94 books match the query 'Middle Ages, 600-1500' and 3 start with w

cover of Wisdom in Bonaventure's <i>Hexameron</i>: Philosophical Problems, Theological Solutions

Wisdom in Bonaventure's <i>Hexameron</i>

Philosophical Problems, Theological Solutions

Benjamin Winter

Catholic University of America Press, 2024

This book presents Saint Bonaventure as a cutting-edge thinker who engaged with natural philosophy on its own terms. His final academic project was an unfinished collection of scholastic sermons titled Collationes in Hexaëmeron. At this moment in history, academics were clashing over the limits of cognition and the definition of science (scientia). Much has been written detailing how the incorporation of Aristotle’s philosophy into university curricula eventually prompted the Condemnations of 1270 and 1277. But perhaps it is incorrect to conceive of these events in a frame of escalating tensions leading to collapse. Perhaps a new perspective can be found by venturing back to 1273, to see Aristotle through the eyes of a theologian who was both magister and minister, bishop and brother—one who respected the academy’s rigor but also challenged its tendency toward self-absorption. Guiding readers through vision one of Collationes in Hexaëmeron, Benjamin Winter argues that Bonaventure’s rejection of certain philosophical errors ought to be understood within the context of the virtuous person’s journey to wisdom. Propositions such as the eternity of the world, the unicity of the intellect, and fated necessity are not variables in a zero-sum equation “balanced out” by truths of faith. Instead, Bonaventure sees these propositions as opportunities to reflect charitably on nature and grace, emphasizing that just as knowledge is empty without love, understanding is insufficient without humility. Rather than renounce Aristotle or stifle scientific inquiry, Collationes in Hexaëmeron wholeheartedly acknowledges the affective and communal dimensions of philosophical knowledge. Bonaventure creates a magnificent and enduring text with powerful applications today.
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cover of Women and Religion in Medieval and Renaissance Italy

Women and Religion in Medieval and Renaissance Italy

Edited by Daniel Bornstein and Roberto Rusconi

University of Chicago Press, 1996

Between the twelfth and the sixteenth centuries, women assumed public roles of unprecedented prominence in Italian religious culture. Legally subordinated, politically excluded, socially limited, and ideologically disdained, women's active participation in religious life offered them access to power in all its forms.

These essays explore the involvement of women in religious life throughout northern and central Italy and trace the evolution of communities of pious women as they tried to achieve their devotional goals despite the strictures of the ecclesiastical hierarchy. The contributors examine relations between holy women, their devout followers, and society at large.

Including contributions from leading figures in a new generation of Italian historians of religion, this book shows how women were able to carve out broad areas of influence by carefully exploiting the institutional church and by astutely manipulating religious percepts.
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cover of Writing Faith: Text, Sign, and History in the Miracles of Sainte Foy

Writing Faith

Text, Sign, and History in the Miracles of Sainte Foy

Kathleen Ashley and Pamela Sheingorn

University of Chicago Press, 1999

A trickster saint whose miracles reportedly included the healing of an inguinal hernia via a hammer and anvil, Sainte Foy inspired one of the most important collections of miracle stories of the central middle ages. Kathleen Ashley and Pamela Sheingorn explore the act of "writing faith" as performed both by the authors of these stories and by the scholars who have used them as sources for the study of medieval religion and society.

As Ashley and Sheingorn show, differing agendas shaped the miracle stories over time. The first author, Bernard of Angers, used his narratives to critique popular religion and to establish his own literary reputation, while the monks who continued the collection tried to enhance their monastery's prestige. Because these stories were rhetorical constructions, Ashley and Sheingorn argue, we cannot use them directly as sources of historical data. Instead, they demonstrate how analyzing representations common to groups of miracle stories—such as negative portrayals of Muslims on the eve of the Crusades—can reveal the traces of history.

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