Liturgical Time in Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales

Liturgies are communal in nature, and in the context of the medieval Christian economy of time they are developed and utilised to quantify, consecrate, control, utilise and unify time for the comprehensive end of the welfare of the society, both in the Here and in the Here-after. The liturgy was a social institution, and functioned for anniversaries, holy days, holidays and rituals that were the means of medieval social integrity. In the economy of socio-political and ethical life, the medieval Church linked the sacred to the secular by means of the liturgy. They were used for meditation, as well as a measurement of time, and arguably they were manipulated to parody or satirise the strictly hierarchal estates of the medieval society. Though one of the least liturgical books of his time, Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales is framed by the liturgical institution of the pilgrimage. Actually a pilgrim travelogue, it depicts the secularisation of liturgy and its appropriation for social control, and paradoxically, a carnivalesque celebration of the reversal of social hierarchy.

The Poverty Captivity of Mission in the Churches—and Strategies for Its Liberation

Western world mission initiatives since World War II have become captive to a dominant emphasis on socioeconomic amelioration. The Poverty Captivity of Mission departs from the economically multivalent mission patterns of Jesus, early Christian communities, and the medieval church. It typically recapitulates assumptions of Western and white superiority embedded in colonial emphases on “civilizing” mission. Strategies for its liberation include learning from the Majority World, reaching middle and elite classes as well as the poor, developing relationships of companionship and friendship, and employing asset-based community development.

At the Crossroad of Confessions

The focus of my study is a mid-seventeenth-century Latin manuscript prayer book. Its most basic characteristics should attract the attention of scholars of the period since it was compiled by a Lutheran married couple from Prešov for their individual religious practice. In examining the prayer book, I was able to identify the basic source of the manuscript, which was previously unknown to researchers: the compendium of the German Lutheran author Philipp Kegel. The manuscript follows the structure of Kegel’s volume and also extracts a number of texts from the German author’s work, which mainly collects the writings of medieval church fathers. In addition to Kegel, I have also been able to identify a few other sources; mainly the writings of Lutheran authors from Germany (Johann Arndt, Johann Gerhardt, Johann Rist, and Johann Michael Dilherr). I give a description of the physical characteristics of the manuscript, its illustrations, the hymns that accompany the prayers, and the copying hands. I will also attempt to identify the latter more precisely. The first compilers of the manuscript were Andreas Glosius and his wife Catharina Musoniana from Prešov. I also organize the biographical data we have about their life and will correct the certainly erroneous provenance of Andreas Glosius, whose name appears in the context of several important contemporary manuscripts, including the gradual of Prešov. In the last part of my paper, I will also show how well known and popular Philipp Kegel’s work was in the early modern Kingdom of Hungary. This is necessary because, although the data show that there was a very lively reception of Philipp Kegel’s work in Hungary, previous scholars have only tangentially dealt with the Hungarian presence of his work.

Pilegrimsspor fra Tynset: En detektorfunnet blymedaljong med kristne motiver

In 2016, a metal detectorist found a circular lead medallion with iconography on both sides in Tynset in the Østerdalen valley. This article studies the medallion’s shape, function and symbolical content. The object is interpreted as a pendant comparable with pilgrim badges from the late medieval period. The motifs are identified as Christian, representing the apocalyptical Mary with Christ on one side, and a passion and resurrection scene on the other. In this article, the medallion is compared to Norwegian and other European pilgrim badges and amulets with the same motifs, suggesting its origin most likely to be Aachen in Germany. Aachen was one of the most visited holy places for pilgrimage in Europe. The motifs can be connected to the Marian cathedral in Aachen, at the same time as expressing religious content regularly transmitted in the late medieval church. By comparing the motifs with Old Norse texts and images, the article demonstrates how the amulet’s religious messages potentially could influence the bearer – possibly a Norwegian pilgrim.

The The Understanding of the Image of God in the Early and Medieval Church History

It is only in the Bible whereby precise details in regards to humanity's origin from the conservative Christian point of view, are recorded. The Bible clearly states that in God's image, man was made (Gen 1:27). This statement reflects the belief that the essence of human beings was created in the likeness of God, and demonstrated that man did not merely turn out to be in God's image but was carefully crafted to be so. However, despite the exalted position of man among creatures, theologians still have questions and debates about the image of God is, and what does it consists of. Many scholars have wrestled with the precise sense of the image of God from the time of the Early Church until the Medieval Era. This research uses qualitative method, whereby the early works of the fathers of the medieval church are analyzed. The research is carried out on a descriptive basis. It is the aim of this research to offer a structural and systematic understanding of the image of God, based on the perception of the early church and medieval church fathers. As a result, a conclusion is formed.

7. The Bible and its critics

‘The Bible and its critics’ explores critical readings, mainly from the Reformation and the Enlightenment, which had radical effects on how the Bible was perceived. For Martin Luther, the Bible speaks about the liberation of men and women from the threat of God’s law and punishment. Thus, the Reformation sought to emancipate men and women from their bondage to the medieval church. To do so, it used the methods of the Renaissance to subject traditional readings of the biblical text to closer scrutiny. Meanwhile, the Enlightenment period saw the rise of the empirical sciences and of rationalist and empiricist philosophies which sought to base human knowledge and the conduct of human affairs on the unaided efforts of human reason. The Deists, in particular, pointed to the existence of inconsistencies and contradictions within the Bible. Out of this emerged a rich tradition of critical scholarship which sought historically to reconstruct the life of Jesus.

Towards an Art History of the Parish Church, 1200–1399

Estimated at numbering between eight and nine thousand, parish churches containing at least some medieval building fabric are ubiquitous in the English landscape. Yet, despite their quotidian familiarity, parish churches have not, by and large, been treated consistently or systematically as deserving of the attention of art historical study. This collection of essays comes out of a conference held at the Courtauld Institute of Art in June 2017 and focuses on the two centuries between 1200 and 1399. This period represents the most notable lacuna in scholarship, even though the parish church was fully solidified as an administrative category and arguably as a building type. Compared with the smaller corpus of the Romanesque period or the late medieval church after 1400, which draws on greater availability of documentary evidence in the form of churchwarden accounts, these two centuries have been historically understudied. The ten diverse essays contained within this volume explore the art and architecture of parish churches through a variety of lenses, methodologies, and perspectives, ranging from (re)considerations of the very definition of the parish church to phenomenological explorations of their component parts, as well as case studies of their decorative schemes. An Afterword by Paul Binski reflects upon his 1999 essay, ‘The English Parish Church and its Art in the Later Middle Ages: A Review of the Problem’ and considers the place of anthropology in our developed study of the parish church.