Religious History of the Medieval West (5th - 15th centuries)

Objectives

í) Know the main issues related to the Religious History of the Medieval West;
b) Master updated bibliography and the most significant for the various issues under study;
c) Develop skills of understanding and analysis of diversified sources for the study of the same problems;
d) Promote the production and exhibition (oral and written) of critical synthesis works incorporating the studied issues with the documentation produced at the time;
e) Understand Medieval Religious History in its interaction with other dimensions of the historical reality and its importance as a reading instance of the same reality.

General characterization

Code

01106272

Credits

6.0

Responsible teacher

João Luís Inglês Fontes

Hours

Weekly - 4

Total - 168

Teaching language

Portuguese

Prerequisites

N/A

Bibliography

  • The Cambridge History of Christianity (2007-2009), vols. 2-4. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
  • MAYEUR, J.-M.; PIETRI, L.; VAUCHEZ, A.; VENARD, M. (1993-1999) - Histoire du christianisme. Vol. 3-7. Paris: Desclée.
  • MONTAUBIN, P.; PERIN, M.-Y. (2010) - Histoire générale du christianisme: Des origines au XVe siécle. Paris: PUF.
  • NIRENBERG, D. (1996) - Communities of Violence; Persecution of Minorities in the Middle Ages. Princeton, New Jersey: Princeton University Press.
  • PACAUT, M. (1992) — Les ordres monastiques et religieux au Moyen Age. Paris: Nathan.
  • SWANSON, R. N. (1995) — Religion and devotion in Europe, c. 1215-c. 1515. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
  • VAUCHEZ, A. (1995) — A espiritualidade da Idade Média Ocidental (sécs. VIII-XIII). Lisboa: Estampa.

Teaching method

50% of theoretical classes and 50% of practical classes.
The practical classes consist, above all, in the analysis of different documentation on the problems associated with the different contents of the program. It calls for a permanently interpretive dimension of the sources and, therefore, the debate among students will be fundamental.

Evaluation method

Available soon

Subject matter

1. From Ecclesiastical History to Religious History.
2. The Church in Late Antiquity: the slow definition of an organizational and dogmatic structure; bishops, hermits and monks.
3. The "Germanic challenge" and the construction of Christianity (6th-10th centuries): the conversion of the new peoples and the Christianization of the West; the papacy and the resuscitation of the Christian Empire; bishops, princes and monks.
4. The apogee of medieval Christianity (11th-13th centuries): Gregorian reform and medieval hierocracy; the urban world and new religious aspirations; dissent and heresies; the emergence of the laity; the mendicant proposal.
5. The fragmentation of the religious unity / legitimacy of the West (14th-15th centuries): the crisis of the Papacy and the Christian kingdoms; Avignon, the Schism and the conciliar crisis; new dissensions and the deepening of the search for religious renewal.
6. Judaism and Islam within the Christian majority: a complex relationship.

Programs

Programs where the course is taught: