Concluding Remarks

This chapter provides some brief concluding remarks.This study contributes to existing research in the sociology of religion and development studies fields by demonstrating the effect of the mutually reinforcing configuration of multiple prosperity triggers (religion–political–environment). Historical Protestantism largely influenced prosperity by promoting education, by secularising institutions, and by stabilising democracy. Protestantism has also proven highly influential in the successive historical law revolutions that gradually mitigated the power of pervasive feudal institutions and of papalist medieval canon law. In contrast, traditionally Roman Catholic countries have generally upheld a medieval model of extractivist institutions until anti-clerical (non-communist) movements were able to weaken this influence in some countries.

The human problem in the context of New European theory of progress

This article analyzes the anthropological paradigm of modernism in light of the New European theory of progress. The author underlines the importance of these worldview constructs for understanding the phenomenon of modernism, and based on the hermeneutical method conducts a historical-philosophical reconstruction of the corresponding ideas. It is noted that the specific features of New European anthropology alongside New European interpretation of the idea of progress, can be understood only in relation to each other. Special attention is given to determination and analysis of the fundamental, although not implicit contradictions arising within the worldview of modernism The New European image of the world is based on the synthesis of progressive pathos and assurance in fundamental imperfection of human nature. A participant of the progressive movement is proclaimed an atomized subject that follows selfish principles. Such way of thought leads to a contradictory result: namely the imperfect essence of a human is the foundation for the development. An important role is assigned to the idea of historical law that regulates the collision of selfish human for producing social good. This paradoxical construct can be viewed as an attempt to solve the fundamental for modernism problem of the part and the whole. Based on the research of H. Blumenberg, the origins of this problem can be traced in the dispute on the universals that took place in the late Middle Ages . The victory of nominalism with its thesis on the primacy of the singular undermined the medieval model of integrity, depriving human of the ontological foundations. Namely the crisis of integrity underlied the philosophical pursuits of modernism. By reconciling the singular represented by an atomized subject and the universal represented by the historical law, the theory of progress resembles the model of integrity. However, this model can only be effective in a situation of “comfortability” of the historical process. In the conditions of catastrophism of the XX century, the confidence in the progress is being problematized, and the problem of human nature becomes increasingly relevant.

The Origination of a Collective Body of Power

The author demonstrates the fluctuations in the position of authority in modern and contemporary times, when the medieval model of “two bodies of the king,” or “two bodies of power” is relinquished. The article demonstrates how the formerly valid analogy between the body of the world and the human body began to disappear. This was facilitated by the scientific discourse of the 16th –17th centuries, which presented the body as an “organic machine” endowed with universal functions and structure.

Gezond, goed en gelukkig : De actualiteit van het middeleeuwse welzijnsmodel

Healthy, Good and Happy: The Topicality of the Medieval Model of WellbeingDeparting from a miscellany with various do-it-yourself advice texts from the city of Deventer, this article explains the medieval model of health. It argues that medievals held an overall vision of health, involving physical, mental and spiritual well-being as well as the search for the moral good. At the end of the Middle Ages, residents of Dutch cities energetically strove to create for themselves a better life in terms of health, comfort, satisfaction and spiritual perfection but never left fellow humans to their own devices. Current decision-makers could profit from this integral model and may replace the concept of health with that of well-being.

„Banderia Prutenorum”, czyli poczet chorągwi krzyżackich obalonych piórem Jerzego z Krakowa

The paper is dedicated to the volume of poems by Jerzy Harasymowicz, entitled 'Banderia Prutenorum' (1976). The author explores the dependence of this volume on a work of the same title, which was released in mid-15th century through the initiative of Jan Długosz. The medieval manuscript contains illustrations and short descriptions of 56 Teutonic flags captured by Polish troops in the battle of Grunwald (1410). The author of these pictures was Stanisław Durink, while the descriptions were made by Jan Długosz, among other authors. Using the illustrations of Teutonic flags from the medieval model, Harasymowicz added his own poems, showing in bad light particular troops (flags) of the Teutonic Order, as well as their great defeat in the battle against Polish‑Lithuanian forces. The author of the paper analyses the ideological‑persuasive meaning of these poems, as well as their language and depiction.

Illustrated translations longing for the Middle Ages, exemplified by modern french versions of Aucassin et Nicolette

The relations between the verbal component, the visual component, and the translational aspect of a given text have been discussed and described by translation scholars and semioticians in a diversity of manners. A significant graphic element may be introduced during the translation production, usually in dialogue with the verbal one, thus creating a new intersemiotic text. Medieval manuscripts are known for offering their readers illustrations, miniatures, rubrics, decorated initials, colored and gilded details, and other visual ingredients. As a result, the codex functions as an essential interpretive agent rather than a passive container for verbal texts. This model of the intricate illuminated manuscript was imported into modern culture systems through transfer. However, in reality, most manuscripts exhibit simple decorative schemes or are plain and unadorned, which means that ornaments in their current versions most likely derive from the model mentioned above. The paper looks at the productivity of this medieval model by examining various visual components inserted into the printed modern French translations based on the unmistakably plain manuscript of the thirteenth-century work Aucassin et Nicolette. The analysis will focus on the illustrated translations, addressing the added elements and their characteristics, their relation to the model, the increased determinacy they create, and the resulting reading they seem to encourage. We will suggest that even the narration levels and the performative aspect of the text may be affected by the new, intersemiotic nature bestowed upon this ancient text through the integration of other modalities into its translations.