中世纪基督教简史

人们在中世纪信仰什么？我们对中世纪时期的大部分感觉都来自学者的著作：修道院院长、院长、大亨、学者神学家和其他人，他们之间以及整个基督教世界，控制着教会和国家的机器。对G·R·埃文斯来说，太多的重点放在执政精英身上，而太少放在那些站在教会权力、特权和教育最核心圈子之外的人身上——他们是大量的半文盲和文盲，以及新兴的中产阶级。她的书最终对被忽视的通俗宗教文学给予了适当的重视：圣徒的生活；那些有神秘经历的人——包括非专业女性——的作品；以及生动的文本，包含供大众教化的故事。从罗马的沦陷到宗教改革的理念，作者广泛地讨论了重要的话题，如修道院的吸引力、十字军东征的诱惑、修士的崛起和异端的严重危机。正如埃文斯所揭示的，中世纪的基督教首先是由其救赎或永恒毁灭的承诺塑造的。
A Short History of Medieval Christianity
What did people really believe in the Middle Ages? Much of our sense of the medieval period has come down to us from the writings of the learned: the abbots, priors, magnates, scholastic theologians and others who between them, and across Christendom, controlled the machinery of church and state. For G R Evans too much emphasis has been placed on a governing elite and too little on those – the great mass of the semi-literate and illiterate, and the emergent middle classes – who stood outside the innermost circles of ecclesiastical power, privilege and education. Her book finally gives proper weight to the neglected literature of demotic religion: the lives of saints; writings by those – including lay women – who had mystical experiences; and lively texts containing stories for popular edification. Ranging widely, from the fall of Rome to the ideas of the Reformation, the author addresses vital topics like the appeal of monasticism, the lure of the Crusades, the rise of the friars and the acute crisis of heresy. As Evans reveals, medieval Christianity was shaped above all by its promise of salvation or eternal perdition.

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