Purity: Early Medieval Perspectives II
Sponsoring Organization(s)
Institut für Mittelalterforschung, Österreichische Akademie der Wissenschaften
Organizer Name
Veronika Wieser, Albrecht Diem
Organizer Affiliation
Institut für Mittelalterforschung, Österreichische Akademie der Wissenschaften, Syracuse Univ.
Presider Name
Albrecht Diem
Paper Title 1
Ideologies of Death and Salvation at Early Medieval Saints' Shrines
Presenter 1 Name
Veronika Wieser
Paper Title 2
Make Carthage Great Again: The Council of Carthage of 525, Episcopal Authority, and Monastic Privileges
Presenter 2 Name
Merle Eisenberg
Presenter 2 Affiliation
Princeton Univ.
Paper Title 3
Liturgical Purity and Political Polemic in Ninth-Century Lyons
Presenter 3 Name
Graeme Ward
Presenter 3 Affiliation
Institut für Mittelalterforschung, Österreichische Akademie der Wissenschaften
Start Date
14-5-2017 10:30 AM
Session Location
Schneider 1245
Description
The proposed sessions ‘Purity: Early Medieval Perspectives I-II’ will look at late antique and early medieval conceptions of purity, pollution and death. They will revisit past paradigms that remain central to this topic, most notably the works of Mary Douglas and Arnold Angenendt, and put them to the test in order to gauge their usefulness in modern scholarship. In order to so, these sessions will approach the subject of purity from two different angles. The first session will consider the importance of purity for monastic communities. This comprises considerations about the correct observance of monastic rules, about the discipline of monks or nuns, possible moral pitfalls and how they could be avoided or mended. Within this thematic strand, papers will pay special attention to the interdependence between the behavior of an individual and the condition of the community itself. The second session will address debates about purity in a wider ecclesiastical context, looking at liturgy, church councils and saints’ lives. The papers will explore the extent to which a rhetoric of purity could be used as a political or as a theological tool in order to establish episcopal authority and orthodoxy. Exploring saints’ lives and their shrines will show how ideas of bodily and spiritual purity relate to salvation and death.
Veronika Wieser
Purity: Early Medieval Perspectives II
Schneider 1245
The proposed sessions ‘Purity: Early Medieval Perspectives I-II’ will look at late antique and early medieval conceptions of purity, pollution and death. They will revisit past paradigms that remain central to this topic, most notably the works of Mary Douglas and Arnold Angenendt, and put them to the test in order to gauge their usefulness in modern scholarship. In order to so, these sessions will approach the subject of purity from two different angles. The first session will consider the importance of purity for monastic communities. This comprises considerations about the correct observance of monastic rules, about the discipline of monks or nuns, possible moral pitfalls and how they could be avoided or mended. Within this thematic strand, papers will pay special attention to the interdependence between the behavior of an individual and the condition of the community itself. The second session will address debates about purity in a wider ecclesiastical context, looking at liturgy, church councils and saints’ lives. The papers will explore the extent to which a rhetoric of purity could be used as a political or as a theological tool in order to establish episcopal authority and orthodoxy. Exploring saints’ lives and their shrines will show how ideas of bodily and spiritual purity relate to salvation and death.
Veronika Wieser