Brill's Companions to the Christian Tradition

A survey of the latest scholarship on Catholic missions between the 16th and 18th centuries, this collection of fourteen essays by historians from eight countries offers not only a global view of the organization, finances, personnel, and history of Catholic missions to the Americas, Africa, and Asia, but also the complex political, cultural, and religious contexts of the missionary fields.
The conquests and colonization of the Americas presented a different stage for the drama of evangelization in contrast to that of Africa and Asia: the inhospitable landscape of Africa, the implacable Islamic societies of the Ottoman, Safavid, and Mughal empires, and the self-assured regimes of Ming-Qing China, Nguyen dynasty Vietnam, and Tokugawa Japan.

Contributors are Tara Alberts, Mark Z. Christensen, Dominique Deslandres, R. Po-chia Hsia, Aliocha Maldavsky, Anne McGinness, Christoph Nebgen, Adina Ruiu, Alan Strathern, M. Antoni J. Üçerler, Fred Vermote, Guillermo Wilde, Christian Windler, and Ines Zupanov.

Joachim of Fiore (c.1135-1202) remains one of the most fascinating and enigmatic figures of medieval Christianity. In his own time, he was an influential advisor to the mighty and powerful, widely respected for his prophetic exegesis and decoding of the apocalypse. In modern times, many thinkers, from Thomas Müntzer to Friedrich Engels, have hailed him as a prophet of progress and revolution. Even present-day theologians, philosophers and novelists were inspired by Joachim’s vision of a Third Age of the Holy Spirit.

However, at no time was Joachim an uncontroversial figure. Soon after his death, the church authorities became suspicious about the explosive potential of his theology, while more recently historians held him accountable for the fateful progressivism of Western Civilization.

Contributors are: Frances Andrews, Valeria De Fraja, Alfredo Gatto, Peter Gemeinhardt, Sven Grosse, Massimo Iiritano, Bernard McGinn, Matthias Riedl, and Brett Edward Whalen.

Bringing together the research of several eminent scholars, A Companion to the Abbey of Saint Victor in Paris seeks to provide a deep introduction to the significance, scope, and reach of the abbey’s influence in the twelfth century and beyond. Sixteen chapters introduce the history of the abbey from its beginnings through the reception of its major writings. Chapters are grouped in the areas of the life and ministry of Victorine canons, the abbey’s contributions to biblical exegesis, sacramental and theological teachings, and the Victorine understanding of Christian life and prayer. Such a thorough introduction to the Abbey of Saint Victor has never before been published.

Contributors are: David Albertson, Rainer Berndt, Boyd Taylor Coolman, Marshall Crossnoe, Torsten K. Edstam, Christopher P. Evans, Margot E. Fassler, Hugh Feiss, Karin Ganss, Franklin T. Harkins, Donna R. Hawk-Reinhard, C. Stephen Jaeger, Juliet Mousseau, Dominique Poirel, Patrice Sicard, and Frans van Liere.

Even with growing popularity in the United States, there existed no English-language scholarly introduction to Marguerite Porete or her sole-surviving work Mirror of Simple Souls until now. The study of Marguerite and her work touches on so many disciplines – from religious and secular histories to theological and literary readings of her book – that the scholarship had often been lost in the divides between the disciplines. Our contributors are chosen from both sides of the Atlantic and from an array of disciplines in order to bridge this geographical and linguistic divide. The interdisciplinary nature of the interest in Marguerite and the Mirror and the implications her book has on medieval scholarship make a collection such as this companion ideal.

Contributors are Marleen Cré, Imke De Gier, Dávid Falvay, Sean Field, Geneviève Hasenohr (with Zan Kocher), Jonathan Juilfs, Zan Kocher, Joanne Robinson, Elizabeth Scarborough, Robert Stauffer, Wendy R. Terry, and Justine Trombley.

In A Companion to Jesuit Mysticism, Robert A. Maryks provides thirteen unique essays discussing the Jesuit mystical tradition, a somewhat neglected aspect of Jesuit historiography that stretches as far back as the order’s co-founder, Ignatius of Loyola, his spiritual visions at Manresa, and ultimately the mystical perspective contained in his Spiritual Exercises.

The volume’s contributions on the most significant representatives of the Jesuit mystical tradition—from Baltasar Álvarez to Louis Lallemant to Hugo Makibi Enomiya-Lassalle—aim to fill this lacuna in Jesuit historiography. Although intended primarily as a handbook for scholars seeking to further their own research in this area, the volume will undoubtedly be of interest to scholars and students of Jesuit studies more broadly.

Brill's Companion to Aelred of Rievaulx explores the life, works, and thought of Aelred, Cistercian abbot of Rievaulx Abbey from 1147 to 1167. As well as introducing the three genres of his works —sermons, spiritual teaching, and history— scholars survey such central topics as Marian devotion, love and friendship, the sacramental nature of community, lay spirituality, and saints’ lives. The work also includes the first supplement to the Bibliotheca aelrediana secunda, listing publications by and about Aelred from between 1996 and 2015. Aelred is rapidly becoming one of the best-known and most loved of the 12th-century Cistercians; this book provides welcome new insights into his contributions to the spiritual and political concerns of his place and time.

Contributors are Damien Boquet, Pierre-André Burton, Marsha L. Dutton, Elizabeth Freeman, Daniel M. La Corte, Marie Anne Mayeski, Domenico Pezzini, John R. Sommerfeldt, and Katherine Yohe.

The biblical book of Job is a timeless text that relates a story of intense human suffering, abandonment, and eventual redemption. It is a tale of profound theological, philosophical, and existential significance that has captured the imaginations of auditors, exegetes, artists, religious leaders, poets, preachers, and teachers throughout the centuries. This original volume provides an introduction to the wide range of interpretations and representations of Job—both the scriptural book and its righteous protagonist—produced in the medieval Christian West. The essays gathered here treat not only exegetical and theological works such as Gregory’s Moralia and the literal commentaries of Thomas Aquinas and Nicholas of Lyra, but also poetry and works of art that have Job as their subject.

The Council of Basel (1431-1449) met to defend the faith and reform the Church. Its efforts to deal with Hussite heresy and reform the Roman Curia led to conflict with Pope Eugenius IV (1431-1447). The council divided over the site of a council of union with the Eastern churches. Some left to attend Eugenius’ Council of Florence (1438-1443). While that council was negotiating reunion with Eastern churches, in 1439 Basel was acting to claim supremacy and depose Eugenius. The ensuing struggle went on for a decade before Basel and its pope, Felix V (Amadeus VIII of Savoy), gave up under pressure from the princes. These essays address multiple aspects of the Council of Basel, including its reforming efforts and bureaucracy.

Contributors include Alberto Cadili, Gerald Christianson, Michiel Decaluwe, Thomas A. Fudge, Ursula Gießmann, Hans-Jörg Gilomen, Johannes Helmrath, Thomas M. Izbicki, Jesse D. Mann, Ivan Mariano, Heribert Müller, Émilie Rosenblieh, and Birgit Studt.

In A Companion to Giles of Rome, Charles Briggs, Peter Eardley, and seven other leading specialists provide the first synoptic treatment of the thought, works, life, and legacy of Giles of Rome (c. 1243/7–1316), one of medieval Europe’s most important and influential scholastic philosophers and theologians.

The Giles that emerges from this volume was a subtle and independent thinker, who more than refining and modifying the positions of his teacher Aquinas, also made strikingly original contributions to theology, physics, metaphysics, psychology, ethics, logic, rhetoric, and political thought. He was also the founding intellectual of the Augustinian friars and a key participant in controversies at the University of Paris, and between Church and State.

Contributors are: Charles F. Briggs, Richard Cross, Silvia Donati, Peter S. Eardley, Roberto Lambertini, Costantino Marmo, Martin Pickavé, Giorgio Pini, and Cecilia Trifogli.

A Companion to the Swiss Reformation describes the course of the Protestant Reformation in the Swiss Confederation over the course of the sixteenth century. Its essays examine the successes as well as the failures of the reformation movement, considering not only the institutional churches but also the spread of Anabaptism. The volume highlights the different form that the Reformation took among the members of the Confederation and its allied territories, and it describes the political, social and cultural consequences of the Reformation for the Confederation as a whole.

Contributors are: Irena Backus, Jan-Andrea Bernhard, Amy Nelson Burnett, Michael W. Bruening, Erich Bryner, Emidio Campi, Bruce Gordon, Kaspar von Greyerz, Sundar Henny, Karin Maag, Thomas Maissen, Regula Schmid-Keeling, Martin Sallmann, and Andrea Strübind.

A Companion to the Medieval Papacy brings together an international group of experts on various aspects of the medieval papacy. Each chapter provides an up-to-date introduction to and scholarly interpretation of topics of crucial importance to the development of the papacy’s thinking about its place in the medieval world and of its institutional structures.

Topics covered include: the Papal States; the Gregorian Reform; papal artistic self-representation; hierocratic theory; canon law; decretals; councils; legates and judges delegate; the apostolic camera, chancery, penitentiary, and Rota; relations with Constantinople; crusades; missions. The volume includes an introductory chapter by Thomas F.X. Noble on the historiographical challenges of writing medieval papal history.

Contributors are: Sandro Carocci, Atria A. Larson, Andrew Louth, Jehangir Malegam, Andreas Meyer, Harald Müller, Thomas F.X. Noble, Francesca Pomarici, Rebecca Rist, Kirsi Salonen, Felicitas Schmieder, Keith Sisson, Danica Summerlin, and Stefan Weiß.

A Companion to Medieval Christian Humanism explores the perennial questions of Christian humanism as these emerge in the writings of key medieval thinkers, questions pertaining to the dignity of the human person, the human person’s place in the cosmos, and the moral and educational ideals involved in shaping human persons toward the full realization of their dignity. The contributors explore what form these questions take for medieval thinkers and how they answer these questions, thereby revealing the depth of medieval Christian humanism.

Contributors are: C. Colt Anderson, David Appleby, John P. Bequette, Benjamin Brown, Richard H. Bulzacchelli, Nancy Enright, David P. Fleischacker, Justin Jackson, Ian Levy, J. Stephen Russell, Aage Rydstrøm-Poulsen, Andrew Salzmann, John T. Slotemaker, Benjamin Smith, and Eileen C. Sweeney

A Companion to Colette of Corbie presents a collection of essays offering new historical and religious perspectives on the life, career, and influences of this little-studied fifteenth-century saint.
Colette of Corbie, a contemporary of Joan of Arc, established an important reform movement in the Franciscan order; founded numerous monasteries for women in Burgundy, France, and the Low Countries; and had connections with high ranking Burgundian and French noble families.
Essays in this volume draw upon many relatively unknown primary sources and add significantly to the scholarship on this important religious figure.

Contributors are: Anna Campbell, Joan Mueller, Andrea Pearson, Jane Marie Pinzino, Monique Somme, Ludovic Viallet, and Nancy Bradley Warren

The last twenty-five years have seen an explosion of scholarly studies on lollardy, the late medieval religious phenomenon that has often been credited with inspiring the English Reformation. In A Companion to Lollardy, Patrick Hornbeck sums up what we know about lollardy and what have been its fortunes in the hands of its most recent chroniclers. This volume describes trends in the study of lollardy and explores the many individuals, practices, texts, and beliefs that have been called lollard.

Joined by Mishtooni Bose and Fiona Somerset, Hornbeck assesses how scholars and polemicists, literary critics and ecclesiastics have defined lollardy and evaluated its significance, showing how lollardy has served as a window on religion, culture, and society in late medieval England.

The final book of the New Testament, the Apocalypse, has been controversial since its initial appearance during the first century A.D. For centuries after, theologians, exegetes, scholars, and preachers have grappled with the imagery and symbolism behind this fascinating and terrifying book. Their thoughts and ideas regarding the apocalypse—and its trials and tribulations—were received within both elite and popular culture in the medieval and early modern eras. Therefore, one may rightly call the Apocalypse, and its accompanying hopes and fears, a foundational pillar of Western Civilization. The interest in the Apocalypse, and apocalyptic movements, continues apace in modern scholarship and society alike. This present volume, A Companion to the Premodern Apocalypse, collates essays from specialists in the study of premodern apocalyptic subjects. It is designed to orient undergraduate and graduate students, as well as more established scholars, to the state of the field of premodern apocalyptic studies as well as to point them in future directions for their scholarship and/or pedagogy.

Contributors are: Roland Betancourt, Robert Boenig, Richard K. Emmerson, Ernst Hintz, László Hubbes, Hiram Kümper, Natalie Latteri, Thomas Long, Katherine Olson, Kevin Poole, Matthias Riedl, Michael A. Ryan

This volume collects twelve chapters that present the multifaceted responses to the works of the William of Ockham in Oxford, Paris, Italy, and at the papal court in Avignon in the 14th century, and it assembles contributions on philosophers and theologians who all have criticized Ockham’s works at different points. In individual case studies it gives an exemplary overview over the reactions the Venerable Inceptor has provoked and also serves to better understand Ockham’s thought in its historical context. The topics range from ontology, psychology, theory of cognition, epistemology, and natural science to ethics and political philosophy. This volume demonstrates that the reactions to Ockham’s philosophy and theology were manifold, but one particular kind of reception is missing: unanimous approval.

Contributors include Fabrizio Amerini, Stephen F. Brown, Nathaniel Bulthuis, Stefano Caroti, Laurent Cesalli, Alessandro D. Conti, Thomas Dewender, Isabel Iribarren, Isabelle Mandrella, Aurélien Robert, Christian Rode, and Sonja Schierbaum

The Huguenots are among the best known of early modern European religious minorities. Their suffering in 16th and 17th-century France is a familiar story. The flight of many Huguenots from the kingdom after 1685 conferred upon them a preeminent place in the accounts of forced religious migrations. Their history has become synonymous with repression and intolerance. At the same time, Huguenot accomplishments in France and the lands to which they fled have long been celebrated. They are distinguished by their theological formulations, political thought, and artistic achievements. This volume offers an encompassing portrait of the Huguenot past, investigates the principal lines of historical development, and suggests the interpretative frameworks that scholars have advanced for appreciating the Huguenot experience.

Gregory, bishop of Tours (573-594), was among the most prolific writers of his age and uniquely managed to cover the genres of history, hagiography, and ecclesiastical instruction. He not only wrote about events (of the secular, spiritual, and even natural variety) but about himself as an actor and witness. Though his work (especially the Histories) has been recycled and studied for centuries, our grasp of an even basic understanding of it, never mind Gregory’s significance in the history of the late antique West, has hardly yet attained a definitive perspective.
A Companion to Gregory of Tours brings together fourteen scholars who provide an expert guide to interpreting his works, his period, and his legacy in religious and historical studies.

Contributors are: Pascale Bourgain, Roger Collins, John J. Contreni, Stefan Esders, Martin Heinzelmann, Yitzhak Hen, John K. Kitchen, Simon Loseby, Alexander Callander Murray, Patrick Périn, Joachim Pizarro, Helmut Reimitz, Michael Roberts, Richard Shaw.

In A Companion to Priesthood and Holy Orders in the Middle Ages, a select group of scholars explain the rise and function of priests and deacons in the Middle Ages. Though priests were sometimes viewed through the lens of function, the medieval priesthood was also defined ontologically–those marked by God who performed the sacraments and confected the Eucharist.

While their role grew in importance, medieval priests continued to fulfil the role of preacher, confessor and provider of pastoral care. As the concept of ordination changed theologically the practices and status of bishops, priests and deacons continued to be refined, with many of these medieval discussions continuing to the present day.

A Companion to the Reformation in Central Europe analyses the diverse Christian cultures of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, the Czech lands, Austria, and lands of the Hungarian kingdom between the 15th and 18th centuries. It establishes the geography of Reformation movements across this region, and then considers different movements of reform and the role played by Protestant, Catholic, and Orthodox clergy. This volume examines different contexts and social settings for reform movements, and investigates how cities, princely courts, universities, schools, books, and images helped spread ideas about reform. This volume brings together expertise on diverse lands and churches to provide the first integrated account of religious life in Central Europe during the early modern period.

Contributors are: Phillip Haberkern, Maciej Ptaszyński, Astrid von Schlachta, Márta Fata, Natalia Nowakowska, Luka Ilić, Michael Springer, Edit Szegedi, Mihály Balázs, Rona Johnston Gordon, Howard Louthan, Tadhg Ó hAnnracháin, Liudmyla Sharipova, Alexander Schunka, Rudolf Schlögl, Václav Bůžek, Mark Hengerer, Michael Tworek, Pál Ács, Maria Crăciun, Grażyna Jurkowlaniec, Laura Lisy-Wagner, and Graeme Murdock.

The Companion to the Theology of John Mair explores the major theological themes present in Mair's commentary on the Sentences of Peter Lombard. Mair is often noted for his importance as a leading sixteenth-century Parisian intellectual. The essays in this volume explore his influence as a teacher and thinker in this critical place and time. The volume gives special consideration to his attitude toward humanism and his deep familiarity with the scholastic past.

The book is divided into four sections. It explores Mair's attitude toward faith and theology, his theological metaphysics, his ethics and role in the development of moral casuistry, and his views on justification and sacramentology. The volume likewise includes a substantial appendix (including an edition of the table of questions for all four books of Mair's commentary) aimed to assists scholars in further exploration of Mair's Theology.

A Companion to Alain Chartier: Father of French Eloquence brings together fourteen contributions that offer a range of perspectives and insights into the works of this exceptional late medieval author. As heir to the past and herald of the future, Chartier reinvented the traditional, whether in Latin or French, verse or prose. Chartier’s open-ended, dialogic works and his own politically-engaged writing inspired his successors to think and write in new ways about ethics, the individual’s role in society, relationships between men and women, and the responsibility of a poet to his/her audience. As these essays show, Chartier’s renovation of poetic form and content had considerable influence over successive generations of writers in France and across Europe.

Contributors are: Adrian Armstrong, Florence Bouchet, Emma Cayley, Daisy Delogu, Ashby Kinch, James C. Laidlaw, Marta Marfany, Deborah McGrady, Joan E. McRae, Jean-Claude Mühlethaler, Liv Robinson, Camille Serchuk, Andrea Tarnowski, Craig Taylor, and Hanno Wijsman.

A Companion to Jan Hus includes eleven substantial essays covering the central aspects of the life, thought and commemoration of Jan Hus († 1415), Czech theologian, reformer and martyr. Besides older experienced specialists in the Hussite studies, also younger researchers who enter the scientific discourse with new approaches participated in the volume.

Experts and students alike will profit from this guide to Jan Hus, who was well known as follower of John Wyclif and forerunner of Martin Luther. Burning of Jan Hus at the stake at the Council of Constance gave rise in Bohemia to religious and social revolt that ushered the European reformations of the 16th century.

Eleven major scholars of the Anglo-Saxon period consider Alfred the Great, his cultural milieu, and his achievements. With revised or revived views of the Alfredian revival, the contributors help set the agenda for future work on a most challenging period. The collection features the methods of history, art history, and literature in a newer key and with an interdisciplinary view on a period that offers less evidence than inference. Major themes linking the essays include authorship, translation practice and theory, patristic influence, Continental connections, and advances in textual criticism. The Alfredian moment has always surprised scholars because of its intellectual reach and its ambition. The contributors to this collection describe how we must now understand that ambition.

The Companion to John of Salisbury is the first collective study of this major figure in the intellectual and political life of 12th-century Europe to appear for thirty years. Based on the latest research, thirteen contributions by leading experts in the field provide an overview of John of Salisbury’s place in the political debates that marked the reign of Henry II in England as well as of his place in the history of the Church. They also offer a detailed introduction to his philosophical works (Metalogicon, Entheticus), his political thought (Policraticus) and his writing of history (Historia pontificalis).

Contributors include Julie Barrau, David Bloch, Karen Bollermann, Cédric Giraud, Christophe Grellard, Laure Hermand-Schebat, Frédérique Lachaud, Constant Mews, Clare Monagle, Cary Nederman, Ronald Pepin, Yves Sassier, and Sigbjørn Sønnesyn.

A Companion to Francisco Suárez examines the thought of scholasticism’s Doctor eximius in its entirety: both philosophically and theologically. Many of the most distinctive features of Suárez’s thought are identified and evaluated in light of his immediate historical context. What emerges from the studies contained in this volume is the picture of a thinker who is profoundly steeped in the riches of divergent schools of thought and yet who manages to find his own unique voice to add to the chorus of scholasticism.

A Companion to German Pietism offers an introduction to recent Pietism scholarship on both sides of the Atlantic, in German, Dutch, and English. The focus is upon early modern German Pietism, a movement that arose in the late 17th century German Empire within both Reformed and Lutheran traditions. It introduced a new paradigm to German Protestantism that included personal renewal, new birth, women-dominated conventicles, and millennialism.
The “Introduction” offers a concise overview of modern research into German Pietism. The Companion is then organized according to the different worlds of Pietist existence—intellectual, devotional, literary-cultural, and social-political.

The Companion to Ignatius of Loyola aims at placing Loyola’s life, his writings, and spirituality in a broader context of important late medieval and early modern movements and processes that have been appreciated too little by historians who explored Ignatius more as the colossal icon of the so-called Counterreformation than as a man influenced by the dramatic and revolutionary period in which he lived. One book will be never able to cover all aspects of such rich and controversial a figure as Ignatius of Loyola but the fifteen chapters of this volume indicate important directions of current scholarship that reassesses the previous scholarship and suggests new angles of studies on this pivotal figure of early modern period.

An interview with editor Robert A. Maryks about this Companion is available on YouTube.

John of Ruusbroec (1293-1381) is one of the most important mystical authors in the Christian tradition. This Companion provides a comprehensive overview of Ruusbroec studies, including a survey of the mystical tradition in the Low Countries before Ruusbroec, a discussion of his life and works, the manuscript tradition, the most significant mystical-theological and literary themes, Latin translations of his work, and the widespread resonance of his thought across Europe until 1800. Finally, it offers a summary of secondary research since the nineteenth century. To complement the range of scholarly articles, this Companion also includes the first English translation of a series of Middle Dutch texts that offer deeper insight into Ruusbroec, his thought, and his mystical and literary context.

Contributors include: Jos Andriessen, John Arblaster, Guido De Baere, Rob Faesen, Bernard McGinn, Hilde Noë, Kees Schepers, Loet Swart, Rik Van Nieuwenhove, and Lieve Uyttenhove.

It has been called “the most singular centaur that religion and science have ever produced” (Franz Boll). Astrology as a cultural form has puzzled and fascinated generations of humankind. It reached its apogee in the European Renaissance, when it flourished in literature, political expression, medicine, art, and all the other areas of endeavor catalogued in this unique collection. Brill’s Companion to Renaissance Astrology brings together a wide array of expertise from around the globe to explain the method and matter of this cultural form, including the Arab and Classical heritage, the medieval tradition, the clash with organized religion, the influence on knowledge and the competition with newly emerging ways of knowing, summarizing the current state of research and suggesting new paths.

Contributors include: Giuseppe Bezza, Dieter Blume, Claudia Brosseder, Brendan Dooley, William Eamon, Ornella Faracovi, Hiro Hirai, Wolfgang Hübner, Eileen Reeves, Steven Vanden Broecke, and Graziella Federici Vescovini.

Since his rediscovery by Alwin Plantinga in the 1970s, the possibility of counterfactuals of freedom in Molinism has become one of the main issues in the contemporary analytic philosophy of religion. Notwithstanding this, Luis de Molina (1535-1600) remains one of the most influential and least known authors of late scholasticism and early modern philosophy. The papers collected in this volume treat the whole range of issues posed by his metaphysics as set out in his revolutionary "Concordia" and in his practical philosophy - especially concerning law and economics - in his groundbreaking work "De Justitia et Jure". They also examine Molina's historical commitments and his influences on philosophy. In this way this Companion offers the first comprehensive and thorough overview of Molina's thought.

The volume explores the hitherto uncharted late medieval religious landscape of Northern Germany, from 13th-century Helfta to the 15th-century Lüneburg convents. The mystical and devotional writing of Northern Germany is contextualised through chapters on the Netherlands, Scandinavia and East Prussia. The seminal influence of the liturgy on these texts and their transmission is revealed in the creative interplay of Latin and Low German. Through the individual chapters and their appendices, which also contain translations into English, the reader can access a wealth of texts produced by communities of religious and lay women who write learnedly in Latin and fervently in Low German. Together, the chapters and appendices reveal a fascinating regional "mystical culture" which also reverberated across Northern Europe.

Contributors include: Jürgen Bärsch, Anne Bollmann, Veerle Fraeters, Ulrike Hascher-Burger, Ernst Hellgardt, Tanja Mattern, Balazs Nemes, Sara S. Poor, Eva Schlotheuber, Almut Suerbaum, and Geert Warnar.

Few philosophical books have been so influential in the development of Western thought as Aristotle’s Metaphysics. For centuries Aristotle’s most celebrated work has been regarded as a source of inspiration as well as the starting point for every investigation into the structure of reality. Not surprisingly, the topics discussed in the book – the scientific status of ontology and metaphysics, the foundations of logical truths, the notions of essence and existence, the nature of material objects and their properties, the status of mathematical entities, just to mention some – are still at the centre of the current philosophical debate and are likely to excite philosophical minds for many years to come. This volume reconstructs in fourteen chapters a particular phase in the long history of the Metaphysics by focusing on the medieval reception of Aristotle’s masterpiece, specifically from its introduction in the Latin West in the twelfth through fifteenth centuries.

Contributors include: Marta Borgo, Matteo di Giovanni, Amos Bertolacci, Silvia Donati, Gabriele Galluzzo, Alessandro D. Conti, Sten Ebbesen, Fabrizio Amerini, Giorgio Pini, Roberto Lambertini, William O. Duba, Femke J. Kok, and Paul J.J.M. Bakker.

Although Bonaventurian scholarship has seen a great expansion in the past forty years, there remains no English volume that provides a general yet detailed study of Bonaventure for scholars. The Companion to Bonaventure provides an invaluable guide to understanding him. Together the essays deliver a critical overview of the current research, the major themes in Bonaventure’s life and writings, and how they are being reinterpreted at the start of the twenty-first century. As a great 13th century scholastic luminary, Bonaventure exists as a vital contributor to the early Franciscan movement that swept across the theological and spiritual landscape of the High Middle Ages. The paradoxical simplicity and complexity of Bonaventure’s synthesis has made, and will continue to provide, a profound contributions to Franciscan and Christian reflection. This Companion will help in understanding why this is the case.

Contributors include: Joshua Benson, Jacques Bougerol, Ilia Delio, Christopher Cullen, Jared Goff, Jay M. Hammond, Zachary Hayes, J. A. Wayne Hellmann, Kevin L. Hughes, Timothy J. Johnson, David Keck, Gregory LaNave, Pietro Maranesi, Dominic V. Monti, and Marianne Schlosser.

By the end of the fifteenth century, the Eucharist had come to encompass theology, liturgy, art, architecture, and music. In the sixteenth century, each of these dimensions was questioned, challenged, rethought, as western European Christians divided over their central act of worship. This volume offers an introduction to early modern thinking on the Eucharist—as theology, as Christology, as a moment of human and divine communion, as that which the faithful do, as taking place, and as visible and audible. The scholars gathered in this volume speak from a range of disciplines—liturgics, history, history of art, history of theology, philosophy, musicology, and literary theory. The volume thus also brings different methods and approaches, as well as confessional orientations to a consideration of the Eucharist in the Reformation.

Contributors include: Gary Macy, Volker Leppin, Carrie Euler, Nicholas Thompson, Nicholas Wolterstorff, John D. Rempel, James F. Turrell, Robert J. Daly, Isabelle Brian, Thomas Schattauer, Raymond A. Mentzer, Michele Zelinsky Hanson, Jaime Lara, Andrew Spicer, Achim Timmermann, Birgit Ulrike Münch, Andreas Gormans, Alexander J. Fisher, Regina M. Schwartz, and Christopher Wild.

This volume provides an introduction to Hildegard and her works, with a focus on the historical, literary, and religious context of the seer’s writings and music. Its essays explore the cultural milieu that informs Hildegard’s life and various compositions, and examine understudied aspects of the magistra’s oeuvre, such as the interconnections among her works.
A Companion to Hildegard of Bingen builds on earlier studies and presents to an English-speaking audience various facets of the seer’s historical persona and her cultural significance, so that the reader can grasp and appreciate the scope of the unparalleled life and contributions of Hildegard, who was declared to be a saint and a doctor of the Church in 2012.

Contributors include: Michael Embach, Margot E. Fassler, Franz J. Felten, George Ferzoco, William T. Flynn, Felix Heinzer, Beverly Mayne Kienzle, Tova Leigh-Choate, Constant J. Mews, Susanne Ruge, Travis A. Stevens, Debra L. Stoudt, and Justin A. Stover.

What made Pope Gregory I “great”? If the Middle Ages had no difficulty recognizing Gregory as one of its most authoritative points of reference, modern readers have not always found this question as easy to answer. As with any great figure, however, there are two sides to Gregory – the historical and the universal. The contributors to this handbook look at Gregory’s “greatness” from both of these angles: what made Gregory stand out among his contemporaries; and what is unique about Gregory’s contribution through his many written works to the development of human thought and described human experience.

Contributors include: Jane Baun, Philip Booth, Matthew Dal Santo, Scott DeGregorio, George E. Demacopoulos, Bernard Green, Ann Kuzdale, Stephen Lake, Andrew Louth, Constant J. Mews, John Moorhead, Barbara Müller, Bronwen Neil, Richard M. Pollard, Claire Renkin, Cristina Ricci, and Carole Straw.

Until some thirty years ago, medieval scholars and historians of philosophy have not generally done justice to Walter Burley (ca. 1275-after 1344). On the one hand, he was been misconstrued as holding a mere variation of more moderate realist positions – something that is true only for the first part of his career (before 1324). On the other hand, very often his ideas were studied simply as a means to a better understanding Ockham’s theories, so dwarfing the worth and interest of Burley’s doctrines. On the contrary, in terms of rigour, originality, and influence, Burley was one of the most prominent logicians and metaphysicians of the Middle Ages. This volume, which contains thirteen substantial essays on Burley's philosophy, tries to rectify that situation. It aims to reconstruct Burley’s thought and the role it played in the development of late medieval philosophy, to situate it definitely within its historical and intellectual context, and to clarify its internal evolution.

Contributors include: Fabrizio Amerini, E. Jennifer Ashworth, Laurent Cesalli, Alessandro D. Conti, Iacopo Costa, Catarina Dutilh Novaes, Marek Gensler, Elżbieta Jung, Roberto Lambertini, Cecilia Trifogli, Marta Vittorini, and Hans-Ulrich Wöhler.

Most widely read today as the author of the "Heptaméron," Marguerite de Navarre (1492-1549) was known in her lifetime as a deeply religious, mystical poet. Sister of the King of France and wife of the King of Navarre, her deeds and writings expressed and sought to promote a living faith in Christ, based on the gospels, and a vision for the renewal and reform of the Church in line with the teachings of French Evangelicals such as Lefèvre d’Étaples, Guillaume Briçonnet, and Gérard Roussel. In this volume, eleven eminent scholars offer new appreciations of Marguerite’s extraordinary life and rich and diverse literary œuvre, including, in addition to her short-story collection, dialogues, mirror poems, plays, songs, and an allegorical prison narrative.

Contributors include, along with the editors, Philip Ford, Isabelle Garnier, Jean-Marie Le Gall, Reinier Leushuis, Jan Miernowski, Olivier Millet, Isabelle Pantin, Jonathan A. Reid, and Cynthia Skenazi.

Albert the Great (Albertus Magnus; d. 1280) is one of the most prolific authors of the Middle Ages, and the only scholar to be known as “the Great” during his own lifetime. As the only Scholastic to to have commented upon all the works of Aristotle, Albert is also known as the Universal Doctor (Doctor Universalis) for his encyclopedic intellect, which enabled him to make important contributions not only to Christian theology but also to natural science and philosophy. The contributions to this omnibus volume will introduce students of philosophy, science, and theology to the current state of research and multiple perspectives on the work of Albert the Great.

Contributors include Jan A. Aertsen, Henryk Anzulewicz, Benedict M. Ashley, Miguel de Asúa, Steven Baldner, Amos Bertolacci, Thérèse Bonin, Maria Burger, Markus Führer, Dagmar Gottschall, Jeremiah Hackett, Anthony Lo Bello, Isabelle Moulin, Timothy Noone, Mikołaj Olszewski, B.B. Price, Irven M. Resnick, Francisco J. Romero Carrasquillo, H. Darrel Rutkin, Steven C. Snyder, Michael W. Tkacz, Martin J. Tracey, Bruno Tremblay, David Twetten, Rosa E. Vargas and Gilla Wöllmer

This book reflects and comprises the latest in research on the history and theology of Reformed Orthodoxy (± 1550-1750) and is at the same time a work in progress, which makes this volume in the Companion series unique. The reason for this is not only the quality of the authors and the chapters they have produced, but also the fact that the study of Reformed Orthodoxy has in recent years taken an entirely new approach and has received renewed and spirited attention, whose results have so far not been brought together in one book. The renewed interest and reappraisal of this period in intellectual history is reflected in this work in which an international team of renowned scholars give an oversight of this fascinating period in intellectual history.

Contributors include Willem van Asselt, Aza Goudriaan, Irena Backus, Mark Beach, Christian Moser, Anton Vos, Tobias Sarx, Andreas Mühling, Carl Trueman, Graeme Murdock, Joel Beeke, Sebastian Rehnman, Scott Clark, John Fesko, Luca Baschera, Maarten Wisse, Hugo Meijer, Pieter Rouwendal, and John Witte.

This book meets an obvious need in English language studies on Meister Eckhart. It is the first handbook on Eckhart for graduate and undergraduate students. It is divided into three parts. Part one deals with the life, works, career, and trial; Greek, Jewish, and Arabic philosophical sources, and some central philosophical ideas. Part two examines Eckhart as a Latin exegete, vernacular preacher, Eckhart's understanding of God, Eckhart as a reader of Maimonides and in relation to women's spirituality. Part three deals with the reception of Eckhart and his works from the fourteenth century to the twenty-first century. It covers fourteenth-century German readers of Eckhart, the fifteenth-century reader Nicholas of Cusa, the sixteenth-seventeenth-century reader Valentine Weigel, the reception of Eckhart in German idealism and romanticism and Eckhart and philosophy in the twentieth century. There is an epilogue on mysticism and philosophy in Eckhart and an appendix on Dominican education in the Middle Ages.

Contributors include Walter Senner OP, Allesandra Beccarisi, Dagmar Gottschall, Loris Sturlese, Tamar Tsopurashvili, Jennifer Hart Weed, Jeremiah Hackett, Udo Kern, Alessandro Palazzo, Eliza Rubino, Donald F. Duclow, Bruce Millem, Markus Enders, Yossef Schwartz, Lydia Wegener, Jack C. Marler, Nadia Bray, Elizabeth Brient, Fiorella Rettucci, Andrew Weeks, Cyril O'Regan, Dermot Moran, Karl Albert and Paul Dietrich

Over the last twenty years, increasing attention has been given to the interpretation of St. Paul in the Middle Ages. This is one of the first scholarly volumes to look broadly at the understanding and use of Paul in medieval Europe. It focuses not only on the interpretation of the Apostle by patristic and medieval exegetes, but also on the use of his teachings by church reformers, canon lawyers, and spiritual teachers, and his portrayal in art and vernacular literature and culture. By bringing together both exegetical studies of Pauline interpretation with explorations of newer themes, this book provides a more complete view of the medieval Paul than has previously been available.

Contributors include Csaba Nemeth, Ian Levy, Thomas Scheck, Joshua Papsdorf, Valerie Heuchan, Ann collins, Lisa Fagin Davis, James Morey, Ken Grant, Colt Anderson, Franklin Harkins, Steven Cartwright, and Aaron Canty.

Cardinal and Archbishop of Canterbury Robert Kilwardby OP (c. 1215-1279) was a very important and influential thinker in his time, but he has not received the scholarly attention he deserves. In this book we present the first study of all of his philosophical works from logic and grammar to metaphysics and ethics. It contains a substantial introduction about Kilwardby's life and work as well as a comprehensive bibliography. The articles are all newly written by the foremost experts on Kilwardby today. The book should be of interest to any one studying medieval philosophy but foremost for scholars of thirteenth century philosophy.

Contributors include Henrik Lagerlund, Paul Thom, Anthony Celano, Alessandro D. Conti, Amos Corbini, Silvia Donati, C.H. Kneepkens, Alfonso Maierù, José Filipe Silva and Cecilia Trifogli.

Hrotsvit, a canoness in the German convent Gandersheim, wrote Latin poems, stories, plays, and histories during the reign of Emperor Otto the Great (962-973). She expresses a strong sense of authorial mission in letters, prefaces, and dedications. These personal writings, as well as her full literary corpus, are studied in twelve original essays by scholars from Europe and North America, who bring several perspectives to bear. Her historical roots are shown, both in her use of Christian literary tradition (e.g., the legend) and in her understanding of political forces shaping her time. Her strong spirituality emerges from vivid portraits not only of martyrs but also of men and women who question and doubt the Lord, while her openness to problems of sexuality, and of the need for women to realize their individuality and particular gifts, is surprisingly modern.

Contributors include: Walter Berscin, Katrinette Bodarwé, Jay Lees, Gary Macy, Linda McMillin, Florence Newman, and Lisa Weston

Offering the first comprehensive study of Guillaume de Machaut’s vast corpus of text and music, the 18 essays in this collection explore the author’s engagement with the ethical, political, and aesthetic concerns of his time. Building on interdisciplinary interest in Machaut, this collection broadens discussion of his work by exploring overlapping interests in his poetry and music; addressing lesser-studied writings; offering fresh perspectives on lyric, authorial voice, and performance; and engaging more critically with his reception by medieval bookmakers, modern editors, and the music industry. The result is a promising map for future research in the field that will be of interest to students and specialists alike.

Humanist prejudice famously made medieval angelology the paradigm of ludicrous speculation with its caricature of “How many angels can dance on the head of a pin?” The truth is quite the opposite: many of medieval philosophy’s most original and ingenious contributions actually came to light in discussions of angelology. In fact, angelology provided an ideal context for discussing issues such as the structure of the universe, the metaphysical texture of creatures (e.g. esse-essentia composition and the principle of individuation), and theories of time, knowledge, freedom, and linguistics—issues which, for the most part, are still highly relevant for contemporary philosophy. Because this specifically philosophical interest in angels developed mainly during the course of the thirteenth and early fourteenth century, this volume centers on the period from Bonaventure to Ockham. It also, however, discusses some original positions by earlier thinkers such as Augustine and Anselm of Canterbury. Its nine thorough studies bring to light some neglected but highly fascinating aspects of medieval philosophy, thus filling an important gap in the literature.

Contributors include: Richard Cross, Gregory T. Doolan, H.J.M.J. Goris, Tobias Hoffmann, Peter King, Timothy B. Noone, Giorgio Pini, Bernd Roling, and John F. Wippel.

The articles in this volume focus upon Boethius's extant works: his De arithmetica and a fragmentary De musica, his translations and commentaries on logic, his five theological texts, and, of course, his Consolation of Philosophy. They examine the effects that Boethian thought has exercised upon the learning of later generations of scholars--including, to a degree, scholars of the 21st century. The field of Boethian Studies has enjoyed a continuous history of works that treat either the entire Boethian tradition or major aspects of it. This volume offers a comprehensive study, and its construction is systematic, considering Boethius's works both as central to the disciplines that they represent and to the areas of scholarly interest that they influenced, and it is framed by articles on the historical contexts in which those works were produced.

Contributors include: Noel Harold Kaylor, Jr., Stephen McCluskey, Rosalind C. Love, Jean-Yves Guillaumin, Siobhan Nash-Marshall, John Casey, Paul E. Szarmach, Christine Hehle, Glynnis M. Cropp, Dario Bancato, Ian Johnson, Mark T. Rimple, Ann E. Moyer, Fabio Troncarelli, and Philip Edward Phillips.

This study offers a substantial introduction to the world of Catherine of Siena (1347-80), her works and the way her followers responded to her religious leadership and legacy. Although much scholarship has dealt with her visionary reputation, this volume, written by experts in Catherinian studies, highlights her image as a church reformer, peacemaker, preacher, author, holy woman, stigmatic, saint and politically astute person. Furthermore, it assesses the manuscript tradition of works by and about Catherine of Siena. Few overviews of the historical and cultural circumstances of Catherine of Siena exist in English. A Companion to Catherine of Siena, therefore, makes accessible hitherto elusive details of this Sienese saint’s life and works.

Contributors include: Allison Clark Thurber, Beverly Mayne Kienzle, Blake Beattie, Carolyn Muessig, Diega Giunta,
Eliana Corbari, F. Thomas Luongo, George Ferzoco, Heather Webb, Jane Tylus, Maiju Lehmijoki-Gardner, Silvia Nocentini, and Suzanne Noffke.
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The Eucharist in the European Middle Ages was a multimedia event. First and foremost it was a drama, a pageant, a liturgy. The setting itself was impressive. Stunning artwork adorned massive buildings. Underlying and supporting the liturgy, the art and the architecture was a carefully constructed theological world of thought and belief. Popular beliefs, spilling over into the magical, celebrated that presence in several tumultuous forms. Church law regulated how far such practice might go as well as who was allowed to perform the liturgy and how and when it might be performed. This volume presents the medieval Eucharist in all its glory combining introductory essays on the liturgy, art, theology, architecture, devotion and theology.


Contributors include: Celia Chazelle, Michael Driscoll, Edward Foley, Stephen Edmund Lahey, Lizette Larson-Miller, Ian Christopher Levy, Gerhard Lutz, Gary Macy, Miri Rubin, Elizabeth Saxon, Kristen Van Ausdall and Joseph Wawrykow.

Few authors of the Latin Middle Ages have been the subject of so much attention as Marsilius of Padua (c. 1275-1342/43). Known primarily for his Defensor pacis, Marsilius quickly garnered for himself the reputation of being a heretic as well as a schismatic. At the same time, however, it became evident that he was perhaps one of the brightest - if not most dangerous - thinkers of the fourteenth century. The political ideas and activities of Marsilius of Padua have engendered a substantial literature and numerous debates. The present volume serves as a much needed guide to the life and works of the Paduan thinker. It provides readers with a scholarly treatment and evaluation of the various interpretative schools and debates concerning Marsilus based on the latest relevant research. As such, the present volume will appeal to scholars interested in the importance and influence of one of the greatest authors of the European Middle Ages.


Contributors include: Gerson Moreno-Riaño, Cary J. Nederman, Frank Godthardt, William Courtenay, Michael Sweeney, Gianluca Briguglia, Takashi Shogimen, Roberto Lambertini, Bettina Koch, and Thomas Izbicki.

Never before has there appeared in English such a collection of essays concerning Alexander the Great's legacy in world literature. From Greek and Latin works of the Classical Period through Medieval texts in Syriac, Persian, Coptic, Arabic, Ethiopic and Hebrew, as well the European languages, the fourteen chapters cover the gamut of Alexander literary studies as compiled by some of the foremost scholars in each field, bringing the reader up-to-date on everything Alexander. These experts share their results after years of investigation in the field, and, in doing so, point the reader toward the essence of each of the myriad of Alexander romances, while at the same time including copious notes and bibliography to prepare the reader for his or her own Alexander journey.

Contributors include: Richard Stoneman, Saskia Dönitz, Daniel Selden, Josef Wiesehöfer, David Ashurst, Laurence Harf-Lancner, Danielle Buschinger, Juan Pedro Monferrer Sala, Roberta Morosini, Maura Lafferty, Peter Kotar, David Zuwiyya

In the sixteenth century, the Christian church and Christian worship fragmented into a multiplicity of confessions that has grown to the present day. The essays in this volume demonstrate that multiconfessionalism, understood as the legally recognized and politically supported coexistence of two or more confessions in a single polity, was the rule rather than the exception for most of early modern Europe. The contributors examine its causes and effects. They demonstrate that local religious groups across the continent could cooperate with confessional opponents and oppose political authorities to make decisions about their religious lives, depending on local conditions and contingencies. In so doing, this volume offers a new vision of religion, state, and society in early modern Europe.

Contributors include: Bernard Capp, John R. D. Coffey, Jérémie Foa, David Frick, Raymond Gillespie, Benjamin Kaplan, Howard Louthan, David Luebke, Keith Luria, Guido Marnef, Graeme Murdock, Richard Ninness, Penny Roberts, Jesse Spohnholz, Peter Wallace, Lee Palmer Wandel.

After nearly eight centuries and much research and writing on Marie de France, the only biographical information we know about her, with any degree of certainty, is that she was from France and wrote for the Anglo-Angevin court of Henry II. Yet Marie de France remains today one of the most prominent literary voices of the end of the twelfth century and was the first woman of letters to write in French. The chapters in this book are composed by scholars who have specialized in Marie de France studies, in most cases for many years. Offering traditional views alongside new critical perspectives, the authors discuss many different aspects of her poetics.

Bernard of Clairvaux is perhaps the most controversial figure of Western Europe's vibrant twelfth century. Unlike Abelard, who is seen as a proponent of modern thinking, Bernard is often relegated to the darkest corner of the Middle Ages. Nothing is easy with Bernard, but these fresh evaluations of him and their reviews of recent scholarship enable the reader to make a more balanced evaluation of the man, his writings, and his impact on his period. Bernard emerges as a multifaceted figure who sought to reform monasticism and ended up becoming a saint with an appeal to virtually all classes in medieval society. Bernard lives on today with the lay and monastic scholars who continue to find new layers of meaning in his writings.

Contributors include Christopher Holdsworth, Michael Casey, James France, Diane Reilly, John Sommerfeldt, Mette B. Bruun, Burcht Pranger, Chrysogonus Waddell, E. Rozanne Elder, and Brian Patrick McGuire.

The nature of mendicancy as it developed among various religious orders during the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries is the subject of considerable debate. In spite of this, little in the way of a comprehensive review of the phenomenon as a whole has been undertaken. What has been done has either been order-specific (with an emphasis on the Friars Minor) or has focused on points of special conflict regarding the mendicant ideal (University debates, Spiritual Franciscans). Little work exists on the roots of mendicancy, or on the creative ways in which mendicancy was understood (and deprecated) in various quarters. Few studies try to bring together both the theory and practice of religious mendicancy. The effect that events had in molding and changing the mendicant ideal is also often neglected, as are the ways in which it was independently and creatively appropriated by individuals and groups. Needless to say, all of this is strange for a movement that most are content to label “Mendicant.” Perhaps it may even be the case that “mendicancy” is not useful as a descriptive concept. The purpose and intention of this handbook is to offer an analysis of the term and to present an up-to-date and comprehensive introduction to the phenomenon of religious mendicancy in the central and later middle ages. It provides a contextualized guide that will introduce the central issues in contemporary scholarship regarding the mendicant orders. This project approaches the controversies from a multitude of angles and unites in one volume the insights of different disciplines such as social and intellectual history, literary analysis, and theology.

The present work is divided into three main sections, I) The origins and foundations of medieval mendicancy, II) The development and articulation of mendicant ideals, III) The reception and appropriation of mendicancy in the middle ages. The chapters herein serve as a solid point of departure for advanced students and scholars.

Henry of Ghent, who taught in the theology faculty in Paris from c. 1275 until his death in 1293, was an original, pivotal, and influential thinker. Henry’s theories on a wide range of theological and philosophical topics led to a transformation of scholastic thought in the years shortly after the death of Thomas Aquinas. The Companion to Henry of Ghent is an introduction to his thought. It first addresses the historical context of Henry: his writings, his participation in the events of 1277, and Muslim philosophical influences. The volume continues with an examination of his theology, metaphysics, epistemology, and ethics. It concludes with an examination of two authors whom he influenced: John Duns Scotus and Pico della Mirandola.

Contributors include: Amos Edelheit, Juan Carlos Flores, Bernd Goehring, Ludwig Hödl, Tobias Hoffman, Jules Janssens, Marialucrezia Leone, Steven Marrone, Martin Pickavé, Roland Teske, SJ, Robert Wielockx, Gordon Wilson

This handbook provides a comprehensive survey of current scholarship on Anabaptist and Spiritualist history and theology from 1521 to 1700. Since the last half of the twentieth century, the historiography of the Radical Reformation has been the focus of vigorous and creative debate. The volume–broadly cast in terms of geographic scope and topical coverage–carefully untangles the fluid boundaries of Spiritualism and Anabaptism in Early Modern European history. In addition to a narrative summary, each chapter also provides a bibliography of sources and current scholarship, and concludes with suggestions for future research. This handbook will serve a generation of students as the standard reference work on Anabaptism and Spiritualism.

Contributors include: Geoffrey Dipple, Michael Driedger, Hans-Jürgen Goertz, Brad Gregory, Sigrun Haude, Ralf Klötzer, John D. Rempel, John D. Roth, Martin Rothkegel, C. Arnold Snyder, James Stayer, Piet Visser, and R. Emmet McLaughlin.

Originally published in hardcover.

Winner of the 2011 SCSC Bainton Prize for Reference Works

The “canon” of Hispanic mysticism is expanding. No longer is our picture of this special brand of early modern devotional practice limited to a handful of venerable saints. Instead, we recognize a wide range of “marginal” figures as practitioners of mysticism, broadly defined. Neither do we limit the study of mysticism necessarily to the Christian religion, nor even to the realm of literature. Representations of mysticism are also found in the visual, plastic and musical arts. The terminology and theoretical framework of mysticism permeate early modern Hispanic cultures. Paradoxically, by taking a more inclusive approach to studying mysticism in its “marginal” manifestations, we draw mysticism—in all its complex iterations—back toward its rightful place at the center of early modern spiritual experience.

Contributors: Colin Thompson, Alastair Hamilton, Christina Lee, Clara E. Herrera, Darcy Donahue, Elena del Río Parra, Evelyn Toft, Fernando Durán López, Francisco Morales, Freddy Domínguez, Glyn Redworth, Jane Ackerman, Jessica Boon, José Adriano de Freitas Carvalho, Luce López-Baralt, María Carrión, Maryrica Lottman, and Tess Knighton.

The study of pastoral care in the middle ages has seen a resurgence in recent years. Scholars are now approaching this subject less from their respective ecclesiastical or parochial biases and more out of an effort to understand the significant role pastors (secular and religious) had in the shaping of medieval society at large. This book explores some of the new ways scholars are approaching this topic. Using a variety of sources and disciplinary angles: theology, preaching, catechesis, confessional literature, visitation records, monastic cartularies and the like, these studies show the many and varied ways in which pastoral care came to play such an important role in the day to day lives of medieval people.
Contributors include: C. Colt Anderson, Michelle Armstrong-Partida, Beth Allison Barr, Sabrina Corbellini, Alexandra da Costa, Laura Michele Diener, William Dohar, James Ginther, Joe Goering, Ann M. Hutchison, Greg Peters, C. Matthew Phillips, Andrew Reeves, Ronald J. Stansbury, Susan M.B. Steuer, Mathilde van Dijk, and Anne T. Thayer.

This book offers the first comprehensive overview of the Catholic Enlightenment in Europe. It surveys the diversity of views about the structure and nature of the movement, pointing toward the possibilities for further research. The volume presents a series of comprehensive treatments on the process and interpretation of Catholic Enlightenment in France, Spain, Portugal, Poland, the Holy Roman Empire, Malta, Italy and the Habsburg territories. An introductory overview explores the varied meanings of Catholic Enlightenment and situates them in a series of intellectual and social contexts. The topics covered in this book are crucial for a proper understanding of the role and place not only of Catholicism in the eighteenth century, but also for the social and religious history of modern Europe.

Contributors include: Jeffrey D. Burson, Richard Butterwick, Frans Ciappara, Harm Klueting, Ulrich L. Lehner, Michael Printy, Mario Rosa, Evergton Sales Souza, and Andrea J. Smidt.

Clare of Assisi: Life, Writings and Spirituality examines Clare not merely as an obedient footnote to the friars, but as a Franciscan founder in her own right who kept primitive Franciscan ideals alive into the middle of the thirteenth century and transposed them into a woman’s key. Bringing together the best of international research, the text examines Clare’s importance within the early Franciscan milieu and her contribution to the thirteenth-century women's movement. It studies the radicalism of Clare's Franciscan choice, her life within the Monastery of San Damiano, her politicking with Agnes of Prague for the "privilege of poverty," and her uniqueness among other women in Gregory IX's Damianite ordo. Following this historical study are critical translations and literary analyses of Clare's four letters to Agnes of Prague as well as a new translation and commentary on Clare’s Forma Vitae.

The division of the Church or Schism that took place between 1378 and 1417 had no precedent in Christianity. No conclave since the twelfth century had acted as had those in April and September 1378, electing two concurrent popes. This crisis was neither an issue of the authority claimed by the pope and the Holy Roman Emperor nor an issue of authority and liturgy. The Great Western Schism was unique because it forced upon Christianity a rethinking of the traditional medieval mental frame. It raised question of personality, authority, human fallibility, ecclesiastical jurisdiction and taxation, and in the end responsibility in holding power and authority. This collection presents the broadest range of experiences, center and periphery, clerical and lay, male and female, Christian and Muslim. Theology, including exegesis of Scripture, diplomacy, French literature, reform, art, and finance all receive attention.

The great Florentine Protestant reformer Peter Martyr Vermigli (1499-1562) made a unique contribution to the scriptural hermeneutics of the Renaissance and Reformation, where classical theories of interpretation derived from Patristic and Scholastic sources engaged with new methods drawn from Humanism and Hebraism. Vermigli was one of the pioneers of the sixteenth century in acknowledging and harnessing the biblical scholarship of the medieval Rabbis. His eminence in the Catholic Church in Italy (until 1542) was followed by an equally distinguished career as theologian and exegete in Protestant Europe where he was professor successively in Strasbourg, Oxford, and finally in Zurich. The Companion consists of 24 essays divided among five themes addressing Vermigli’s international career, hermeneutical method, biblical commentaries, major theological topics, and his later influence.

Contributors include: Scott Amos, Michael Baumann, Jon Balserak, Luca Baschera, Maurice Boutin, Emidio Campi, John Patrick Donnelly SJ, Max Engammare, Gerald Hobbs, Frank James III, Gary Jenkins, Robert Kingdon, Torrance Kirby, William Klempa, Joseph McLelland, Charlotte Methuen, Christian Moser, David Neelands, Peter Opitz, Herman Selderhuis, Daniel Shute, David Wright, and Jason Zuidema.

This collection provides a new, authoritative and challenging study of the life and works of Ælfric of Eynsham, the most important vernacular religious writer in the history of Anglo-Saxon England. The contributors include almost all of the key Ælfric scholars working today and some important newer voices. Each of the chapters is a cutting-edge piece of work which addresses one aspect of Ælfric’s works or career. The chapters are organised topically, rather than by chronology, genre or biography, and between them cover the entire Ælfrician corpus and the major contextual issues; consideration of Ælfric’s Latin writings is carefully integrated with that of his Old English works. Ælfric studies are currently a central element of Anglo-Saxon studies, but while to date there has been a great deal of detailed work on some aspects of Ælfric, this collection provides the first overview.

Contributors: Hugh Magennis, Joyce Hill, Christopher A. Jones, Mechthild Gretsch, M. R. Godden, Catherine Cubitt, Thomas N. Hall, Robert K. Upchurch, Mary Swan, Clare A. Lees, Gabriella Corona, Kathleen Davis, Jonathan Wilcox, Aaron J Kleist and Elaine Treharne.

The reception and interpretation of the writings of St Paul in the early modern period forms the subject of this volume, from late medieval Paulinism and the beginnings of humanist biblical scholarship and interpretation, through the ways that theologians of various confessions considered Paul. Beyond the ways that theological voices construed Paul, several articles examine how Pauline texts impacted other areas of early modern life, such as political thought, the regulation of family life, and the care of the poor. Throughout, the volume makes clear the importance of Paul for all of the confessions, and denies the confessionalism of previous historiography. The chapters, written by experts in the field, offer a critical overview of current research, and introduce the major themes in Pauline interpretation in the Reformation and how they are being interpreted at the start of the 21st century.

Honorable Mention Roland H. Bainton Book Prize 2010; Category Reference Works.

“Prayer is real religion,” said Auguste Sabatier. If so, the academic study of prayer allows scholars to examine the very heart of religious practices, beliefs, and convictions. Since prayers exist in a wide variety of content, contexts, forms, and practices, a comprehensive approach to the study of prayer is required. Therefore, this volume includes scholars from a wide range of disciplines, in order to discover the breadth of “real religion” from the first to the fifteenth centuries. This volume especially focuses upon the history of Christianity and monasticism, where prayer was the school of hope, faith, and critical thought, awakening the faithful to every aspect of religious and daily life.

Contributors are L. Edward Phillips, Karlfried Froehlich, Michael Joseph Brown, David W. Fagerberg, Columba Stewart, Benedicta Ward, Susan Boynton, Corey Barnes, Johannes Heil, Rik Van Nieuwenhove, Roger S. Wieck, Paul W. Robinson and Roy Hammerling.

The extraordinarily diverse oeuvre of Juan Luis Vives, marked by great erudition and originality, still remains very little known in the English-speaking world. This collection of essays considers his life and the influence of his writings, and examines some of his chief works. These include his books on the education of women and on the relief of the poor, his numerous political writings, and his huge encyclopedic treatise, De disciplinis, a comprehensive critical and systematic review of universal learning and the state of the academic disciplines at the beginning of the sixteenth century. Subsequent chapters discuss Vives's ideas on the soul, especially his analysis of the emotions, his contribution to rhetoric and dialectic and a posthumous defense of the Christian religion in dialogue form.

Contributors are Enrique Gonzalez Gonzalez, Catherine Curtis, Peter Mack, Valerio Del Nero, Edward V. George.

Literature on confessionalization has opened new vistas for considering early-modern Christianity and its place in Western social-political contexts, but the ecclesiastical cultures of the period need further research and analysis to refine our focus on how Christians lived in their own communities and related to society at large. This volume’s essays assess eight elements of Lutheran life (its foundation in sixteenth-century processing of Luther’s legacy, university teaching, preaching, catechesis, devotional literature, popular piety, church and society, church and secular government) and two geographical areas (Nordic and Baltic lands, the kingdom of Hungary) to orient readers to current scholarly discussion and suggest further avenues for exploration and evaluation. Each offers perspectives on Lutherans’ attempts to practise their faith in the world.

Contributors are: Kenneth Appold, Gerhard Bode, Susan Boettcher, Christopher Boyd Brown, Robert Christman, David Daniel, Irene Dingel, Robert von Friedeburg, Mary Jane Haemig, and Eric Lund.

Medieval commentary writing has often been described as a way of "doing philosophy," and not without reason. The various commentaries on Aristotle's Categories we have from this period did not simply elaborate a dialectical exercise for training students; rather, they provided their authors with an unparalleled opportunity to work through crucial philosophical problems, many of which remain with us today. As such, this unique commentary tradition is important not only in its own right, but also to the history and development of philosophy as a whole. The contributors to this volume take a fresh look at it, examining a wide range of medieval commentators, from Simplicius to John Wyclif, and discussing such issues as the compatibility of Platonism with Aristotelianism; the influence of Avicenna; the relationship between grammar, logic, and metaphysics; the number of the categories; the status of the categories as a science realism vs. nominalism; and the relationship between categories.

Throughout the Middle Ages dialectical disputation was the prevailing method of scholarly inquiry. In the fifteenth century, however, humanists challenged the scholastic method, proposing instead historical and philological approaches. This volume focuses on the polemic over the right approach to biblical studies. It describes manifestations of the controversy, ranging from its beginnings in quattrocento Italy to Germany, Spain, France, the Netherlands, and scholars associated with the papal court in the sixteenth century. Erasmus, the most prominent biblical humanist of his day, served as a lightning rod for many of the controversies discussed here and has also received much attention from modern scholars. The chapters offered here seek to lend a voice also to Erasmus’ critics and to right the balance in a historical narrative that has traditionally favoured the humanists. Contributors are John Monfasani, Daniel Menager, Carlos del Valle Rodríguez, Alejandro Coroleu, Charles Fantazzi, Guy Bedouelle, James Farge, Cecilia Asso, Marcel Gielis, Paolo Sartori, Paul F. Grendler, Nelson H. Minnich, Ronald K. Delph

Richard Hooker was a learned philosophical theologian and engaged polemicist of the later sixteenth century who explained and defended the Elizabethan religious and political settlement, and shaped definitively the self-understanding of the English ecclesiastical establishment for centuries to come. This Companion to Richard Hooker brings together a representative body of contributors with a view to offering a summary of the current state of scholarly debate and a synthesis of emerging trends in criticism. Contributions to this volume reflect the major current trends of scholarly opinion on Hooker’s place within the mainstream of Protestant reform. This Companion aims to provide a comprehensive and systematic introduction to Richard Hooker’s life, works, thought, reputation, and influence.

Contributors are: Rudolph P. Almasy, Daniel Eppley, Lee W. Gibbs, Egil Grislis, William Harrison, W. Speed Hill, Ranall Ingalls, Dean Kernan, Torrance Kirby, Diarmaid MacCulloch, A. S. McGrade, W. David Neelands, W. Brown Patterson, Debora K. Shuger, Corneliu C. Simuţ, John K. Stafford, Paul Stanwood, James F. Turrell, and the Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr. Rowan Williams.

Between the third and sixteenth centuries, penance (the acts or gestures performed to atone for transgression, usually with an interest in the salvation of the penitent’s soul) was a crucial mode of participation in both society and the cosmos. Penance was incorporated into political and legal negotiations, it erupted in improvisational social dramas, it was subject to experimentation and innovation, and it saturated western culture with images of contrition, suffering, and reconciliation. During the late antique, medieval, and early modern periods, rituals for the correction of human errors became both sophisticated and popular. Creativity in penitential expression reflects the range and complexity of social and spiritual situations in which penance was vital. Using hitherto unconsidered source materials, the contributors chart new views on how in western culture, human conduct was modulated and directed in patterns shaped by the fearsome yet embraced practices of penance.

Contributors are R. Emmet McLaughlin, Rob Meens, Kevin Uhalde, Claudia Rapp, Dominique Iogna-Prat, Abigail Firey, Karen Wagner, Joseph Goering, H. Ansgar Kelly, Torstein Jørgensen, Wietse de Boer, Ronald K. Rittgers, Gretchen Starr-LeBeau, and Jodi Bilinkoff.

This is the second of two volumes on theological quodlibeta, records of special disputations held before Christmas and Easter ca. 1230-1330, mostly at the University of Paris, in which audience members asked the great masters of theology the questions for debate, questions de quolibet, “about anything.” The variety of the material and the authors’ stature make the genre uniquely fascinating.
In Volume II, chapters by acknowledged experts cover the quodlibeta of John Duns Scotus, Peter Auriol, John of Pouilly, Peter of Auvergne, and Thomas Wylton; examine the pertinent writings of the religious orders, including the monks, canons regular, and mendicants; revise our understanding of important manuscripts containing quodlibeta; offer critical editions of significant texts; and demonstrate how these writings are crucial for our knowledge of the history of topics in metaphysics and natural philosophy.
For all those interested in medieval studies, especially intellectual history.