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Debating the Saints' Cults in the Age of Gregory the Great

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B01=Matthew J. Dal Santo
Category1=Non-Fiction
Category=NHDJ
Category=NL-HB
Category=NL-HR
Category=QRAX
Category=QRM
COP=United Kingdom
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eq_isMigrated=2
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Format=BB
HMM=223
IMPN=Oxford University Press
ISBN13=9780199646791
Language_English
PA=Available
PD=20120607
POP=Oxford
Price=€100 to €200
PS=Active
PUB=Oxford University Press
SMM=29
Subject=History
Subject=Religion & Beliefs
WG=636
WMM=157

Product details

  • ISBN 9780199646791
  • Weight: 636g
  • Dimensions: 157 x 223 x 29mm
  • Publication Date: 05 Jul 2012
  • Publisher: Oxford University Press
  • Publication City/Country: Oxford, GB
  • Product Form: Hardback
  • Language: English
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Description
In Debating the Saints' Cults in the Age of Gregory the Great, Dal Santo argues that the Dialogues, Pope Gregory the Great's most controversial work, should be considered from the perspective of a wide-ranging debate about the saints which took place in early Byzantine society. Like other contemporary works in Greek and Syriac, Gregory's text debated the nature and plausibility of the saints' miracles and the propriety of the saints' cult. Rather than viewing the early Byzantine world as overwhelmingly pious or credulous, the book argues that many contemporaries retained the ability to question and challenge the claims of hagiographers and other promoters of the saints' miracles. From Italy to the heart of the Persian Empire at Ctesiphon, a healthy, sceptical, rationalism remained alive and well. The book's conclusion argues that doubt towards the saints reflected a current of political dissent in the late East Roman or Byzantine Empire, where patronage of Christian saints' shrines was used to sanction imperial autocracy. These far-reaching debates also re-contextualize the emergence of Islam in the Near East.
About
Matthew Dal Santo was until recently a research fellow at Trinity College, Cambridge.