Heresy and Literacy, 1000-1530 (Cambridge Studies in Medieval Literature) | 
 enlarge | Creators: Peter Biller, Anne Hudson
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Category: Book
List Price: $36.99
Buy New: $32.31
You Save: $4.68 (13%)
New (17) Used (10) from $17.47
Rating:  1 reviews
Sales Rank: 1356293
Media: Paperback
Pages: 340
Number Of Items: 1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1.1
Dimensions (in): 9 x 6 x 1
ISBN: 0521575761
Dewey Decimal Number: 809
EAN: 9780521575768
ASIN: 0521575761
Publication Date: June 28, 1996
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Condition: BRAND NEW
| |
| Also Available In:
|
| Similar Items:
|
| Editorial Reviews:
Product Description
Did growing literacy in the later medieval period foster popular heresy, or did heresy provide a crucial stimulus to the spread of literacy? This collective volume, by established scholars from Britain, continental Europe and the United States, considers the importance of the written word in pre-Lutheran heresies, and explores the extent to which heretics' familiarity with books paralleled or exceeded that of their orthodox contemporaries.
Book Description
This collective volume, by established scholars from Britain, continental Europe and the United States, considers the importance of the written word in pre-Lutheran heresies. It explores the extent to which heretics' familiarity with books paralleled or exceeded that of their orthodox contemporaries.
|
| Customer Reviews:
When the bookworm turned December 23, 2007
Harry Eagar (Maui)
Which came first, heretical thoughts driving people to learn to read to reinforce their opinions, or wider opportunities to read exposing innocents to subversive but attractive ideas? br / br /It has generally been accepted that the invention of printing was a propellant to the success of the Reformation, and this seems probable, since there had been heresies before Luther but they were restricted, contained and in most instances in decay before the revolution of the 16th century. br / br /In "Heresy and Literacy," a team of scholars asks the chicken-and-egg question. To leap to the conclusion, with literacy and heresy it is much as with chickens and eggs -- the pairs co-evolved and neither can claim priority. br / br /The range of the scholars is impressive: the book originated in the UK, with France the next biggest participant, but with papers from the USA, Italy, Germany, Russia and (what was in 1994) Czechoslovakia. br / br /The literary remains of Cathars, Lollards, Waldensians, Beguines, Hussites and a few lesser sects are examined. Not for their theological arguments but for their origin, replication and transmission; and especially to assess who was able to and/or who did read them. br / br /The essays, while solid, were easily digestible. I am more familiar with (and more interested in) the development of literacy than in heresy, but there was just enough context about the belief systems to keep me oriented. br / br /Although the authors cannot have been thinking about Islam, the general proposition of "Heresy and Literacy" seems just as applicable to Islamic societies in the 21st century as to Christian ones a millennium ago. In each case, expanding access to literacy and new technology brought masses of people into the discussion of religion who had been excluded when the texts were the exclusive possession of elites. br / br /In the most interesting paper, R.I. Moore's "Literacy and the making of heresy, c. 1000-c. 1150, we read: br / br /"They spoke for their age in measuring their belief and conduct against the text, confident that virtue and orthodoxy consisted in stripping away the encrustations and deformations of tradition which literacy alone . . . enabled them to recognise as departures from the historically authenticated canon upon which they took their stand." br / br /"They" refers to "Christianists" of 1024 AD in Arras, but substitute "Islamists" and it sounds modern. br / br /Though written for specialists, "Heresy and Literacy" can be read for pleasure by anyone curious about the turnover of Europe from medieval to modern. br /
|
|
|
