medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture
John Dillon <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
>...the (probably widespread) misapprehension that "during the medieval
centuries ... the whole [Western European] area was converted to
Christianity in its Latin Catholic form."
Jim Bugslag wrote:
>Is there a literature on the "non-Christian" Middle Ages, particularly in
terms of popular religious belief?
if i understand rightly what you're driving at, this is an interesting topic,
which has very occasionally come up on the Mediev-L list.
Richard Landes, at Boston U., has a fertile and over-active imagination,
combined with no small amount of Erudition, and has had some interesting
things to say about the....i don't know what to call it... the "Persistance of
Paganism" or the "Tardiness of Conversion" [to Christianity] in W.
Europe/Gaul, though i've never seen all his ideas actually laid out.
the *impression* i have from his posts is that the "Conversion" took place
over many centuries, during which there was a very, very considerable
"Persistance" of pagan beliefs and customs, certainly lasting well into the
the High M.A.
the ramifications of this view of things are, of course, quite profound,
disturbing our would-be "smooth" picture of What Was Going On.
but, R.L. was a member of this list a while ago, and i hope still is, and
perhaps he could enlighten us a bit himself on this interesting topic.
Richard?
best from here,
christopher
**********************************************************************
To join the list, send the message: join medieval-religion YOUR NAME
to: [log in to unmask]
To send a message to the list, address it to:
[log in to unmask]
To leave the list, send the message: leave medieval-religion
to: [log in to unmask]
In order to report problems or to contact the list's owners, write to:
[log in to unmask]
For further information, visit our web site:
http://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/lists/medieval-religion.html
|