The Cult Of Saints In Late Antiquity And The Middle Ages: Essays on the Contribution of Peter Brown - Softcover

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0199253544 ISBN 13: 9780199253548

Publisher: Oxford University Press, U.S.A., 2002

Synopsis

". . . Despite their disagreements, these authors pay unanimous tribute to the stimulating and provocative quality of Peter Brown's scholarship. Both their criticism and their praise merit a broad audience."-The Journal of Religion ". . . the scholarship represented by the individual contributions is of the highest quality. . . and well worth the read."-History

About this title

Review:

This volume has greatly extended the range of answers ... The essays in this impressive collection revisit, or rediscover, the holy man, over a very wide geographical and chronological range. (Gillian Clark, Times Literary Supplement)

Synopsis:

This book contains eleven essays, prefaced by a general introduction, on a set of related themes: the characteristic traits and diverse functions of holy men; the fashioning of saints out of a small minority of holy men and a number of other individuals of high social status but with more dubious spiritual credentials; the literary processes involved in the construction of hagiographical texts; the role of hagiography in the creation and diffusion of cults; and the worldly interests and other purposes which were served by hagiographical texts and the cults which they propagated. These themes are explored across a wide range of social and cultural milieux, extending from the late antique east Mediterranean through the early medieval Frankish world and Byzantium to Russia and Islam in the high middle ages. The work of Peter Brown, in particular his article, 'The Rise and Function of the Holy Man in Late Antiquity', first published in 1971, forms a constant point of reference, acknowledged by the contributors as having irradiated the whole field with fresh, provocative, and illuminating ideas.

About this edition

• Publisher: Oxford University Press, U.S.A.
• Publication date: 2002
• ISBN 10: 0199253544
• ISBN 13: 9780199253548
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 312
• Editor: Howard-Johnston James