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Full-Text Articles in Arts and Humanities
The Logic Of Toleration: Pierre Bayle' S Christianity And Religious Tolerance, Michael J. Walker
The Logic Of Toleration: Pierre Bayle' S Christianity And Religious Tolerance, Michael J. Walker
The Thetean: A Student Journal for Scholarly Historical Writing
In 1598, after the pronouncement of the Edict of Nantes by French king Henry lV, some French Catholics obeyed the edict and afforded religious tolerance to Huguenots (French Protestants} in parts of France. For the most part, ruling elites tolerated small Protestant communities that did not challenge their authority. However, as the seventeenth century progressed, issues of religious tolerance, concord and persecution became increasingly pertinent. Catholic communities often ignored many of the concessions afforded to religious minonttes by the Edict. Protestants throughout Europe had experienced varying degrees of tolerance and persecution during the sixteenth century, but by the seventeenth century …
Liberalizing Salvation In Medieval Vision Literature, Drew Sorber
Liberalizing Salvation In Medieval Vision Literature, Drew Sorber
The Thetean: A Student Journal for Scholarly Historical Writing
in 1960, the Chicago Congress of World Mission declared, "in the years since World War II more than one billion souls have passed into eternity and more than half of those went to the torment of Hell fire without even hearing of Jesus Christ, who He was or why He died on the Cross of Calvary." The issue of a restricted salvation-one granted only to those who fulfil a specific set of requirements-has remained central to Christian eschatology since the pre-Nicene period and before. While this issue is addressed throughout Christian history, a dramatic reaction to it came in the …
Creating St. Dominic: A Demonstrative Case Of High Medieval Canonization Procedure, John D. Young
Creating St. Dominic: A Demonstrative Case Of High Medieval Canonization Procedure, John D. Young
The Thetean: A Student Journal for Scholarly Historical Writing
Saints constituted an important part of medieval religion-both in the central, clerical church organization and in the popular religious elements of society. Medieval Christians, both lay and clerical, looked to saints as divine mediators between God and man by virtue of the deeds they had accomplished during their mortal lives (or that their remains had accomplished post mortem). To be labeled a saint and to be considered worthy of such adoration, one had to be shown to have fulfilled certain requirements, which varied from period to period and from place to place. During the High Middle Ages, this saint-making process …
Faith In Europe: De Gasperi, Adenauer And Their Visions Of Postwar Europe, Michael Griffitts
Faith In Europe: De Gasperi, Adenauer And Their Visions Of Postwar Europe, Michael Griffitts
The Thetean: A Student Journal for Scholarly Historical Writing
G ermany and Italy faced exceptional challenges after World War II. Their culpability in the outbreak of this devastating war made recovery an especially difficult task. Konrad Adenauer (1876-1967) and Alcide De Gasperi (1881-1954) had the unenviable jobs of rebuilding their respective nations after Adolf Hitler and Benito Mussolini had fallen from power. Both were Chri~tian Democrats who believed that the Christian tradition could provide an important foundation for Europe's rebirth. For both, the ennobling principles of Christianity and the transnational solidarity promoted by the religious tradition offered a refreshing possibility for peace and stability. Their commitment to greater European …
Recollections Of S. D. Rodholm, Peter D. Thomsen
Recollections Of S. D. Rodholm, Peter D. Thomsen
The Bridge
In both pulpit and classroom, S. D. Rodholm was a great teacher and a true servant of the church. His capacity for learning and discernment was enormous, yet he never used big words nor in any way intimidated anyone. To me, he was always the wise, old seer. He made it very clear that his purpose in teaching was not to make cut and dried theologians out of us. His purpose, rather, was to help us, his students, become servants of THE WORD. He said many times, “Simple Christianity has been my life’s goal.” He hoped it would also be …
Holy Places & Imagined Hellscapes: Qualifying Comments On Loca Sancta Sermon Studies—Christian Conversion In Northern Europe & Scandinavia, C. 500-1300, Todd P. Upton
Quidditas
The paper uses methods from medieval sermon studies to argue that an insularity in “monastic consciousness” can be traced to earlier centuries than the more generally discussed (and better documented) scholastic environments of 13th century monastic and cathedral schools. It assesses how a monastic discourse reliant on Biblical typologies informed the Christian conversion of northern Germanic and Scandinavian peoples (c. 500-1300, including the British Isles and Iceland). Moments of encounter between Christian missionaries and pagan cultures helped delineate this discourse, most apparent in extant records that reveal Christian and Norse perceptions of geography, holy places, deity worship, and eschatological expectations. …
Approaches To The Atonement In The Mystery Plays, Adam C. Wolfe
Approaches To The Atonement In The Mystery Plays, Adam C. Wolfe
Quidditas
The English Corpus Christi plays were a vibrant expression of late medieval Christianity, but they did not survive the Reformation. Many Protestant reformers opposed religious drama altogether, but there were some attempts by reformers to edit the plays and recast them in a Protestant mold, attempts which were ultimately unsuccessful. This paper examines one such attempt and finds that the problem went far beyond obvious references to, and representations of, specifically Catholic beliefs. Focusing on representations of the Atonement in the York and Towneley plays, I found at least four distinct theological approaches to this central concept of Christian theology, …
Beautifully Damned: Imagination, Revelation, And Exile In Coleridge's "The Rime Of The Ancient Mariner" And Byron's Cain: A Mystery, Matt Slykhuis
Beautifully Damned: Imagination, Revelation, And Exile In Coleridge's "The Rime Of The Ancient Mariner" And Byron's Cain: A Mystery, Matt Slykhuis
Religion in the Age of Enlightenment
Abrief survey of the eighteenth-century debates regarding the compatibility of reason and religion reveals the development of two powerful-and polarized-theological trends. The first is what I refer to as the "de-supernaturalization" of Christianity. This movement was evinced among rationalists who desired to remain connected to England's religious past and to retain the unifying influence of their society's most vital "myth" (i.e., Christianity) but who also felt a strong impetus to rid the faith of its "irrational" supernatural elements (e.g., belief in miracles, the soul, and the inspiration of Scripture). The second trend, what I call "re-supernaturalization;' occurred later in the …
Irish Clergy And The Deist Controversy: Two Episodes In The Early British Enlightenment, Scott Breuninger
Irish Clergy And The Deist Controversy: Two Episodes In The Early British Enlightenment, Scott Breuninger
Religion in the Age of Enlightenment
D uring the late seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries, an important question facing Anglican divines was the relationship between reason and religion. Initiated by the publication of John Toland's Christianity Not Mysterious (1696), the controversy concerning deism raged across both sides of the Irish Sea and called into question the sanctity of revealed religion, forcing believers to articulate more "rational" defenses of Christianity. Closely associated with the problematic origins of the "English Enlightenment;' Toland's provocative tract valorized reason in matters of religion and drew heavily upon the ideas of natural philosophy. Although viciously attacked for its heretical tenets, Toland's position …
The Education Of The Son In Paradise Regained: Milton’S Of Education As A Guide, Alice Matthews
The Education Of The Son In Paradise Regained: Milton’S Of Education As A Guide, Alice Matthews
Quidditas
“The Education of the Son in Paradise Regained: Milton’s Of Education as a Guide” argues that the character of Christ provides a model for effective learning, which is outlined in Milton’s treatise On Education. In the treatise, first published in 1644, some twenty- seven years before his brief epic, Milton explains the purpose for education as strengthening one’s relationship with God, and the best method for acquiring it— gradually, progressing from the easy to the more difficult. In my essay, I will analyze each step in Christ’s education, beginning with his boyhood and culminating in his temptation on …
William Of Auvergne And Popular Demonology, Thomas De Mayo
William Of Auvergne And Popular Demonology, Thomas De Mayo
Quidditas
Theologian and bishop of Paris during St. Louis’ early reign, William of Auvergne (d. 1249) aimed in his life and writings to combat the myriad threats he perceived as facing Christianity. The early thirteenth century saw many potential competitors to official doctrines concerning the natural and supernatural worlds—Arabic philosophy imported into the universities, heretical attacks on the institutional church, and persistent folk beliefs and practices. William attributed these challenges to an underlying demonic conspiracy directed against humankind. This paper examines William’s treatment of popular beliefs on the Wild Hunt, a mysterious congregation of spirits, and related beliefs about female spirits …
Charlemagne’S Denarius, Constantine’S Edicule, And The Vera Crux, John F. Moffitt
Charlemagne’S Denarius, Constantine’S Edicule, And The Vera Crux, John F. Moffitt
Quidditas
In 806 a much-discussed silver denarius bearing the likeness of Charlemagne was issued. This is called the “temple-type” coin due to the (as yet unidentified) architectural structure illustrated on the reverse side, and which is explicitly labeled as representing the epitome of “Christian Religion.” By examining different kinds of archeological and documentary evidence, this building can now be finally identified. It is, in short, the “Edicule” built by Constantine the Great in 326 to cover the Tomb of Christ (or Holy Sepulcher) in Jerusalem.
Reviews
The Bridge
The Nordic Sagas provide the background and basis for this novel about three women-Katla, a "thrall" (slave) who is the daughter of an Irish Christian woman captured by Viking Raiders along the Irish Coast before Katla was born, Bibrau, Katla's daughter, who is conceived after a brutal sexual assault, and Thorbjorg, who is a seeress and healer to the Viking settlement in Greenland and a faithful servant to the Nordic God, Odin. Fate brings these three women together and the story is told through their thoughts and feelings about each other, the events which bring them together, life in the …
N.F.S. Grundtvig's Approach To Christian Community And Civic Responsibility, Mark C. Mattes
N.F.S. Grundtvig's Approach To Christian Community And Civic Responsibility, Mark C. Mattes
The Bridge
A perennial concern of Christian social ethics is the attempt to discern the best paradigm for relating the Christian faith and life to wider culture. H. Richard Niebuhr's typology1 of how Christ relates to culture, i. e., "Christ against culture" (sectarian), "Christ above culture" (Roman Catholic), "Christ transforming culture" (Reformed), "Christ of culture" (liberal Protestant), and "Christ and culture in paradox" (Lutheran) continues to provide a helpful framework in which to understand the role of the Christian ethos in public life. One important interpretation of this latter type, "Christ and culture in paradox" is that of the nineteenth century Danish …
Grundtivigianism In America, Yesterday And Today, Thorvald Hansen
Grundtivigianism In America, Yesterday And Today, Thorvald Hansen
The Bridge
It has been said, "In Denmark, everyone is a Grundtvigian whether he knows it or not." This certainly is not the case in America. Indeed, there are very few Grundtvigians in this country, and the prospects for increasing that number are very slight. This is not because the followers of Grundtvig have been "hiding their light under a bushel," but because the vast majority has not accepted it as light.
Helena, Heraclius, And The True Cross, Hans A. Pohlsander
Helena, Heraclius, And The True Cross, Hans A. Pohlsander
Quidditas
More than three hundred years stand between the empress Helena, or St. Helena, and the Byzantine emperor Heraclius. This chronological distance has not been a hindrance to a very close association of the two personalities with each other. The link is not dynastic but thematic; it is provided by the Holy Cross, or the True Cross, i. e. the very cross of Christ's passion. It is the purpose of this article to show the manifestation of this link in the religious literature and ecclesiastical art of the Middle Ages and in the liturgy to this day.
The Sincere Body: The Performance Of Weeping And Emotion In Late Medieval Italian Sermons, Lyn Blanchfield
The Sincere Body: The Performance Of Weeping And Emotion In Late Medieval Italian Sermons, Lyn Blanchfield
Quidditas
In 1493 the well-known and controversial Franciscan preacher Bernardino of Feltre gave a series of Lenten sermons to the people of Pavia. On March 11 he dedicated an entire sermon to the necessity of contrition—or perfect sorrow over sin—in the rite of confession. Speaking to a large audience of both men and women, rich and poor, and the local ecclesiastical and civic authorities, Bernardino discussed how one should behave when contrite: “If you cannot feel sorrow of the body, then at least [feel it] in [your] heart, and if you cannot weep with [your] bodily eyes, then at least [weep] …
Living In The Palaces Of Love: Love And The Soul In A Vision Of St. Aldegund Of Maubeuge (Ca. 635–684), Isabel Moreira
Living In The Palaces Of Love: Love And The Soul In A Vision Of St. Aldegund Of Maubeuge (Ca. 635–684), Isabel Moreira
Quidditas
Abbess Aldegund of Maubeuge, in dictating her visions to the cleric Subnius in her later years, recalled a vision she had experienced in her youth. She saw herself entering a heavenly mansion, richly bejeweled and "steeped" with Christ's "sweet odor." The vision had made a great impression on her. She accredited it with having matured her spiritual understanding, for having first misunderstood the vision's meaning, she now understood it, "the scales having fallen from her eyes." Yet as historians we are not as fortunate as Aldegund claimed to be. Many centuries removed from the events of the seventh century, the …
Review Essay: Sheehan, Michael M. Csb. Marriage, Family, And Law In Medieval Europe. Collected Studies, Albrecht Classen
Review Essay: Sheehan, Michael M. Csb. Marriage, Family, And Law In Medieval Europe. Collected Studies, Albrecht Classen
Quidditas
Sheehan, Michael M. CSB. Marriage, Family, and Law in Medieval Europe. Collected Studies. Ed. James K. Farge. University of Toronto Press, Toronto, 1996. xxxi + 330 pp. $45.00.
Review Essay: Dinzelbacher, Peter, And James Lester Hogg, Eds. Kulturgeschichte Der Christlichen Orden In Einzeldarstellungen, Albrecht Classen
Review Essay: Dinzelbacher, Peter, And James Lester Hogg, Eds. Kulturgeschichte Der Christlichen Orden In Einzeldarstellungen, Albrecht Classen
Quidditas
Dinzelbacher, Peter, and James Lester Hogg, eds. Kulturgeschichte der christlichen Orden in Einzeldarstellungen, ed. Kröners Taschenausgabe, 450. Kröner, Stuttgart, 1997. xii + 419 pp., 6 illustrations. DM 42.
Review Essay: Ardolino, Frank. Apocalypse And Armada In Kyd's Spanish Tragedy, Robin B. Barnes
Review Essay: Ardolino, Frank. Apocalypse And Armada In Kyd's Spanish Tragedy, Robin B. Barnes
Quidditas
Ardolino, Frank. Apocalypse and Armada in Kyd's Spanish Tragedy. Sixteenth-Century Essays and Studies, 29. Sixteenth-Century Journal Publishers, Kirksville, Mo., 1995. xvi + 187 pp. $35.00.
"Pleasing Passages": Style In The Old English Pastoral Care, Ray Moye
"Pleasing Passages": Style In The Old English Pastoral Care, Ray Moye
Quidditas
The Old English Pastoral Care, a translation of Gregory the Great's Liber Regula Pastoralis which King Alfred completed sometime in the first few years of the 890s, was the first in a series of translations of Latin Christian works in English that would serve as the foundation of Alfred's program of cultural and educational reform aimed at restoring England's preeminence as a leading Christian intellectual center. This reputation that the land had enjoyed during the glory days of Bede and Alcuin had been lost as a consequence of continual Viking invasions in the eighth and ninth centuries, with the …
Review Essay: Bodin, Jean. On The Demon-Mania Of Witches, Hans Sebald
Review Essay: Bodin, Jean. On The Demon-Mania Of Witches, Hans Sebald
Quidditas
Bodin, Jean. On the Demon-Mania of Witches. Trans. Randy A. Scott. Intro. Jonathan L. Pearl. Toronto Centre for Reformation and Renaissance Studies, Victoria University, 1995. 218 pp. Paperback. U.S.$ 12.00. Cdn$ 15.00.
Review Essay: Cole, Penny J. The Preaching Of The Crusades To The Holy Land, 1095-1270, David Harry Miller
Review Essay: Cole, Penny J. The Preaching Of The Crusades To The Holy Land, 1095-1270, David Harry Miller
Quidditas
Cole, Penny J. The Preaching of the Crusades to the Holy Land, 1095-1270. Medieval Academy Books no 98. Medieval Academy of America, Cambridge, Mass. 1991. xiv + 281 pp. $35.00.
Review Essay: Timothy Verdon And John Henderson, Eds., Christianity And Renaissance: Image And Religious Imagination In The Quattrocento, Edward J. Olszewski
Review Essay: Timothy Verdon And John Henderson, Eds., Christianity And Renaissance: Image And Religious Imagination In The Quattrocento, Edward J. Olszewski
Quidditas
Timothy Verdon and John Henderson, eds., Christianity and the Renaissance: Image and Religious Imagination in the Quattrocento, Syracuse University Press, 1990, xix, 611 pp., ill., $55.00 (cloth), $18.95 (paperback).
Review Essay: John N. Wall, Transformations Of The World: Spenser, Herbert, Vaughan, Wilson G. Baroody
Review Essay: John N. Wall, Transformations Of The World: Spenser, Herbert, Vaughan, Wilson G. Baroody
Quidditas
John N. Wall, Transformations of the Word: Spenser, Herbert, Vaughan, University of Georgia Press, 1988.
Review Essay: Gillian R. Evans, Alister E. Mcgrath, And Allan D. Galloway, The History Of Christian Theology, Vol. I: The Science Of Theology, Harry Rosenberg
Review Essay: Gillian R. Evans, Alister E. Mcgrath, And Allan D. Galloway, The History Of Christian Theology, Vol. I: The Science Of Theology, Harry Rosenberg
Quidditas
Gillian R. Evans, Alister E. McGrath, and Allan D. Galloway, The History of Christian Theology, Vol. I: The Science of Theology, Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co., 1986.
Review Essay: Rowland Wymer, Suicide And Despair In The Jacobean Drama, William Mccarron
Review Essay: Rowland Wymer, Suicide And Despair In The Jacobean Drama, William Mccarron
Quidditas
Rowland Wymer, Suicide and Despair in the Jacobean Drama, St. Martin's Press, 1986.
Review Essay: Marta Sordi, The Christians And The Roman Empire, Janine Marie Idziak
Review Essay: Marta Sordi, The Christians And The Roman Empire, Janine Marie Idziak
Quidditas
Marta Sordi, The Christians and the Roman Empire, University of Oklahoma Press, 1986.
Adam's Dream: Fortune And The Tragedy Of The Chester 'Drapers Playe', George Ovitt Jr.
Adam's Dream: Fortune And The Tragedy Of The Chester 'Drapers Playe', George Ovitt Jr.
Quidditas
In glossing a passage from his translation of Boethius's De consolatione philosophiae, Chaucer provides a definition of tragedy which would have been familiar to any fourteenth-century reader and which, perhaps, still seems adequate to the twentieth-century reader: "What other thyng bywaylen the cryinges of tragedyes but oonly the dedes of Fortune, that this unwar strook overturneth the realmes of greet nobleye? (Glose. Tragedye is to seyn a dite of a prosperite for a tyme, that endeth in wrecchidnesse.)" The substance of this gloss is repeated in the 'Prologue' to the "Monk's Tale": "Tragedie is to seyn a certeyn storie, …