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Sensing the Sacred in Medieval and Early Modern Culture

Contributors

Robin Macdonald
Editor

Emilie K.M. Murphy
Editor

Abstract

This volume traces transformations in attitudes toward, ideas about, and experiences of religion and the senses in the medieval and early modern period. Broad in temporal and geographical scope, it challenges traditional notions of periodisation, highlighting continuities as well as change. Rather than focusing on individual senses, the volume’s organisation emphasises the multisensoriality and embodied nature of religious practices and experiences, refusing easy distinctions between asceticism and excess. The senses were not passive, but rather active and reactive, res-ponding to and initiating change. As the contributions in this collection demonstrate, in the pre-modern era, sensing the sacred was a complex, vexed, and constantly evolving process, shaped by individuals, environment, and religious change. The volume will be essential reading not only for scholars of religion and the senses, but for anyone interested in histories of medieval and early modern bodies, material culture, affects, and affect theory.

Citation

Swann, E. L., Macdonald, R., & Murphy, E. K. (Eds.). (2018). Sensing the Sacred in Medieval and Early Modern Culture. Routledge

Book Type Edited Book
Online Publication Date May 23, 2018
Publication Date May 23, 2018
Deposit Date Nov 13, 2018
Publisher Routledge
ISBN 9781472454669
Publisher URL https://www.routledge.com/9781472454669

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