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  • Medieval Christianity

  • A New History
  • By: Kevin Madigan
  • Narrated by: Pete Larkin
  • Length: 21 hrs and 20 mins
  • 4.5 out of 5 stars (13 ratings)
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Medieval Christianity

By: Kevin Madigan
Narrated by: Pete Larkin
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Summary

For many, the medieval world seems dark and foreign - a miraculous, brutal, and irrational time of superstition and strange relics. The pursuit of heretics, the Inquisition, the Crusades, and the domination of the "Holy Land" come to mind. Yet the medieval world produced much that is part of our world today, including universities, the passion for Roman architecture and the emergence of the Gothic style, pilgrimage, the emergence of capitalism, and female saints. This new narrative history of medieval Christianity combines what is familiar and unfamiliar to modern audiences.

Elements of novelty in the book include a steady focus on the role of women in Christianity; the relationships among Christians, Jews, and Muslims; the experience of ordinary parishioners; the adventure of asceticism, devotion, and worship; and instruction through drama, architecture, and art. Kevin Madigan expertly integrates these areas of focus with more traditional themes, such as the evolution and decline of papal power, the nature and repression of heresy, sanctity and pilgrimage, the conciliar movement, and the break between the old Western church and its reformers.

©2015 Yale University (P)2015 Tantor
  • Unabridged Audiobook
  • Categories: History

Critic reviews

"[Madigan's] prose style is accessible and clear, making for an engaging narrative history that should please experts while whetting the appetites of beginners, providing background on and insight into a foreign society while charting development of a religious culture that still has relevance for the Western world today." ( Publishers Weekly starred review)

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I would give this book six stars if I could.

This is the very best book on the subject and should be required reading if it isn’t already at undergraduate level.
The author covers every aspect of mediaeval Christianity, pausing occasionally to focus briefly but always meaningfully on important individuals, some of whom receive scant cover elsewhere: there are insightful vignettes of information on these, with the minimum of opinion.
Other reputable historians of the subject are quoted positively and in particular R S Southern, who contributed the volume on the middle ades in the pelican History of the church, now, sadly, out of print, but in the present book the general reader should find everything they need to know on this subject and can follicle up confidently on the authors cited.

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    4 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

Medieval overview a la John Wayne

An excellent and informative overview but for these British ears at least the narration is like nails on a blackboard. The slow drawling and the grunching pronunciation of names and places makes it really difficult going. If it had to be an American narrator (and why shouldn’t it be) maybe they could have found one without the John Wayne vibes?

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