IMC 2019: Sessions

Session 1715: Body and Spirit: Spirituality and the Material in Medieval Europe

Thursday 4 July 2019, 14.15-15.45

Sponsor:	Graduate Centre for Medieval Studies, University of Reading
Organiser:	Rebecca A. C. Rist, Graduate Centre for Medieval Studies, University of Reading
Moderator/Chair:	Anne Lawrence-Mathers, Graduate Centre for Medieval Studies, University of Reading
Paper 1715-a	Sanctity, Material Culture, and Devotion in English Parish Churches, c. 1250-1400 (Language: English) Frances Cook, Graduate Centre for Medieval Studies, University of Reading Index terms: Architecture - Religious, Art History - Painting, Lay Piety
Paper 1715-b	The Uses and Misuses of Water as a Sacred Substance in 13th-Century Livonia (Language: English) Mari-Liis Neubauer, Graduate Centre for Medieval Studies, University of Reading Index terms: Canon Law, Lay Piety, Pagan Religions
Paper 1715-c	'In balneum delectetur cum aqua tepida': Water and Bathing in the Treatment Recommendations of Constantine the African (Language: English) Anne Jeavons, Department of History, University of Reading Index terms: Manuscripts and Palaeography, Medicine, Science
Abstract	These papers explore diverse ways people in different parts of medieval Europe showed appreciation of the importance of uniting the material body and immaterial soul in devotional and spiritual practices. Paper -a examines how the use of material visual aids in churches allowed congregations to show devotion to particular saints. Paper -b explores the way that water, a material symbol of Christian baptism, was used by both converts and apostates to express their beliefs. Paper -c analyses the work of the physician and Benedictine monk Constantine the African who prescribed different material remedies for a range of ills afflicting body and spirit.