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Ian
Hunter, John Christian Laursen, and Cary J. Nederman, eds.
Heresy
in Transition: Transforming Ideas of Heresy in Medieval and Early
Modern Europe.
Ashgate,
2005.
Catholic
Christendom, 1300–1700 series.
234 x
156 mm.
218pp.
Publisher's
recommended price
Hardback
ISBN 0754654281, $99.95/£50.00
The concept of heresy is
deeply rooted in Christian European culture. The palpable increase in
incidences of heresy in the Middle Ages may be said to directly relate
to the Christianity's attempts to define orthodoxy and establish
conformity at its centre, resulting in the sometimes forceful
elimination of Christian sects. In the transition from medieval to
early modern times, however, the perception of heresy underwent a
profound transformation, ultimately leading to its decriminalization
and the emergence of a pluralistic religious outlook.
The
essays in this volume offer readers a unique insight into this
little-understood cultural shift. Half of the chapters investigate the
manner in which the church and its attendant civil authorities defined
and proscribed heresy, whilst the other half focus on the means by
which early modern writers sought to supersede such definition and
proscription. The result of these investigations is a multifaceted
historical account of the construction and serial reconstruction of one
of the key categories of European theological, juristic and political
thought. The contributors explore the role of nationalism and
linguistic identity in constructions of heresy, its analogies with
treason and madness, the role of class and status in the responses to
heresy. In doing so they provide fascinating insights into the roots of
the historicization of heresy and the role of this historicization in
the emergence of religious pluralism.
Contents:
Introduction, Ian Hunter, John Christian Laursen and Cary J. Nederman;
Before the coming of popular heresy: the rhetoric of heresy in English
historiography, c. 700–1154, Paul Antony Hayward;
Heresy, madness and possession in the High Middle Ages, Sabina
Flanagan;
Accusation of heresy and error in the 12th-century schools: the witness
of Gerhoh of Reichersberg and Otto of Freising, Constant J. Mews;
William of Ockham and conceptions of heresy, c.1250–c.1350, Takashi
Shogimen;
A heretic hiding in plain sight: the secret history of Marsiglio of
Padua's Defensor Pacis in the thought of Nicole Oresme, Cary J.
Nederman;
Seduced by the theologians: Aeneas Sylvius and the Hussite heretics,
Thomas A. Fudge;
Heresy hunting and clerical reform: William Warham, John Colet, and the
Lollards of Kent, 1511–12, Craig D'Alton;
Curtailing the office of the priest: two 17th-century views of the
causes and functions of heresy, Conal Condren;
Historicizing heresy in the early German enlightenment: 'orthodox' and
'enthusiast' variants, Thomas Ahnert;
What is impartiality? Arnold on Spinoza, Mosheim on Servetus, John
Christian Laursen;
Thomasius on the toleration of heresy, Ian Hunter;
Exporting heresiology: translations and revisions of Pluquet's
Dictionnaire des hérésies, Gisela Schlüter;
Radical heretics, martyrs, or witnesses of truth? The Albigenses in
ecclesiastical history and literature (1550–1850), Sandra Pott;
Index of names.
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