Saints And Scholars

"Saints, Scholars, and Schizophrenics, in its original form--now integrally reproduced in the new edition--is a most important seminal study of an Irish community."—Conor Cruise O'Brien

Wide-ranging survey of current research in Anglo-Saxon studies - from literature and material culture to religion and politics. Anglo-Saxon literature and culture, and their subsequent appropriations, unite the essays collected here. They offer fresh and exciting perspectives on a variety of issues, from gender to religion and the afterlives of Old Englishtexts, from reconsiderations of neglected works to reflections on the place of Anglo-Saxon in the classroom. As is appropriate, they draw especially on Hugh Magennis' own interests in hagiography and issues of community and reception. Taken together, they provide a "state of the discipline" account of the present, and future, of Anglo-Saxon studies. The volume also includes contributions from the leading Irish poets Ciaran Carson and Medbh McGuckian. Dr Stuart McWilliams is a Newby Trust Fellow, Institute for Advanced Studies in the Humanities, University of Edinburgh. Contributors: Ciaran Carson, Marilina Cesario, Mary Clayton, Ivan Herbison, Joyce Hill, Malcolm Godden, Chris Jones, Christina Lee, Medbh McGuckian, Stuart McWilliams, Juliet Mullins, Elisabeth Okasha, Jane Roberts, Donald Scragg, Mary Swan, John Thompson, Elaine Treharne, Robert Upchurch, Gordon Whatley, Jonathan Wilcox

Though the description Insula Sanctorum et Doctorum was not actually written down until the sixteenth century, Ireland's fame as the island of saints and scholars had then been established for more than six hundred years. That reputation was won mainly in what might otherwise have really been the Dark Ages. The Christian faith which had collapsed over most of Europe with the decline and fall of the western Roman empire still survived on the rocky fringes of the Atlantic seaboard. The 'pilgrims for Christ' as these Irish voyagers called themselves, spent the rest of their lives relighting a candle in the darkness and in spite of terrible deprivations, not least homesickness, re-establishing not only Christianity but the glories of classical learning which had fallen into their safe keeping. This book lists both saints and scholars (often in the same personality), their foundations and the works that made the period Ireland's truly golden age.

This collection transports us into the monastic age - the thousand years between the sixth and sixteenth centuries, when the monasteries were the treasure-houses of Europe's social, cultural and religious heritage. The men we encounter are each representative, in differing ways, of their own historical setting and of the strengths and weaknesses of mankind. Professor Knowles portrays outstanding spiritual leaders, such as St Bernard and St Francis; the powerful intellects, the writers and artists, such as St Anselm, Bede and Matthew Paris; some of the noblemen, politicians and magnates; and those, like Gerald of Wales or John Wyclif, who were fierce and not always just critics of the monastic way of life; some lesser figures whose interests were limited to farm administration or country pursuits; and those almost forgotten men who died for their faith under the shadow of the Reformation. Each study is remarkable for its balance, sympathy and understanding; this is a collection by a great scholar who is an artist in words.

Middle East officially Near East.

While the modern world has largely dismissed the figure of the saint as a throwback, we remain fascinated by excess, marginality, transgression, and porous subjectivity—categories that define the saint. In this collection, Françoise Meltzer and Jas Elsner bring together top scholars from across the humanities to reconsider our denial of saintliness and examine how modernity returns to the lure of saintly grace, energy, and charisma. Addressing such problems as how saints are made, the use of saints by political and secular orders, and how holiness is personified, Saints takes us on a photo tour of Graceland and the cult of Elvis and explores the changing political takes on Joan of Arc in France. It shows us the self-fashioning of culture through the reevaluation of saints in late-antique Judaism and Counter-Reformation Rome, and it questions the political intent of underlying claims to spiritual attainment of a Muslim sheikh in Morocco and of Sephardism in Israel. Populated with the likes of Francis of Assisi, Teresa of Avila, and Padre Pio, this book is a fascinating inquiry into the status of saints in the modern world.