medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture
In the "pseudepigraphic" (I prefer "parabiblical") texts, a relevant account is
found of the prophet Jeremiah going into a condition that made him seem to be dead
while he prayed. His friends prepare to bury him, but are told that he is still
alive and his soul will return after 3 days, which it does, after special
information has been revealed to him about the coming of Jesus. After that he is
finally killed by his opponents. Paralipomena Jeremiou 9 -- see
http://ccat.sas.upenn.edu/rs/rak/courses/735/ParJer/ParJerET.html
Is this a medieval text? Perhaps. The oldest manuscripts are about 10th century,
and the story has a long life in Greek Christian hagiographic circles. How old the
various sources and traditions embedded in the "full text" may be is impossible to
determine at present. This story is put to a specifically Christian use here, even
if one suspects it may have had roots in originally Jewish circles.
Bob
> The visionary literature deals precisely with such cases of apparent
> death. The terms commonly used by these texts are extasis, excessus.
> They are from time to time used in conjunction. Raptus occurs as well.
> An example from The vision of Johannes from St. Laurence (PL 180: 178a)
> is: Ille autem factus in exstasi, id est in excessu mentis, vidit se
> quasi in quodam vestibulo stare...
>
> On the topic of visions I can recomend:
>
> Easting, Robert. 1997. Annotated Bibliographies of Old and Middle
> English Literature: III. Visions of the Other World in Middle English.
> Cambridge: D. S. Brewer (the first 100 or so items concern visionary
> literature in general)
>
> Carozzi, Claude. 1994. Le voyage de l’âme dans l’au-delà d’après la
> littérature latine (Ve-XIIIe siècle). Roma: École française de Rome
>
> Dinzelbacher, Peter. 1981. Vision und Visionsliteratur im Mittelalter.
> Monographien zur Geschichte des Mittelalters 23. Stuttgart: Anton
> Hiersemann
>
> The Zalesky book mentioned in one of the other postings is also really
> interesting, but more so because it compares medieval and modern
> accounts of near death experiences.
>
> Jonas
>
> På 25. okt. 2004 kl. 10.12 skrev karin fester:
>
> > medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and
> > culture
> >
> > Hello Everyone,
> >
> > I was a member of this list a year ago and now I have joined again.
> >
> > I am doing research on 'brain death' , coma, and cases of people
> > waking up when they were supposedly dead. The term 'brain-death'
> > was developed in the 20th century, but I am wondering if in the
> > Medieval period, they had a word for people in this state. Did they
> > refer to it as coma? 'Coma' and 'brain death' are not the same thing
> > of course, but given the knowledge of the people at that time in
> > history they would not have known it as distinct states, or maybe they
> > did have words to describe such states of being.
> >
> > Also information from other periods is also welcome, e.g. Antiquity or
> > Renaissance... any all parts of the world, not only Europe.
> >
> > There was of course no terminology about 'brain-death' in the Medieval
> > period time, and it may have been named or referred to in another way.
> >
> > I am also very interested in the work of Hildegard von Bingen: does
> > anyone out in the audience know if she wrote about coma or brain-death
> > or people who awoke from the dead?
> >
> > I would appreciate receiving ANY information that could guide my
> > research.
> >
> > You may also write me privately: [log in to unmask]
> >
> > I hope to hear from someone,
> >
> > Thank you,
> >
> > Karin
> >
> >
> >
> > Nuovo Yahoo! Messenger E' molto più divertente: Audibles, Avatar,
> > Webcam, Giochi, Rubrica… Scaricalo ora!
> > **********************************************************************
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> --
> Jonas Wellendorf
>
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--
Robert A. Kraft, Religious Studies, University of Pennsylvania
227 Logan Hall (Philadelphia PA 19104-6304); tel. 215 898-5827
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