IMC 2015: Sessions

Session 1612: Demons in Late Antiquity and the Early Middle Ages, I

Organiser:	Eoghan Ahern, Department of Anglo-Saxon, Norse & Celtic, University of Cambridge
Moderator/Chair:	Helen Foxhall Forbes, Department of History, Durham University
Paper 1612-a	Demonic Bodies and the Medieval Cosmos (Language: English) Eoghan Ahern, Department of Anglo-Saxon, Norse & Celtic, University of Cambridge Index terms: Learning (The Classical Inheritance), Science
Paper 1612-b	The Demons in Felix's Life of Guthlac (Language: English) Alan Thacker, Institute of Historical Research, University of London Index terms: Hagiography, Language and Literature - Latin
Paper 1612-c	Demons and Pastors: Knowing and Communicating the Divine in Pope Gregory I's Pastoral Thought (Language: English) Charlotte Kingston, Department of History, University of York Index terms: Philosophy, Theology
Abstract	This strand examines the ways in which demons were conceived in late antique and early medieval sources and explores their cultural and spiritual roles. The first session comprises three complimentary papers discussing a) the ways in which demons were understood to be in some sense bounded by spatial limitations, and their place in the Christian cosmos; b) the Anglo-Saxon Vita Guthlaci and its relationship to hagiographic conventions; c) the part played by demons in Gregory the Great's understanding of divine knowledge.