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Flesh Made Word Aviad Kleinberg

Flesh Made Word By Aviad Kleinberg

Flesh Made Word by Aviad Kleinberg


$63,99
Condition - Very Good
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Summary

In the fourth century a new narrative genre captured the imagination of the faithfulthe accounts of the lives of Christian saints. Kleinberg argues that these stories were more than edifying entertainment. By retelling the story of virtue and salvation, by expanding the religious imagination of the West, they were reshaping Christianity itself.

Flesh Made Word Summary

Flesh Made Word: Saints Stories and the Western Imagination by Aviad Kleinberg

In the fourth century a new narrative genre captured the imagination of the faithfulthe moving accounts of the lives of Christian saints. Willing to die gruesome deaths or endure constant suffering, saints conveyed a powerful message: God was still present in the world. He continues to manifest His powers and communicate His messages through His special friendsthe saints. What kind of Christianity do we find in these stories? In this original and provocative work, Aviad Kleinberg argues that the saints stories of medieval Europe were more than edifying entertainment; they retain an alternative theology, often quite different from the formal theology of the Church. By telling and retelling the story of virtue and salvation, by expanding the religious imagination of the West, they were shaping and reshaping Christianity itself.

In this study of stories from the fourth through the fourteenth centuries, we meet the tender Perpetua bidding farewell to her infant son, Simeon Stylites turning himself into a rotting corpse, Francis of Assisi finding joy in suffering, and Fra Ginepro playing the fool, for Christ. We meet holy anchorites, headstrong virgins, fearless dragon slayers, and scheming politicians. Kleinberg unveils the inner contradictions, the subversive ideas, and the deadly power games that lay behind the making of the Western imagination. People, ideas, and passionsoften relegated to the back pewstake center stage in this daring book. This is a story of how stories change lives.

Flesh Made Word Reviews

Clever, wide-ranging, and tendentious Kleinbergs central concern is to explore the complex and often fraught interactions between charisma and authority. His book consists of a series of close readings of hagiographic narratives from the third to the 13th centuries. -- Eamon Duffy * London Review of Books *
This highly readable and accessible book will be of interest not only to scholarly readers, but rather, like the saints lives themselves, it will challenge and engage a broader public of creative consumers Kleinbergs argument is laudable for recognizing the complex social transactions that underlie religious texts. His claims about the countless negotiations that determined the shape of these texts, the nature of sanctity, and the development of the cult of saints as a whole are compelling and plausible. -- Anna Lisa Taylor * H-Net Reviews *
[Kleinberg] puts together, stone upon stone, a flawless, lively, cogent historical argument [The history of saints stories] is an amazing storywhich allows him to develop a brilliant analysis of the ties between sacred and profane, and to expose the power lines of European history. A magnificent sweeping away of conventional wisdom. -- Christian Makarian * LExpress *
It is a history of stories that the Israeli historian, Aviad Kleinberg, offers us, a work worthy of praise for its vigorous and provocative writing, for its wealth of ideas (that connect the first 13 centuries of Christianity to contemporary preoccupations) and for its intellectual ambition. -- Jean-Claude Schmitt * Le Monde *

About Aviad Kleinberg

Aviad Kleinberg is Professor of History at Tel Aviv University and the author of Prophets in Their Own Country: Living Saints and the Making of Sainthood in the Later Middle Ages.

Additional information

GOR005419714
9780674026476
0674026470
Flesh Made Word: Saints Stories and the Western Imagination by Aviad Kleinberg
Used - Very Good
Hardback
Harvard University Press
2008-04-01
352
Nominated for Pulitzer Prizes 2009 Nominated for John Gilmary Shea Prize 2008 Nominated for PROSE Awards 2008 Nominated for Distinguished Book Award - Sociology of Religion 2009 Nominated for Hubert Morken Award 2011 Nominated for Distinguished Book Award - Sociology of Religion 2010
Book picture is for illustrative purposes only, actual binding, cover or edition may vary.
This is a used book - there is no escaping the fact it has been read by someone else and it will show signs of wear and previous use. Overall we expect it to be in very good condition, but if you are not entirely satisfied please get in touch with us

Customer Reviews - Flesh Made Word