Sanctifying Signs: Making Christian Tradition in Late Medieval England - Softcover

Aers, David

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0268020221 ISBN 13: 9780268020224

Publisher: University of Notre Dame Press, 2004

Synopsis

Concentrating on the sacrament of the altar, poverty, and conflicting versions of sanctity, Sanctifying Signs presents a critical study of Christian literature, theology, and culture in late medieval England. In this notable book, David Aers considers the diverse ways in which certain late medieval Christians and their Church engaged the immense resources of the Christian tradition in their own historical moment. Using a wide range of texts, Aers explores the complex theological, institutional, and political processes that shape and preserve tradition during changing circumstances. He is particularly interested in why some texts were judged by the late medieval Church to be orthodox and others heretical, and the effect of these judgments on the conversations and debates of the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries. Sanctifying Signs begins with accounts of the sacrament of the altar that were deemed orthodox in the late medieval Church. Aers then shifts his focus to the relationship between sanctification and the sign of poverty. Finally, he reflects on the relationship between some versions of domesticity and sanctification. Texts of William Langland, John Wyclif, Walter Brut, William Thorpe, and others, Aers explores the complex theological, institutional, and political processes that shape and preserve tradition during changing circumstances. He is particularly interested in why some texts were judged by the late medieval Church to be orthodox and others heretical, and the effect of these judgments on the conversations and debates of the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries.

About this title

About the Author:

David Aers is James B. Duke Professor of English at Duke University.

Review:

"Aers's close readings of a variety of prominent and less-known medieval texts make this a valuable interdisciplinary study. Recommended." (Choice)

"David Aers' latest book makes a significant contribution to the dialogue about the significance of alternative versions of Christian doctrine and practice in late medieval England...Beyond its medieval subject matter, Aers's book questions the relationship of critical reading to theological assumptions." (The Sixteenth Century Journal)

"David Aers has written another rich and provocative book in his ongoing exploration of religion's socially and politically constitutive role in late-fourteenth- and early-fifteenth-century England. . . . Aers takes care not to conflate Langlandian and Wycliffite perspectives but rather to show the aberrant singularity of what in Arundel's church passed for orthodoxy. Tacitly ranged against its version of the Body of Christ are other, more biblical understandings whose diversity, complexity, and wealth Aers continues to teach us." (Speculum)

About this edition

• Publisher: University of Notre Dame Press
• Publication date: 2004
• ISBN 10: 0268020221
• ISBN 13: 9780268020224
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 296