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Medieval Christianity: A New History Hardcover – January 13, 2015

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Kevin Madigan (Author)
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4.5 out of 5 stars 14 customer reviews
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Product Details

  • Hardcover: 512 pages
  • Publisher: Yale University Press; First Edition edition (January 13, 2015)
  • Language: English
  • ISBN-10: 0300158726
  • ISBN-13: 978-0300158724
  • Product Dimensions: 6.1 x 1.4 x 9.2 inches
  • Shipping Weight: 1.9 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
  • Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (14 customer reviews)
  • Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #484,544 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

60 of 61 people found the following review helpful
A Must Read on the Medieval Church
By Dr. Terrence McGarty on January 3, 2015
Format: Hardcover Verified Purchase
Medieval Christianity is a very readable and comprehensive book covering Western Europe from about 500 AD until 1400 AD, albeit edging down to 150 and up to 1500 at its extreme. The book is well balanced, well researched and accessible to all readers. The title also states it as “A New History” but just what is “new” and “well known” is not as clear perhaps as the author may have desired. Notwithstanding, what the author has presented is useful for the newly informed as well as the “well informed”.

The author starts with a brief discussion of early Christianity from 150 to 600. This has as its center piece Augustine and his writings. One of the most difficult problems with early Christianity is the complexity of Greek thought and the Eastern Church and the slow evolution of a Western Church. Southern has examined this in detail and it is the complexity of Eastern thought which in many ways was a departing point for the west and it was it abandonment by Augustine via his Roman way of thinking that opened the Western Church and what we now think of Medieval Christianity. Augustine introduced many ideas in a manner that reformed Western beliefs. His battle with Pelagius is clearly one and his emphasis on grace another.

There is an interesting discussion on p 29-30 on when this stage of early Christianity ended. One way to pinpoint this change perhaps is the time of Gregory I. The reason is that at this time Gregory breached with Byzantium by severing with the ruler in Ravenna and taking both religious and political control in Rome.

The author’s discussion on Gregory is very limited in scope and here I would fault the author for an opportunity to use this figure as a major break point for the establishment of the Western Church (see pp 45-62).Read more ›
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9 of 9 people found the following review helpful
Worthy of the Great Historians Before Him
By Thomas J. Burns VINE VOICE on June 17, 2015
Format: Hardcover Verified Purchase
While this work carries in its subtitle the phrase "New History," Kevin Madigan begins with kudos to the revered and knighted British historian R. W. Southern, whose 1970 work "Western Society and the Church in the Middle Ages" was the gold standard of one volume medieval treatments. Madigan indicates that his 2015 work at hand is no way a repudiation of Southern's generation of scholars, but an attempt to integrate four decades of recent research and discovery into the baseline of existing work (6).

In his bibliography comments, Madigan describes his work as a "book for beginners" (441) and he provides a rich treasury of primary and secondary sources for further pursuit. Do not be fooled; "Medieval Christianity" is a fascinating synthesis of historical fact and intelligent but not overbearing interpretation. As with all general medieval histories, the author must find a point in time to start: he sets his early boundaries back to about 150 A.D. His discussion of second century Gnosticism, Marcion and Montanism may seem eccentric until the reader discerns how dissonant patterns of religious thought, such as extreme contempt of created matter, flare up repeatedly in medieval controversies among mystics and the fringes of religious orders such as the Franciscans.

I get the impression that this was a hard book to write in terms of inclusion. For example, Madigan summarizes the entire era of the ancient Church in about thirty pages, including the roles of Constantine and Augustine in the unfolding of the Christian story, but there is not a whiff of superficiality.Read more ›
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8 of 8 people found the following review helpful
A must for medievalists
By Robert A. Oakes on March 5, 2015
Format: Hardcover Verified Purchase
Excellent survey: accessible, thorough; and, most important, connects the dots for the bigger picture. This is not just a recitation of people, places and events; Madigan talks about trends and patterns in a way most "history" books do not. This book definitely replaces Southern.
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4 of 4 people found the following review helpful
pay attention to the newer scholarship for each period and topic -- and so is quite a good summary for someone unfamiliar with t
By linnea s. turner on April 19, 2015
Format: Hardcover Verified Purchase
This is more a summary textbook than a real in-depth study. It does, however, pay attention to the newer scholarship for each period and topic -- and so is quite a good summary for someone unfamiliar with the periods covered.
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7 of 9 people found the following review helpful
An EXCELLENT addition to the library of all who love church ...
By Robert A. Caldwell on March 2, 2015
Format: Hardcover Verified Purchase
An EXCELLENT addition to the library of all who love church history and historical theology! I do believe that this will be the definitive "go to" book on this subject for many years to come. The author's engaging style is backed by sound scholarship. This is no dry, dusty tome; rather, it brings to life the issues and personalities that shaped the medieval church. The author's enthusiasm for his subject is contagious. Read and enjoy!
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5 of 7 people found the following review helpful
Immensely Worthwhile Book, Though Fundamentally Flawed
By George McCully on August 26, 2015
Format: Hardcover Verified Purchase
I should like to add one significant qualification to all the praise, with which I generally agree, that reviewers have favorably noted for this much-needed updating of historical surveys of medieval Christianity. While we should all be grateful for the immense compilation and distillation of historiography Prof. Madigan has accomplished here, it is worthwhile considering whether this survey is adequate to its subject, especially as a text for "beginners"—meaning students in undergraduate liberal education. I believe the book, for all its strengths, has a great weakness in failing to address the profound issue of the historical significance of medieval Christianity.

Broadly speaking, Prof. Madigan is a "splitter" rather than a "clumper", whereas medieval civilization was formally dedicated to clumping. So while his book excels in treating the many various aspects of medieval Christianity, it fails to synthesize them in a comprehensive overview of his subject and period. This fundamental disconnect between historian and subject is, in the case of medieval Christianity, a basic flaw.

In the history of Western civilizations, the Middle Ages is unique in attempting to create a culture that understood the world as a coherent whole, of which humanity is a coherent part, the purpose of which (culture) was to bring out the best in human nature—to make men (and women) as good as they could be, in harmony with the ruling power of the universe—the Logos, or Christian God. This was the Augustinian program, described and prescribed in the City of God. Universal religious civilization is the opposite of modern (or any other) secular civilization, which is ours today.Read more ›
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