Church, religious life and devotion
Objectives
1. Problematise the different levels of presence and experience of the religious, both as a legitimising instance of social hierarchies and power structures, as well as behaviours and worldviews;
2. Recognise the complexity of relations between the Church and Royalty in the context of affirmation and construction of monarchies and the Papacy itself;
3. Be aware of the diversity of forms of religious life present in medieval Christianity, their evolution and relation with their political, economic and social contexts;
4. Recognise devotional practices as an expression of different appropriations and experiences of the religious and their connection to logics of affirmation of power, social status or belonging.
5. Familiarise themselves with the main national and international bibliography on these issues;
6. Familiarise themselves with the sources available for studying the subject;
7. Encourage the presentation (oral and written) of essays on these issues.
General characterization
Code
02116959
Credits
10.0
Responsible teacher
João Luís Inglês Fontes
Hours
Weekly - 3
Total - 280
Teaching language
Portuguese
Prerequisites
N/A
Bibliography
- The Cambridge History of Christianity (2007-2009), v. 2-4. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
- The Cambridge History of Medieval Political Thought c. 350-c. 1450 (1991), ed. J. Burns, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
- CARVALHO, J. A. F. (2018) – Antes de Lutero: a Igreja e as reformas religiosas em Portugal no século XV. Anseios e limites. Porto: Afrontamento.
- COLEMAN, J. (2000) - Political Thought from the Middle Ages to the Renaissance, Oxford, Blackwell
- 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 siècle. Paris: PUF.
- PACAUT, M. (1992) – Les ordres monastiques et religieux au Moyen Âge. 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 lessons and 50% of practical lessons.
The lectures will present the various issues associated with the different contents of the programme. Practical classes consist mainly of analysing various documents on these issues and discussing historiographical texts. A permanent interpretative dimension of the sources is called for, as well as the discussion of problems and new interpretative or methodological proposals. For this reason, dialogue with the teacher and debate between students will be fundamental.
Evaluation method
Avaliação continua - Attendance and participation in sessions (20%), Commentary on a historiographical text(20%), Individual written research paper based on documents (up to 15 pp.) on one of the themes in the programme(60%)
Subject matter
0. Concepts: religious experience, mediation and institutional expressions; religion as a source of legitimacy.
I. Church: the territorialisation of religious life; the rising of the Papacy in the Latin Church; relations between the Church and temporal powers - tensions, conflicts and convergences; the questioning of authority or the sources of religious authority and the new spaces open to monarchies for ruling the religious life.
II. Religiosity: the diversity of forms of religious life - monks, canons, military orders and mendicant friars - and the importance of their non-institutionalised expressions - heremitism, voluntary reclusion, communities of poor life. Dynamics of implantation, forms of resistance and ways of institutionalisation.
III. Devotions: the cult of the dead and visions of the afterlife; saints, relics and pilgrimages; the growing importance of the Marian cult and the Eucharist; the poor and charity; body and inner life; the material supports of devotion.