IMC 2011: Sessions
Session NULL: Monastic Wealth in the Insular World
Wednesday 13 July 2011, 16.30-18.00
| Organiser: | Kirsty March, School of English, University College Cork |
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| Moderator/Chair: | Diarmuid Scully, School of History, University College Cork |
| Abstract | This session will examine Insular Christian attitudes toward the inter-relationship of spiritual and material wealth. It will deal with spiritual, allegorical, and physical approaches to wealth in Insular monastic culture. It will begin by exploring the idea of spiritual 'famine' and decline amid temporal luxury and prosperity. It will then discuss how Bede interpreted Biblical references to wealth in a didactic context. Complementary to this, it will examine the material wealth of the Church and how this was used to further spiritual teachings. Overall, it will cast light on how an avowedly anti-materialistic Church interacted with a materialistic secular society. |