Dear John Arnold [and everyone else],
I just got back from Rome and the great, truly international 'Innocenzo III,
Urbs et Orbis' conference--at which several members of this list were also
present--to find that the proofs for my review for the current [18 Sept. '98]
issue of *The Times Higher Education Supplement* (of Robert A. Markus, *Gregory
the Great and his World* & Richard Fletcher, *The Conversion of Europe*) had
arrived while I was gone and that it was too late to correct them.
You are right, John, that for 'eternality' read 'externality'. As you gathered,
I liked Fletcher best up to c.1000. Thereafter, more is happening within the
heartlands of Catholic Christianity than he is interested in--reform, crusade,
etc. He real interests in the High Middle Ages lie with the unconverted, that
is, the yet unbaptized regions of northeastern Europe. Fair enough. When I
mentioned 'the second conversion of Europe', I was referring to a more than
formal affiliation on the part of those who, for some generations, were already
converted and already Christianized. It is this deeper, internalized sense of
"conversion" (like the medieval idea of conversion to monasticism or "religio")
to which I was referring.
Once I've recovered from the trip and caught up on the neglected work, I'd be
happy to discuss these ideas, if there is any interest in them.
Cordially,
Gary Dickson
University of Edinburgh
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