceius by its careful presentation of the pneumatological components of the doctrine of covenants. Cocceius' Federal theology was of considerable importance in the theological and political history of Europe and the United States and formes the framework for much of the Reformed theology in the past three centuries.
Reform is one of the most significant themes, spiritual and intellectual, of the Middle Ages; and it has both institutional and individual dimensions. The Reformation crisis led to further variations on this crucial theme. This volume examines the theme of Reform from a variety of viewpoints while covering more than four centuries. Some contributions look at Apocalyptic dimensions in writings on reform. Another focuses on the influence of Gerhart Ladner on the study of reforming themes and reform movements. These articles will be useful for the study of intellectual history, ecclesiastical history, the history of spirituality and the study of Apocalypticism. Contributors include: Gregory S. ...
Robert d’Anjou was King of Naples from 1309-1343 and preached throughout his reign. As a lay preacher, albeit a particularly privileged one, Robert adopted the oratorical form generally reserved to clerics in order to announce his piety and erudition, but most importantly, he preached in order to express and extend his royal office. This book studies the sermons that Robert preached at universities, diplomatic ceremonies, and royal visitations at religious houses, including his sojourn at the papal court. This work explores an important case study in the history of medieval lay preaching. It shows the flexibility of preaching as a form of political and personal oratory and marks an important step in the author's interest to map out the range of licit lay preching in Medieval Europe.
This volume documents the role of creational theology in discussions of natural philosophy, medicine and technology from the Hellenistic period to the early twentieth century. Four principal themes are the comprehensibility of the world, the unity of heaven and earth, the relative autonomy of nature, and the ministry of healing. Successive chapters focus on Greco-Roman science, medieval Aristotelianism, early modern science, the heritage of Isaac Newton, and post-Newtonian mechanics. The volume will interest historians of science and historians of the idea of creation. It simultaneously details the persistence of tradition and the emergence of modernity and provides the historical background for later discussions of creation and evolution.
Despite his fame Paracelsus remains an illusive character. As this volume points out it is somewhat of a paradox that the fascination with Paracelsus and his ideas has remained so widespread when it is born in mind that it is far from clear what exactly he contributed to medicine and natural philosophy. But perhaps it is exactly this enigma which through the ages has made Paracelsus so attractive to such a variety of people who all want to claim him as an advocate for their particular ideas. The first section of this book deals with the historiography surrounding Paracelsus and Paracelsianism and points to the need of reclaiming the man and his ideas in their proper historical context. A further two sections are concerned with the different religious, social and political implications of Paracelsianism and its medical and natural philosophical significance respectively.
The first modern study of Nicholas of Lyra. A Franciscan teacher at the University of Paris, Nicholas (d. 1349) was an immensely important biblical commentator whose works influenced generations of scholars including Luther. Famed for his knowledge of Hebrew learning, as well as of the Latin Fathers, Nicholas was also highly conscious of interpretative method and of the Bible as literary artefact. In his massive Postillae, Nicholas commented on the entire Bible according to both literal and spiritual senses. This masterpiece is the basis for fifteen essays which cover major biblical books, examining them in a variety of ways, such as interpretative history, theology, and even political theory. They illuminate the remarkable range of Nicholas' thinking, his impressive scholarship, and his Franciscan evangelism. A major study of a key medieval writer. Contributors include: Philippe Buc, Mary Dove, Theresa Gross-Diaz, Deeana Copeland Klepper, Philip D.W. Krey, Frans van Liere, Kevin Madigan, Corrine Patton, Michael A. Signer, Lesley Smith, and Mark Zier.
A major problem which occupied thinkers in the later Middle Ages was the question of the internal structure of the Church and the proper interrelationship of its members. This book is an account of those canonistic theories of Church government which contributed to the growth of the conciliar theory, and which were formulated between Gratian's Decretum (c. 1140) and the Great Schism (1378). It is concerned particularly with the juristic development of the fundamental conciliar doctrine, the assertion that the universal Church was superior to the Church of Rome, with a consequent denial of the Pope's supreme authority. Foundations of the Conciliar Theory is considered by many to be one of those rare books that significantly influenced twentieth century medieval studies. Now again available in a new enlarged edition, it will continue to be an indispensable work for all those interested in Church history and the Middle Ages.