medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture
Dear Cate,
It has been my experience teaching both Medieval and Byzantine art history that the
status of images in religious usage is one of the easiest issues around which to
consider a "postmodern" perspective. It matters a lot -- no matter whether students
consider themselves "religious" or not -- just from which religious tradition a student
emerges, and just how students relate subjectively to such issues as "iconoclasm"
vs. "kissing icons" has more to do with their own current concerns and ideological
values than any purely historical perspective one might try to put forward. I have
taken to alerting my students about this, and encouraging them to discuss issues
with the other students in the class but warning them, at the same time, not to
expect complete agreement on such matters. This (I hope) not only gives them a
perspective on their own cultural position, but makes it clearer just how such
historical situations as the Byzantine Iconoclastic Period or the Reformation need to
be thought of as a discourse rather than simply one position replacing another.
Cheers,
Jim Bugslag
On 6 May 2004 at 6:10, [log in to unmask] wrote:
>
> medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture
> I saw a preview of the Christianity and CultureCD Rom, 'Images of Salvation' mentioned in this
> list last year and was very impressed by it - I am sure it will be very useful to those of us teaching
> young undergraduates the history of Christianity. My problems, however, are rather different and
> I would appreciate response from members on or off list. I teach mature adult learners for an
> 'Open Studies' programme and a couple of years ago taught a course on 'People and Piety in the
> Middle Ages'. Quite a few of my class were 'cradle catholics' while others had different Christian
> allegiances. For the final class I suggested a debate on the theme 'More was lost than gained by
> the stripping of the altars', expecting a reasoned, historical debate on the loss to our parish
> churches of images during the Reformation. I was not prepared for the emotional intensity of the
> debate - I felt I was witnessing a rerun of the Reformation and at times wished I had a fire
> extinguisher to hand.
> I am presenting a paper at the Leeds IMC in July on 'Lifelong Learning and Lifelong Enclosure:
> teaching medieval religion to adult learners' and if anyone has relevant advice I would like to
> hear it.
> with many thanks
> Cate Gunn ********************************************************************** To join the list, send the
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