Inspired by Vatican II, which attributed a special apostolate to the laity and affirmed their calling to holiness, this volume of original essays focuses on the shifting points of intersection between changing historical definitions of laity and sanctity. Ann W. Astell and ten other scholars examine a series of medieval and modern lay -saints- in order to explore how these figures perceived their own lay status and how this status has been perceived by others. Through its examination of a series of specific historical figures and movements, Lay Sanctity, Medieval and Modern seeks...
Inspired by Vatican II, which attributed a special apostolate to the laity and affirmed their calling to holiness, this volume of original essays focu...
Inspired by Vatican II, which attributed a special apostolate to the laity and affirmed their calling to holiness, this volume of original essays focuses on the shifting points of intersection between changing historical definitions of laity and sanctity. Ann W. Astell and ten other scholars examine a series of medieval and modern lay "saints" in order to explore how these figures perceived their own lay status and how this status has been perceived by others. Through its examination of a series of specific historical figures and movements, Lay Sanctity, Medieval and Modern seeks answers to a...
Inspired by Vatican II, which attributed a special apostolate to the laity and affirmed their calling to holiness, this volume of original essays focu...
A host of modern authors have portrayed Joan of Arc as a heroine. Identifying with the medieval saint and martyr as a figure of the artist, they tell her story as a way of commenting on their own situation in a world where the power of art has decreased. Blending the theoretical insights of Walter Benjamin, Roland Barthes and Rene Girard, Ann W. Astell persuasively argues that many modern authors have seen their own artistic vocation in the visions and voices that inspired Joan.
A host of modern authors have portrayed Joan of Arc as a heroine. Identifying with the medieval saint and martyr as a figure of the artist, they tell ...
Ann W. Astell here affords a radically new understanding of the rhetorical nature of allegorical poetry in the late Middle Ages. She shows that major English writers of that era--among them, William Langland, John Gower, Geoffrey Chaucer, and the Gawain-poet--offered in their works of fiction timely commentary on current events and public issues. Poems previously regarded as only vaguely political in their subject matter are seen by Astell to be highly detailed and specific in their veiled historical references, implied audiences, and admonitions. Astell begins by describing the Augustinian...
Ann W. Astell here affords a radically new understanding of the rhetorical nature of allegorical poetry in the late Middle Ages. She shows that major ...
"The enigmatic link between the natural and artistic beauty that is to be contemplated but not eaten, on the one hand, and the eucharistic beauty that is both seen (with the eyes of faith) and eaten, on the other, intrigues me and inspires this book. One cannot ask theo-aesthetic questions about the Eucharist without engaging fundamental questions about the relationship between beauty, art (broadly defined), and eating." from Eating Beauty
In a remarkable book that is at once learned, startlingly original, and highly personal, Ann W. Astell explores the ambiguity of the phrase "eating...
"The enigmatic link between the natural and artistic beauty that is to be contemplated but not eaten, on the one hand, and the eucharistic beauty t...
The Song of Songs in the Middle Ages is a wide-ranging and insightful book that is carefully researched and gracefully written. It is of importance alike to those interested in mysticism, Middle English, the twelfth century, the fourteenth century, and feminist approaches to literature. Studia Mystica"This deceptively slender volume is valuable in a number of ways. Astell further substantiates even as she extends and deepens the insights of historical scholars such as Beryl Smalley by distinguishing more precisely the various forms taken by the twelfth-century reemphasis on the letter of the...
The Song of Songs in the Middle Ages is a wide-ranging and insightful book that is carefully researched and gracefully written. It is of importance al...
"First delivered as papers in June 2002 at Purdue University in connection with the annual meeting of the Colloquium on Violence and Religion"--Acknowledgements.
"First delivered as papers in June 2002 at Purdue University in connection with the annual meeting of the Colloquium on Violence and Religion"--Acknow...
The order of the fragments making up the Canterbury Tales and the structure of that collection have long been questioned. Ann W. Astell proposes that Chaucer intended the order that is preserved in what is known as the Ellesmere manuscript. In...
The order of the fragments making up the Canterbury Tales and the structure of that collection have long been questioned. Ann W. Astell proposes that ...
"The enigmatic link between the natural and artistic beauty that is to be contemplated but not eaten, on the one hand, and the eucharistic beauty that is both seen (with the eyes of faith) and eaten, on the other, intrigues me and inspires this book. One cannot ask theo-aesthetic questions about the Eucharist without engaging fundamental questions about the relationship between beauty, art (broadly defined), and eating." from Eating Beauty
In a remarkable book that is at once learned, startlingly original, and highly personal, Ann W. Astell explores the ambiguity of the...
"The enigmatic link between the natural and artistic beauty that is to be contemplated but not eaten, on the one hand, and the eucharistic beauty t...
