C. S. Lewis’s Medieval Model and Literary Views

2015 ◽  
Vol 5 (2) ◽  
pp. 57-83
Author(s):  
Yuxiao Su

This paper attempts to first give an introduction and appraisal of the unique contribution made by the English literary critic C. S. Lewis, towards a systematic presentation of the “Medieval Model”, the dominant cultural background that underlies most of the literary works in the Middle Ages and the Renaissance period. Then the paper analyses the relationship between the major features of the Medieval Model and four aspects of Lewis’s literary views, especially in reading and interpreting: namely, receptive reading, “built-in significance” of the text, respect for textual authorities, and seeking accord rather than discord in reading and interpreting. By doing so the paper reveals, on the one hand, how Lewis’s Model as described in The Discarded Image serves as an indispensable map for readers of Medieval and Renaissance literature; and on the other hand, how Lewis’s literary stand is deeply informed and inspired by this Model, in which he takes great delight.

Author(s):  
Peter Coss

In the introduction to his great work of 2005, Framing the Early Middle Ages, Chris Wickham urged not only the necessity of carefully framing our studies at the outset but also the importance of closely defining the words and concepts that we employ, the avoidance ‘cultural sollipsism’ wherever possible and the need to pay particular attention to continuities and discontinuities. Chris has, of course, followed these precepts on a vast scale. My aim in this chapter is a modest one. I aim to review the framing of thirteenth-century England in terms of two only of Chris’s themes: the aristocracy and the state—and even then primarily in terms of the relationship between the two. By the thirteenth century I mean a long thirteenth century stretching from the period of the Angevin reforms of the later twelfth century on the one hand to the early to mid-fourteenth on the other; the reasons for taking this span will, I hope, become clearer during the course of the chapter, but few would doubt that it has a validity.


1971 ◽  
Vol 2 (1) ◽  
pp. 59-66 ◽  
Author(s):  
Paul G. Forand

In antiquity and in the Middle Ages slavery played a significant role in the military, economic, political and social life of the Near East. Many studies have been made of these aspects of life, but little has been said in the context of Islam about the psychological bonds which, at least to some extent, characterize the relationship between slave or freedman and master. The institution of ‘mutual alliance’ also played an important part in Islamic history, and there were certain similarities between the relation of the ‘ally’ to the patron on the one hand, and of the freedman to the former master on the other. But it is the purpose of this discussion, in part, to point out some basic differences between the two relationships.


2017 ◽  
Vol 20 ◽  
pp. 157-177
Author(s):  
Łukasz Medeksza

Urbanology: Towards a Revivalof the Traditional European Town“Urbanology” — the term used in the title of the book Towards urbanology by the architect Stanisław Lose from Wrocław — refers to his idea of “afield of knowledge whose main subject is aman in an urbanised world”. Therefore urbanology is opposed to urbanistics, which — according to Lose — is more interested in economy, transportation or spatial planning than in people. The author of Towards urbanology strongly appreciates the medieval model of town — and its more freedom-oriented, and creativity-oriented, continuation in later ages. The author is also very impressed by the historical role of christianity as the cultural integrator of urban societies. But Lose’s book is only apretext for briefly describing the contemporary history of the traditionalist current in urbanism and enthusiastic opinions about the Middle Ages expressed by such different authors as René Guénon, Peter Kropotkin or G.K. Chesterton. Nowadays the so-called neomedivalism tries to interpret the current cultural, political and administrative diversity of Europe as anew version of the multi-level and polycentric order associated with the Middle Ages. But neomedievalism and urbanistic traditionalism raise some questions — for example those about the limits of being inspired by the Middle Ages, about the economy of the neomedieval model of town or about the relationship between the notion of the so-called living tradition in urbanism and architecture on the one hand — and historical styles on the other.


Author(s):  
Andrea Gamberini

This chapter investigates the relationship between landed aristocracy and peasants in the later Middle Ages. The language of lordly power is no longer one of violence, just as its political culture is not that of the inferiorization of rural people. The emergence of the lexicon of friendship on the one hand conveying an idea of power liberated from its most brutal manifestations, on the other embeds that power within an explicit framework of reciprocity, in which obedience corresponds to the protection (military and fiscal) of the dominus and his mediation with central authorities (the duke). While this is a real re-establishment of the political bond on a consensual basis, it does not seem to generate shared representations: in fact, it is precisely the opposing elaborations that actors offer of the cause/effect nexus (which comes first, obedience or protection?) that reveal a clash between ideas with very different backgrounds.


2020 ◽  
Vol 18 (1) ◽  
pp. 215-229
Author(s):  
Urška Perenič ◽  

In the paper, the problem of exile is first understood in the way of national exile and persecution. The analysis will focus on the historical novel Človek proti človeku [Man against Man], 1930, by France Bevk, which thematizes the Middle Ages, but which should be read as a metaphor through which the author during the Italian occupation of Primorsko polemically and subtle confronted foreign rulers. In the novel the problem of national persecution is represented as the opposition between the representatives of ecclesiastical and secular/aristocratic authority on the one hand and the serfdom on the other, and is most thoroughly addressed through the relationship between patriarch and brave (bandit) nobles. With their bold opposition to the patriarch, secret conspiracy and efforts to remedy injustice and restore peace and order in their home country, the nobles also serve as a model for unification of the nation. Exile is also understood in terms of the individual's exile and the search for one's identity. More specifically, it is self-exile, which is at the same time self-awareness, as embodied in the central figure of Jerko, who is torn between the sword, the monk's habit and the poetry/art/spirituality. Jerko could be the alter ego of the writer France Bevk, who wrote the novel under conditions of house imprisonment and concluded it meaningfully with the symbolism of the falcon as the messenger of the spiritual world (and thus art).


1968 ◽  
Vol 8 (4) ◽  
pp. 606-617
Author(s):  
Mohammad Anisur Rahman

The purpose of this paper is to re-examine the relationship between the degree of aggregate labour-intensity and the aggregate volume of saving in an economy where a Cobb-6ouglas production function in its traditional form can be assumed to give a good approximation to reality. The relationship in ques¬tion has an obviously important bearing on economic development policy in the area of choice of labour intensity. To the extent that and in the range where an increase in labour intensity would adversely affect the volume of savings, a con¬flict arises between two important social objectives, i.e., higher rate of capital formation on the one hand and greater employment and distributive equity on the other. If relative resource endowments in the economy are such that such a "competitive" range of labour-intensity falls within the nation's attainable range of choice, development planners will have to arrive at a compromise between these two social goals.


Religions ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 12 (3) ◽  
pp. 199
Author(s):  
Maria Ledstam

This article engages with how religion and economy relate to each other in faith-based businesses. It also elaborates on a recurrent idea in theological literature that reflections on different visions of time can advance theological analyses of the relationship between Christianity and capitalism. More specifically, this article brings results from an ethnographic study of two faith-based businesses into conversation with the ethicist Luke Bretherton’s presentation of different understandings of the relationship between Christianity and capitalism. Using Theodore Schatzki’s theory of timespace, the article examines how time and space are constituted in two small faith-based businesses that are part of the two networks Business as Mission (evangelical) and Economy of Communion (catholic) and how the different timespaces affect the religious-economic configurations in the two cases and with what moral implications. The overall findings suggest that the timespace in the Catholic business was characterized by struggling caused by a tension between certain ideals on how religion and economy should relate to each other on the one hand and how the practice evolved on the other hand. Furthermore, the timespace in the evangelical business was characterized by confidence, caused by the business having a rather distinct and achievable goal when it came to how they wanted to be different and how religion should relate to economy. There are, however, nuances and important resemblances between the cases that cannot be explained by the businesses’ confessional and theological affiliations. Rather, there seems to be something about the phenomenon of tension-filled and confident faith-based businesses that causes a drive in the practices towards the common good. After mapping the results of the empirical study, I discuss some contributions that I argue this study brings to Bretherton’s presentation of the relationship between Christianity and capitalism.


2020 ◽  
Vol 3 (1) ◽  
pp. 681-693
Author(s):  
Ariel Furstenberg

AbstractThis article proposes to narrow the gap between the space of reasons and the space of causes. By articulating the standard phenomenology of reasons and causes, we investigate the cases in which the clear-cut divide between reasons and causes starts to break down. Thus, substituting the simple picture of the relationship between the space of reasons and the space of causes with an inverted and complex one, in which reasons can have a causal-like phenomenology and causes can have a reason-like phenomenology. This is attained by focusing on “swift reasoned actions” on the one hand, and on “causal noisy brain mechanisms” on the other hand. In the final part of the article, I show how an analogous move, that of narrowing the gap between one’s normative framework and the space of reasons, can be seen as an extension of narrowing the gap between the space of causes and the space of reasons.


2004 ◽  
Vol 5 (1) ◽  
pp. 43-58
Author(s):  
Jeffrey S. Galko ◽  

The ontological question of what there is, from the perspective of common sense, is intricately bound to what can be perceived. The above observation, when combined with the fact that nouns within language can be divided between nouns that admit counting, such as ‘pen’ or ‘human’, and those that do not, such as ‘water’ or ‘gold’, provides the starting point for the following investigation into the foundations of our linguistic and conceptual phenomena. The purpose of this paper is to claim that such phenomena are facilitated by, on the one hand, an intricate cognitive capacity, and on the other by the complex environment within which we live. We are, in a sense, cognitively equipped to perceive discrete instances of matter such as bodies of water. This equipment is related to, but also differs from, that devoted to the perception of objects such as this computer. Behind this difference in cognitive equipment underlies a rich ontology, the beginnings of which lies in the distinction between matter and objects. The following paper is an attempt to make explicit the relationship between matter and objects and also provide a window to our cognition of such entities.


2005 ◽  
Vol 25 (2) ◽  
pp. 179-186 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michael Schredl ◽  
Arthur Funkhouser ◽  
Nicole Arn

Empirical studies largely support the continuity hypothesis of dreaming. The present study investigated the frequency and emotional tone of dreams of truck drivers. On the one hand, the findings of the present study partly support the continuity regarding the time spent with driving/being in the truck and driving dreams and, on the other hand, a close relationship was found between daytime mood (feelings of stress, job satisfaction) and dream emotions, i.e., different dream characteristics were affected by different aspects of daytime activity. The results, thus, indicate that it is necessary to define very clearly how this continuity is to be conceptualized. The approach of formulating a mathematical model (cf. [1]) should be adopted in future studies in order to specify the factors and their magnitude in the relationship between waking and dreaming.


Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document