Masters Of The Sacred Page

Starting with the premise that the history of a medieval subject cannot be properly written "without recourse to the materials it produced," Lesley Smith's Masters of the Sacred Page provides an illuminating study of theology in the Middle Ages. She focuses on the dramatic transformations of the discipline in the twelfth century and uses a collection of contemporary manuscripts as a guide to its changes and developments. Smith points out that the medieval masters of theology had a much wider view of their subject than the modern academic tendency for neatness and division can easily admit, and she places their discipline squarely within the rapidly evolving intellectual and educational context of the twelfth-century university. Her approach avoids two of the most common weaknesses of modern historical studies of medieval theology. In the first place, those histories have a tendency to be distorted by a reliance on easily available printed editions of medieval texts, the bulk of which are summae and other logical, systematic treatments. This preponderance, however, often reflects the concerns and interests of nineteenth- and twentieth-century editors more than it does the medieval masters. Biblical commentaries, sermons, and manuals for pastoral use have only recently begun to be edited and printed in numbers reflecting their importance and widespread use in the Middle Ages; Smith includes such material in her study. In the second place, traditional histories have a tendency to remove the study of theology from the actual environment of the medieval university and therefore fail to account for the complex relations between theology, the arts, and the burgeoning disciplines of medicine and law. By refusing to follow this trend, Smith has greatly improved our awareness of the situation of medieval theology. Using the manuscript books themselves as witnesses, Smith shows how theology competed with other disciplines for students (as well as teachers), how it attempted to define itself, and how it cooperated with other disciplines to foster new development in book technology--and new traditions in the social and intellectual culture of the medieval university.

Modern scholarship has examined the life and works of Robert Grosseteste (ca. 1170-1253) mainly in a philosophical or episcopal context, yet Grosseteste wrote many treatises on pastoral theology, spent some years as a regent master in theology at the University of Oxford, and maintained interest in theological discourse throughout his time as Bishop of Lincoln. This book offers the first scholarly study of Grosseteste as theologian, taking account of the whole range of his theological writing both in published and unedited sources. Ginther reveals the central focus of Grosseteste's theology as the person and work of Christ, with the person of Christ as the interpretive key by which humanity comes to see the Trinity in the created world and the means by which humanity may participate in the divine. Surveying some of the major doctrinal issues of the thirteenth century, this book offers a thorough introduction to the theology of the period.

From Halakhic innovation to blood libels, from the establishment of new mendicant orders to the institutionalization of Islamicate bureaucracy, and from the development of the inquisitorial process to the rise of yeshivas, universities, and madrasas, the long thirteenth century saw a profusion of political, cultural, and intellectual changes in Europe and the Mediterranean basin. These were informed by, and in turn informed, the religious communities from which they arose. In city streets and government buildings, Jews, Christians, and Muslims lived, worked, and disputed with one another, sharing and shaping their respective cultures in the process. The interaction born of these relationships between minority and majority cultures, from love and friendship to hostility and violence, can be described as a complex and irreducible "entanglement." The contributors to Entangled Histories: Knowledge, Authority, and Jewish Culture in the Thirteenth Century argue that this admixture of persecution and cooperation was at the foundation of Jewish experience in the Middle Ages. The thirteen essays are organized into three major sections, focusing in turn on the exchanges among intellectual communities, on the interactions between secular and religious authorities, and on the transmission of texts and ideas across geographical, linguistic, and cultural boundaries. Rather than trying to resolve the complexities of entanglement, contributors seek to outline their contours and explain how they endured. In the process, they examine relationships not only among Jewish, Christian, and Muslim communities but also between communities within Judaism—those living under Christian rule and those living under Muslim rule, and between the Jews of southern and northern Europe. The resulting volume develops a multifaceted account of Jewish life in Europe and the Mediterranean basin at a time when economic, cultural, and intellectual exchange coincided with heightened interfaith animosity. Contributors: Elisheva Baumgarten, Piero Capelli, Mordechai Z. Cohen, Judah Galinsky, Elisabeth Hollender, Kati Ihnat, Ephraim Kanarfogel, Katelyn Mesler, Ruth Mazo Karras, Sarah J. Pearce, Rami Reiner, Yossef Schwartz, Uri Shachar, Rebecca Winer, Luke Yarbrough.

A nontechnical overview of New Testament theology that summarizes the diverse theologies in the writings of the New Testament, identifies its overall theological vision, and explains the contribution that New Testament theology can make to the life of the Church and the contribution that the life of the Church can make to it.

In one series, the original writings of the universally acknowledged teachers of the Catholic, Protestant, Eastern Orthodox, Jewish, and Islamic traditions have been critically selected, translated, and introduced by internationally recognized scholars and spiritual leaders. Until now, the mainstream historiography of Wycliffism has largely ignored the positive spirituality that Wycliffite dissenters associated with their faith. Even anthologies of Wycliffite writings have focused on their key polemical tenets rather than their spirituality. Wycliffite Spirituality offers a new, refreshing approach with a collection of texts showing that Wycliffites were as keenly interested in the spiritual life as many of their contemporaries and that Wycliffites reflected at length on such questions as how best to live a virtuous active life in the world, how most appropriately to approach God in prayer, how to understand traditional prayers such as the Our Father and Ave Maria, and how to live up to Christ's expectations for ministers and others in the church. WyclifÆs writings on spirituality, the English texts composed by his followers, and records from heresy trials that disclose information about suspects' spiritual practices and devotional lives reveal that late medieval dissenters practiced a vibrant Christianity deserving of further study. Book jacket.

"The Introduction provides an overview of the history of the Latin Bible, with a summary of the contents of each chapter in this Handbook and the rationale for their arrangement. It then discusses the terminology for referring to the Latin Bible, along with a mini-glossary of specialist terms in manuscript and textual studies which appear in the chapters. The principal editions of the Latin Bible are introduced, along with other resources for its study such as book series and databases. Finally, the conventions for the Handbook are explained, such as spelling practices for Latin and proper nouns"--

Originally published in French as Exégèse médiévale, Henri de Lubac's multivolume study of medieval exegesis and theology has remained one of the most significant works of modern biblical studies. Available now for the first time in English, this long-sought-after volume is an essential addition to the library of those whose study leads them into the difficult field of biblical interpretation. The first volume in de Lubac's multivolume work begins his comprehensive historical and literary study of the way Scripture was interpreted by the church of the Latin Middle Ages. Examining the prominent commentators of the Middle Ages and their texts, de Lubac discusses the medieval approach to biblical interpretation that sought "the four senses" of Scripture, especially the dominant practice of attempting to uncover Scripture's allegorical meaning. Though Bible interpreters from the Enlightenment era on have criticized such allegorizing as part of the "naivete of the Middle Ages," de Lubac insists that a full understanding of this ancient Christian exegesis provides important insights for us today.