Includes the work of an international team of 30 leading scholars in the field
Offers comprehensive coverage of the study of medieval Christianity
Seeks to intervene in the current scholarly debate rather than to simply survey the field
Takes an analytical, rather than purely narrative approach to the subject
Provides an agenda for further study

The Oxford Handbook of Medieval Christianity takes as its subject the beliefs, practices, and institutions of the Christian Church between 400 and 1500AD. It addresses topics ranging from early medieval monasticism to late medieval mysticism, from the material wealth of the Church to the spiritual exercises through which certain believers might attempt to improve their souls. Each chapter tells a story, but seeks also to ask how and why `Christianity` took particular forms at particular moments in history, paying attention to both the spiritual and otherwordly aspects of religion, and the material and political contexts in which they were often embedded.

This Handbook is a landmark academic collection that presents cutting-edge interpretive perspectives on medieval religion for a wide academic audience, drawing together thirty key scholars in the field from the United States, the UK, and Europe. Notably, the Handbook is arranged thematically, and focusses on an analytical, rather than narrative, approach, seeking to demonstrate the variety, change, and complexity of religion throughout this long period, and the numerous different ways in which modern scholarship can approach it. While providing a very wide-ranging view of the subject, it also offers an important agenda for further study in the field.

Table of Contents

Abbreviations and conventions
List of Contributors
Introduction
1: Introduction: A History of Medieval Christianity, John H. Arnold
Methods
2: Histories and Historiographies of Medieval Christianity, John H. Arnold
3: Religion, Belief, and Society: Anthropological Approaches, Simon Yarrow
4: Material Culture and Medieval Christianity, Beth Williamson
5: Medieval Christianity in a World Historical Perspective, R. I. Moore
Spaces
6: The Boundaries of Christendom and Islam: Iberia and the Latin Levant, Amy Remensnyder
7: Christianizing Kingdoms, Sverre Bagge
8: Monastic Landscapes and Society, Wendy Davies
9: Civic Religion, Nicholas Terpstra
10: Localized Faith: parochial and domestic spaces, Katherine L. French
Practices
11: Continuity and Change in the Institutional Church, Ian Forrest
12: Pilgrimage, Marcus Bull
13: Using Saints: Intercession, Healing, Sanctity, Gábor Klaniczay
14: Missarum sollemnia: Eucharistic Rituals in the Middle Ages, Eric Palazzo
15: Penitential Varieties, Rob Meens
16: Spiritual Exercises: The Making of Interior Faith, Robert L. A. Clark
Ideas
17: Fear, Hope, Death, and Salvation, Arnold Angenendt
18: Reform, Clerical Culture, and Politics, Maureen C. Miller
19: Intellectuals and the Masses: Oxen and she-asses in the medieval Church, Peter Biller
20: `Popular` religious culture(s), Laura A. Smoller
21: Doubts and the absence of faith, Dorothea Weltecke
Identities
22: Medieval Monasticisms, Constance H. Berman
23: Mysticism and the Body, Rosalynn Voaden
24: Christianity and Its Others: Jews, Muslims, and Pagans, Sara Lipton
25: Christian experiences of religious non-conformism, Grado Giovanni Merlo
Power
26: The Church as Lord, George Dameron
27: Christianizing Political Discourses, Geoffrey Koziol
28: Religion in the age of Charlemagne, Janet L. Nelson
29: Papal Authority and Its Limitations, Kathleen G. Cushing
30: Bishops, Education and Discipline, Sarah Hamilton
Conclusion
31: Looking back from the Reformation, R. Po-chia Hsia
Index

Edited by John H. Arnold, Professor of Medieval History, Birkbeck, University of London

John H. Arnold studied at the Centre for Medieval Studies, University of York, and worked first at UEA and then at Birkbeck, University of London. He became Professor of Medieval History at Birkbeck in 2007. He is author of various books and articles on medieval history, and has published also on modern historiography and the history of gender.

Contributors:
Arnold Angenendt, University of Münster
John H. Arnold, Birkbeck, University of London
Sverre Bagge, University of Bergen
Constance H. Berman, Carleton College
Peter Biller, University of York
Marcus Bull, University of North Carolina
Robert L. A. Clark, Kansas State University
Kathleen G. Cushing, Keele University
George Dameron, Saint Michael`s College
Wendy Davies, University College London
Ian Forrest, University of Oxford
Katherine L. French, University of Michegan
Sarah Hamilton, University of Exeter
R. Po-chia Hsia, American Academy in Berlin
Gábor Klaniczay, Central European University
Geoffrey Koziol, University of California, Berkeley
Sara Lipton, Yale University
Rob Meens, University of Utrecht
Grado Giovanni Merlo, Scuola Normale Superiore
Maureen C. Miller, University of California, Berkeley
R. I. Moore, Emeritus, Newcastle University
Janet L. Nelson, King`s College London
Eric Palazzo, Université de Poitiers
Amy Remensnyder, Brown University
Laura A. Smoller, University of Arkansas at Little Rock
Nicholas Terpstra, University of Toronto
Rosalynn Voaden, Arizona State University
Dorothea Weltecke, University of Constance
Beth Williamson, Bristol University
Simon Yarrow, University of Birmingham