medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture
> wow. here's the jargon version of what i've been arguing for a while
> (in plain english) about the problem with evidence about apocalyptic
> beliefs.
> >> so is there a source on this beguine tale? or is it urban legend?
Dear Richard,
Jargon? Me? Why, I've always prided myself in avoiding jargon, and I'm not sure
exactly to what you are referring here. If it is the reference to Michel Foucauld, then
I would object that referring to a theoretical basis for one's disciplinary activity is
hardly the same as jargon. And in contradistinction, if this *is* what you mean, then
"plain english" takes on the tone of the sort of uninformed bar-room casualness that
will not get anybody anywhere, except maybe to the next round. What is more, you
can hardly claim to have been proposing the same stance as I took, in a critical
reaction to your comment, as being exactly what you meant all along! You can't sit
on both sides of a fence at once.
> i'm not sure that this applies to urban legends. it really depends on
> the nature of the texts we're working with.
My point exactly. The nature of "texts" determines to a very great extent the values
and interests that they support and, indeed, construct. If one ignores or discounts
any source that does not conform to a written "text", then most of the medieval
population gets left out of direct consideration.
> i certainly think that medievalists have been extremely reluctant to
> think about apocalyptic in this manner. i have, however, some solid
> evidence which nonetheless needs interpretation. what's the evidence
> you want to re-interpret?
? The sort of evidence, inter alia, that I would like to make historical use of (rather
than "re-interpret") are stories, usually only written down in the 18th or 19th
centuries, about medieval statues of the Virgin Mary found in trees, or dug up by
cattle. There are all sorts of rather remarkable beliefs that only become enunciated
in this way, and it is quite apparent that they represent the very late written versions
of earlier oral traditions. I'm not at all "up" on "apocalyptic" concerns, but I would at
the very least think that *any* evidence, in order to be "solid", needs methodological
"interpretation" -- or, at the very least, evaluation.
Cheers,
Jim Bugslag
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