Bücher von Jeffrey Burton Russell

From the Preface:This book is intended as an investigation of the civilization of western Europe from the third to the fifteenth centuries. It presents not only the results, but some of the important problems, of contemporary scholarship in medieval history. It follows a topical treatment of economic, social, political, and cultural history within a chronological framework. Rather than trying to achieve consistently detailed coverage of every aspect of medieval civilization, I have concentrated upon individual or collective examples of important ideas, attitudes, institutions, or events. Discussions of the sources appear in each chapter, and the sources are quoted frequently in the body of the text in order to permit the reader to feel, as well as intellectually to grasp, the nature of medieval life. Pictures and maps are integrated with the text as illustrations of the topics discussed.Jeffrey Burton Russell is Professor Emeritus of History at the University of California, Santa Barbara. Besides UCSB, he has taught History and Religious Studies at Berkeley, Riverside, Harvard, New Mexico, and Notre Dame. He has published seventeen books and many articles, most of them in his special field, history of theology. His other books include a five-volume history of the concept of the Devil published by Cornell University Press between 1977 and 1988, ''Inventing the Flat Earth'' (1991), and ''A History of Heaven: The Singing Silence'' (1997).

The study of the conflict between religious orthodoxy and heresy in the Middle Ages has long been a controversial field. Though the sectarian differences of the past have faded in intensity, the varieties of academic correctness that today inform historical studies are equally likely to give rise to a number of interpretations, sometimes providing more information about the sympathies of contemporary historians than the beliefs, feelings, and actions of Medieval people.In this book, Jeffrey Burton Russell provides a fresh overview of the subject from the Council of Chalcedon (451 A.D.) to the eve of the Protestant Reformation. The fruit of many years of thought and scholarship, ''Dissent and Order in the Middle Ages'' is a concise introduction to the full range of religious and social phenomena encompassed by the book''s title. While tracing the intellectual battles that raged between the champions of orthodoxy and the partisans of dissent, Russell grounds these conflicts, which often seem rather recondite to the modern reader, in the evolving social context of Medieval Europe. In addition to discussing conflicts within Christianity, Russell sheds new light on such vexing topics as the origin of anti-Semitism and the persecution of alleged witches.More than just an overview, Russell''s study is also an original interpretation of a complex subject. Russell sees the conflict between dissent and order not as a war of binary opposites, but rather as an ongoing dialectic, a creative tension that, despite the excesses it entailed on both sides, was essential to the development of Christianity. Without this creative tension, Russell argues, Christianity might well have stagnated and possibly died. Dissent and order, then, are perhaps best seen as symbiotically joined aspects of a single living, healthy organism.''Dissent and Order in the Middle Ages'' will appeal to, and challenge, all readers interested in European history, from beginning students to seasoned scholars, as well as those concerned with Christianity''s past - and future.Jeffrey Burton Russell is Professor Emeritus of History at the University of California, Santa Barbara. Besides UCSB, he has taught History and Religious Studies at Berkeley, Riverside, Harvard, New Mexico, and Notre Dame. He has published seventeen books and many articles, most of them in his special field, history of theology. His other books include a five-volume history of the concept of the Devil published by Cornell University Press between 1977 and 1988, ''Inventing the Flat Earth'' (1991), and ''A History of Heaven: The Singing Silence'' (1997).

From the Introduction:The conceptual boundaries of this study...include all varieties of religious dissent, nonconformity, and tension. The chronological limits are from about 700 to about 1150. Before the eighth century dissent was, in the tradition of the heresy of the early Church, theological and priestly. After the middle of the twelfth century the increasing influence of Eastern dualism under the name of Catharism changed the whole emphasis and style of medieval dissent. Between 700 and the mid-twelfth century, however, dissent was typically medieval in its moral and popular emphasis without yet being adulterated by currents from the East. In this period it was closely connected with the growing intensity and diversification of movements of moral and intellectual reform. With these movements and as part of them, dissent was one of the elements shaping medieval civilization.Jeffrey Burton Russell is Professor Emeritus of History at the University of California, Santa Barbara. Besides UCSB, he has taught History and Religious Studies at Berkeley, Riverside, Harvard, New Mexico, and Notre Dame. He has published seventeen books and many articles, most of them in his special field, history of theology. His other books include a five-volume history of the concept of the Devil published by Cornell University Press between 1977 and 1988, ''Inventing the Flat Earth'' (1991), and ''A History of Heaven: The Singing Silence'' (1997).

Explores the brighter side of eternity: heaven. Dispensing with the images of goodness that can make even heaven seem unbearable, this book stimulates our imagination with a history of how the joy of paradise has been conceived by writers, philosophers, and artists for whom heaven was an imminent reality.