medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture
Dear Jim,
As an addendum to Frank's message, I'd like to point
out that, to a certain extent and using a very broad
definition, you're dealing with stories - literature.
And as one trained in literature, I tend not to deal
at all with "proof," but with interpretation of what
amounts to mental constructs, emotional or symbolic
artifacts of the past, spiritual "bones" or "fossils."
As long as your interpretation does not do violence to
facts and moves forward an appreciation or
understanding of what you've got at hand, why not
hypothesize to your heart's content?
MG
--- Frank Morgret <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
> medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval
> religion and culture
>
> Jim,
>
> At the risk of vastly oversimplifying your difficult
> problem, I'm going to
> ask some questions prompted at least in part by
> Francine's post.
>
> Are many of us, myself necessarily included, verging
> on conflating the
> two questions of "What counts as evidence?" and "How
> are we to consider
> this evidence?"
>
> The only reason I ask is I am wrestling with a
> vaguely similar problem
> from the sixteenth century where things are vastly
> neater than your era,
> and it has taken me about four years to separate the
> tenacles of those two
> very different questions so I can begin get down to
> work. I'd hate to
> think there are others out there still as befogged
> as was I until
> recently.
>
> Now that I've discovered I'm asking two questions
> instead of one, I've
> adopted the procedure you seem to be using. I am
> very liberal and
> generous as to what I allow to count as evidence.
> On the other hand, I
> tend to be very narrow-minded in how I interpret
> that evidence and thus
> what I reckon it "proves".
>
> If I understand you correctly, then, you have vast
> amounts of evidence and
> knotty problems of interpretation.
>
> Knowing you as I do, I know you will draw solace
> from the fact that you
> have made my task seem a great deal easier than it
> looked before I read
> your post!
>
> Good Luck! I hope wiser souls than I on the list
> can facilitate your job
> of sifting what you've found.
>
>
> Kindest regards,
>
> Frank
>
>
> Frank Morgret
> 15 Towering Hts -- #1206
> St Catharines, Ontario
> CANADA
> L2T 3G7
>
> [log in to unmask]
>
>
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