In Salvation and Sin, David Aers continues his study of Christian theology in the later Middle Ages. Working at the nexus of theology and literature, he combines formidable theological learning with finely detailed and insightful close readings to explore a cluster of central issues in Christianity as addressed by Saint Augustine and by four fourteenth-century writers of exceptional power. Salvation and Sin explores various modes of displaying the mysterious relations between divine and human agency, together with different accounts of sin and its consequences. Theologies of grace and versions of Christian identity and community are its pervasive concerns. Augustine becomes a major interlocutor in this book: his vocabulary and grammar of divine and human agency are central to Aers' exploration of later writers and their works. After the opening chapter on Augustine, Aers turns to the exploration of these concerns in the work of two major theologians of fourteenth-century England, William of Ockham and Thomas Bradwardine. From their work, Aers moves to his central text, William Langland's Piers Plowman, a long multigeneric poem contributing profoundly to late medieval conversations concerning theology and ecclesiology. In Langland's poem, Aers finds a theology and ethics shaped by Christology where the poem's modes of writing are intrinsic to its doctrine. His thesis will revise the way in which this canonical text is read. Salvation and Sin concludes with a reading of Julian of Norwich's profound, compassionate, and widely admired theology, a reading which brings her Showings into conversation both with Langland and Augustine.
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Salvation and Sin explores various modes of displaying the relationship between divine and human agency and the consequences of sin in fourteenth-century literature.
“In this exploration of the intersection of the late medieval literature and theology, Aers continues a discussion he most recently undertook in Sanctifying Signs: Making Christian Tradition in Late Medieval England. The book’s five chapters focus on the themes of sin and conversion in selected theologians and in Piers Plowman. … Aers takes frequent, fruitful digressions into theology and effectively demolishes any monolithic view of late medieval religious thought.” —Choice
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Produktdetaljer

ISBN
9780268020330
Publisert
2009-05-15
Utgiver
Vendor
University of Notre Dame Press
Vekt
445 gr
Høyde
229 mm
Bredde
152 mm
Dybde
17 mm
Aldersnivå
UU, UP, P, 05, 06
Språk
Product language
Engelsk
Format
Product format
Heftet

Forfatter

Biographical note

David Aers is the James B. Duke Professor of English and Religious Studies at Duke University. Among his books is Sanctifying Signs: Making Christian Tradition in Late Medieval England (University of Notre Dame Press, 2004).