History of religion Books

Book SynopsisEvidence of parish organisation in late medieval England, and the impact of the Henrician Reformation at parish level. The parish and the guild were the two poles round which social and religious life revolved in late medieval England. This study, drawing freely on East Anglian records, shows how influential they were in the lives of their communities in the years before the break with Rome - and provides an implicit commentary on the impact of the Henrician Reformation at parish level. The records of many of the guilds (or fraternities) of East Anglia in the years 1470-1550 are examined for evidence of their form, function and popularity; the spread of fraternities across East Anglia, the size of individual guilds, types of member, and the benefits of guild membership are all studied in detail. The social and religious functions of the fraternities are then compared with the parish, through a study of the records of two Norfolk market towns (Wymondham and Swaffham) and two Suffolk villages (Bardwell and Cratfield). A finalchapter studies the fortunes of the guilds during the early years of the Reformation, up to their dissolution in 1548.KEN FARNHILL is research associate at the Centre for Medieval Studies, University of York.Trade ReviewIn its richly detailed analysis of guilds' economic enterprises and social functions, this study adds a great deal to our understanding of their multiple purposes and vital contributions to late medieval culture. MEDIEVAL REVIEW [US] Scrupulous and judicious scholar. He provides an excellent introduction to the historiography of the guilds and to the surviving sources for their study... His book carries an important negative message: how little we really know about the functioning and meaning of these institutions. That is of no small significance when one considers how much interpretative weight has been placed upon them. * CATHOLIC HISTORICAL REVIEW *Table of ContentsContext; patterns of guild activity in East Anglia; guild members and officers; the benefits of guild membership; the guilds of Wymondham; the guilds of Swaffham; the guilds of Bardwell and Cratfield; the Reformation. Appendix: a list of the guilds in Norfolk.

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Book SynopsisPenance and confession were an integral part of medieval religious life; essays explore literary evidence. Penance, confession and their texts (penitential and confessors' manuals) are important topics for an understanding of the middle ages, in relation to a wide range of issues, from medieval social thought to Chaucer's background. These essays treat a variety of different aspects of the topic: subjects include the frequency and character of early medieval penance; the summae and manuals for confessors, and the ways in which these texts (written by males for males) constructed women as sexual in nature; William of Auvergne's remarkable writing on penance; and the relevance of confessors' manuals for demographic history. JOHN BALDWIN's major study "From the Ordeal to Confession", delivered as a Quodlibet lecture, traces the appearance in French romances of the themes of a penitent's contrition, the priest's job in listening, and the application of the spiritual conseil and penitence. PETER BILLER is Professor of Medieval History at the University of York; A.J. MINNIS is Douglas Tracy Smith Professor of English, Yale University. Contributors: PETER BILLER, ROB MEENS, ALEXANDER MURRAY, JACQUELINE MURRAY, LESLEY SMITH, MICHAEL HAREN, JOHN BALDWINTrade ReviewInteresting, learned. * MEDIUM AEVUM *Table of Contents`Medieval Confession' and ``Confessors' manuals and the avoiding of offspring'. - Peter Biller `The Frequency and Nature of early medieval Penance'. - Rob Meens `Counselling in Medieval Confession'. - Alexander Murray `Gendered Souls in Sexed Bodies: the Male Construction of Sexuality in Some Medieval Confessors' Manuals'. - Jacqueline Murray `William of Auvergne and Confession'. - Lesley Smith `Confession, Social Ethics and Social Discipline in the `Memoriale Presbiterorum'' and `The Interrogatories for Officials, Lawyers and Secular Estates of the `Memoriale Presbiterorum''.and Secular Estates of the `Memoriale Presbiterorum''. - Michael Haren `The 1996 York Quodlibet Lecture, `From the Ordeal to Confession: In Search of Lay Religion in Early Thirteenth Century France''. - John Baldwin

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Book Synopsis Thorough and meticulously researched, this study is based on a comprehensive reading of philosophical arguments drawn from all the major Jewish sources, published and unpublished, from the Geonic period in the ninth century until the dawn of the Haskalah in the late eighteenth century. The core of the book is a detailed discussion of the four doctrines of Christianity whose rationality Jews thought they could definitively refute: trinity, incarnation, transubstantiation, and virgin birth. In each case, Daniel Lasker presents a succinct history of the Christian doctrine and then proceeds to a careful examination of the Jewish efforts to demonstrate its impossibility. The main text is clearly written in a non-technical manner, with the Christian doctrines and the Jewish responses both carefully explained; the notes include long quotations, in Hebrew and Arabic as well as in English, from sources that are not readily available in English. At the time of its original publication in 1977 this book was regarded as a major contribution to a relatively neglected area of medieval Jewish intellectual history; the new, wide-ranging introduction prepared for this paperback edition, which surveys and summarizes subsequent scholarship, re-establishes its position as a major work. Trade Review'Has acquired the status of a classic. A great deal of new work has been published, however, in the past thirty years. The book is now reprinted by the Littman Library, with a new introduction by the author summarizing these more recent contributions to the subject, which include critical editions of classic texts as well as specialized studies and overviews ... A substantial new bibliography completes the introduction. Thanks are due to the Littman Library for placing this important book before a new generation of readers.'Nicholas de Lange, Journal of Jewish Studies'A valuable contribution to this field of research because of its very precise, detailed, and competent study of the themes involved in the disputation and the polemics.'European Journal of Jewish StudiesTable of ContentsIntroduction to the Second Edition 1 Introduction General Principles Philosophical Arguments Exegetical Arguments • Historical Arguments • Rational Arguments Procedure to the Followed 2 Sources The Various Methods of the Polemicists Exegesis of the Hebrew Bible • Exegesis of Rabbinical Literature • Attacks on Christianity • Comparisons of Christian Doctrines with the New Testament • Attacks on the Articles of Christianity • Comparisons of Christianity with the Principles of Philosophy The Literary Style of the Polemics Other Sources of Jewish Philosophical Arguments The Christian Sources 3 The Use of Reason in Religious Debates Explanations of Christian Belief in Irrational Doctrines Maimonides’ Guidelines The Polemical Approach of the Jewish Averroists Criteria for Determining Logical Impossibility Conclusions 4 Trinity Trinity Implies Matter The Divine Attributes Are Not Persons Jewish Kalamic Refutations of the Trinity • Aristotelian Refutations Generation Disproves Unity The Specific Generation of Jesus • Eternal Generation of the Son Syllogistic Logic Refutes the Trinity Images of the Trinity Conclusions 5 Incarnation God is Incorporeal God’s Incorporeality Precludes Incarnation • God Cannot be Limited in Place God is Immutable God’s Simple Unity Precluses Incarnation A Union of Divinity and Humanity is Impossible Types of Physical Union • The Person of Jesus Conclusions 6 Transubstantiation The Interpenetrability of Bodies How Could the Body of Jesus Enter Bread? • How Could Jesus’ Large Body Fit into Smaller Dimensions? • How Could Jesus Pass Through the Heavens Without Damaging Them? The Concepts of Number and Place Simultaneity of Jesus’ Body on Many Altars Remaining One • Simultaneity of Jesus’ Body Being in Many Places The Concept of Motion Motion in No Time is Impossible • One Body Cannot Be in Motion and Rest at the Same Time The Problem of Accidents How Can Accidents be Without Subjects? • The Senses Must Not Be Deceived • Substance Cannot become Accident, nor Accident Substance Miscellaneous Arguments Conclusions 7 Virgin Birth The Interpenetrability of Bodies Images of the Virgin Birth Conclusions 8 Conclusions Jewish Knowledge of Christianity The Sources of Jewish Arguments The Role of Philosophy in Jewish–Christian Relations The Significance of the Medieval Jewish Philosophical Polemics Against Christianity List of Abbreviations Notes Bibliography Index of Citations General Index

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Book Synopsis

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Book Synopsis

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Book Synopsis

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Book Synopsis

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