The Scripturesque Middle Ages: Uses/Reception of Apocrypha along the Medieval North Sea
Sponsoring Organization(s)
Special Session
Organizer Name
Stephen C. E. Hopkins
Organizer Affiliation
Indiana Univ.-Bloomington
Presider Name
Frederick M. Biggs
Presider Affiliation
Univ. of Connecticut
Paper Title 1
Sibling Rivalries in Early Irish Apocryphal Traditions
Presenter 1 Name
Jill Fitzgerald
Presenter 1 Affiliation
United States Naval Academy
Paper Title 2
A New Witness to the Circulation of the Seven Heavens Apocryphon
Presenter 2 Name
Stephen Pelle
Presenter 2 Affiliation
Univ. of Toronto
Paper Title 3
The Afterlife of the Gospel of Pseudo-Matthew
Presenter 3 Name
Brandon W. Hawk
Presenter 3 Affiliation
Rhode Island College
Start Date
10-5-2018 10:00 AM
Session Location
Sangren 1320
Description
This session, "The Scripturesque Middle Ages," seeks to highlight the importance of Apocrypha for Medieval Literature, especially due to their liminal status-- they are somewhere between scripture and literature, revisable but also venerable. Apocrypha are ubiquitous in the Middle Ages, quietly shaping vernacular religious attitudes and practices in the cultural background, laying the groundwork for the more eye-catching texts that scholarship tends to focus on. Neglecting vernacular apocrypha means obscuring the generative effect that such texts had across the many lands and languages that called themselves Christian during this era. By viewing apocrypha as more than mere “sources” for more important literature, we can take local gradations of belief more seriously, shedding light on what changes were felt to be meaningful on the local level and expressed as localized scripture. This emphasis on the importance of local diversity of belief is an important phenomenon to take into account in our current moment, when the value of localized identities is called into question in the face of resurging nationalism (a stance which often seeks to stamp out such local diversities, in historical narratives as well as in actuality).
The panel opens up conversation on several important topics and proposes productive ways of answering the following questions. First, papers will help clarify the relative and shifting status of apocrypha across a variety of North Sea religious communities, drawing attention to the polyvocality of early Medieval theological discourses. Secondly, it will encourage discussion of the literary qualities of the apocrypha under consideration—how can we see these texts as more than mere “sources”? How/why do they exhibit creativity in their divergences from their Latin exemplars? What are their rhetorical contexts and impact? It is hoped that in asking and answering such questions, we can better understand and appreciate modern diversity of belief, highlighting the ways in which diversity is the backbone of creative belief and peaceful, productive co-existence.
Stephen Hopkins
The Scripturesque Middle Ages: Uses/Reception of Apocrypha along the Medieval North Sea
Sangren 1320
This session, "The Scripturesque Middle Ages," seeks to highlight the importance of Apocrypha for Medieval Literature, especially due to their liminal status-- they are somewhere between scripture and literature, revisable but also venerable. Apocrypha are ubiquitous in the Middle Ages, quietly shaping vernacular religious attitudes and practices in the cultural background, laying the groundwork for the more eye-catching texts that scholarship tends to focus on. Neglecting vernacular apocrypha means obscuring the generative effect that such texts had across the many lands and languages that called themselves Christian during this era. By viewing apocrypha as more than mere “sources” for more important literature, we can take local gradations of belief more seriously, shedding light on what changes were felt to be meaningful on the local level and expressed as localized scripture. This emphasis on the importance of local diversity of belief is an important phenomenon to take into account in our current moment, when the value of localized identities is called into question in the face of resurging nationalism (a stance which often seeks to stamp out such local diversities, in historical narratives as well as in actuality).
The panel opens up conversation on several important topics and proposes productive ways of answering the following questions. First, papers will help clarify the relative and shifting status of apocrypha across a variety of North Sea religious communities, drawing attention to the polyvocality of early Medieval theological discourses. Secondly, it will encourage discussion of the literary qualities of the apocrypha under consideration—how can we see these texts as more than mere “sources”? How/why do they exhibit creativity in their divergences from their Latin exemplars? What are their rhetorical contexts and impact? It is hoped that in asking and answering such questions, we can better understand and appreciate modern diversity of belief, highlighting the ways in which diversity is the backbone of creative belief and peaceful, productive co-existence.
Stephen Hopkins