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Joseph Armitage Robinson, Glastonbury and Historical Remembrance

  • Mark D. Chapman
Veröffentlicht/Copyright: 31. Dezember 2021

Abstract

This article discusses the relationship of history, theology and mythmaking with reference to the myths of Glastonbury. These related to the legends associated with Joseph of Arimathea’ purported visit to England, the burial place of King Arthur, as well as the quest for the Holy Grail. It draws on the work of Joseph Armitage Robinson (1858–1933), one of the most important Biblical and patristic scholars of his generation who, after becoming Dean of Westminster and later Dean of Wells Cathedral in Somerset, and close to Glastonbury, became a distinguished medievalist. After assessing the development of the Glastonbury legends and the use of early British history made in the earlier Anglican tradition, particularly in the work of Archbishop Matthew Parker (1504–1575), it goes on to discuss their revival in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries especially under the local parish priest Lionel Smithett Lewis (1867–1953). It concludes by showing that while there might be no historical substance in the myths, that there is nevertheless an important history to devotion and piety which is as equally open to theological and historical investigation as the events of history.


This is a revised version of a lecture given at the third Glastonbury Studies Seminar at the Abbey House, Glastonbury on 28 January 2017. I am grateful to Paul Ashdown for the invitation to speak.


Published Online: 2021-12-31
Published in Print: 2021-10-26

© 2021 Walter de Gruyter GmbH, Berlin/Boston

Heruntergeladen am 18.9.2025 von https://www.degruyterbrill.com/document/doi/10.1515/znth-2021-0017/html
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