medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture
List-members interested in following up this particular debate in print may
also wish to read Jean-Claude Schmitt's direct response to Van Engen's
article, mentioned earlier, on "The Christian Middle Ages as
Historiographical problem." [AHR 91, 1986]
Schmitt's piece is actually the introduction to a collection of his
articles in Italian, *Religione, Folklore, e societa nell'occidente
medievale.* (Rome-Bari, 1988), but is probably more widely accessible in a
recent English translation included in Lester Little and Barbara Rosenwein,
*Debating the Middle Ages* (Oxford, Blackwell, 1998).
--Nancy Caciola
History
UC-San Diego
At 08:44 PM 10/17/01 -0400, you wrote:
>John Van Engen's article is classic as you say. Read his review of
>Gurevich's book on Medieval Popular Culture in the Journal of Social
>History, Fall 90 vol. 24 issue 1 p. 165ff. It is available for download
>from the Academic Search Elite database.
> JvE gives a very nuanced and penetrating consideration of
> Gurevich's method and argument. Among other things, he says: "While
> Gurevich occasionally makes some unhappy and anachronistic statements
> about 'scholastic education' or theological categories, he has succeeded
> in rendering this literature highly rewarding for social and cultural
> historians."
>
>See also Patrick Geary's review of Gurevich's book, in the Historian,
>Spring 91 vol.53 issue 3, pp. 544-45.
>Geary : "The major value of the book is the way in which it introduces
>readers to a manner of understanding familiar questions of European
>cultural history from a theoretical and methodological perspective closely
>associated with Russian critics and historians, notably MM Bakhtin . . . .
>Gurevich also presents a forceful and timely rebuttal to the
>long-discredited argument, recently reformulated by John Van Engen [!!],
>that the Christianity of the Middle Ages was essentially a matter of
>orthodox belief, carefully taught and widely held by priest and peasant
>alike." Geary continues, claiming that a "blurring of regional, social,
>cultural, and historical specificities glosses over and ignores much that
>is essential in human history. [This] monolithic approach approximates the
>search for a medieval Weltanschauung, [that is, the] 'medieval mind,' of
>an earlier generation of medievalists." Geary continues, "through no
>fault of his own, the author was forced to write in relative isolation
>from the continuing research into popular culture and religion in Western
>Europe and North America, and many of his formulations indicate this
>isolation." But Geary concludes, "Here Western readers are confronted
>with one of the great minds of medieval cultural history, grappling with
>fundamental issues of history in a provocative, timely, and demanding
>mannner. Exciting, exasperating, and enlightening, it is a volume no
>medievalist can ignore."
>
>There is also a review by Halperin in Speculum of 1983, of the original
>(1981) book in Russian, and there are at least a dozen other reviews
>catalogued by the database--though not all of them are available as downloads.
>
>At 12:41 PM 10/16/01 -0500, you wrote:
>>medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture
>>Gurevich is, in my judgment, too hasty here. I suggest John Van Engen's
>>now classic essay, "The Christian Middle Ages as an Historiographical
>>Problem." American Historical Reivew 91 (1986): 519-532. It's a
>>sensitive and sensible navigation through the question of how we has
>>historians deal with evidence that suggests varying degrees of adherence
>>to Christianity, and has been recommended by others on this list before.
>>
>>Patrick Nugent.
>>
>>
>>
>>At 02:12 AM 10/17/2001 +1000, you wrote:
>>>medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture
>>>
>>>As I recall, Gurevich's posits a theory that the original/natural
>>>religion of the medieval peasantry was a kind of dualism based on fear
>>>of the devil against which the official church waged a constant
>>>struggle. He therefore reads church resistance to dualist heresy as
>>>evidence of popular culture (hence his title) emerging from the
>>>constraints of institutional church power. I may be misreading him here
>>>(must reread the book), but this struck me as not very convincing at the
>>>time - and also based on the conceit that the "people" were not fully
>>>converted to Christianity. Shades of Margaret Murray.
>>>
>>>Hilary Carey
>>
>>
>>----------
>>
>>Patrick J. Nugent
>>Institute for Quaker Studies
>>Earlham College
>>Richmond, Indiana 47374 USA
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