Medieval Theology and the Natural Body [Hardcover]

The attitudes towards the human body held by different branches of medieval theology are currently a major focus of scholarly attention. This first volume from York Medieval Press includes studies of the metaphor of man as head and woman as body, Abelard, women and Catharism, the female body as an impediment to ordination, women mystics, and the University of York's 1995 Quodlibet Lecture given by Eamon Duffy on the early iconography and lives of St Francis of Assisi. PETER BILLER is Professor of Medieval History at the University of York; A.J. MINNIS is Douglas Tracy Smith Professor of English, Yale Univesrity. Contributors: PETER BILLER, ALCUIN BLAMIRES, DAVID LUSCOMBE, W.G. EAST, A.J. MINNIS, DYAN ELLIOTT, ROSALYNN VOADEN, EAMON DUFFYNew interdisciplinary essays on the treatment of the body in medieval theology.John of Naples, Quodlibets and Medieval Theological Concern with the Body - Peter BillerParadox in the Medieval Gender Doctrine of Head and Body - Alcuin BlamiresPeter Abelard's Carnal Thoughts - David LuscombeThis Body of Death: Abelard, Heloise and the Religious Life - W.G. EastCathars and Material Women - Peter BillerDe impedimento sexus: Women's Bodies and Medieval Impediments to Female Ordination - Alastair J MinnisThe Physiology of Rapture and Female Spirituality - Dyan ElliottBeholding Men's Members: The Sexualizing of Transgression in The Book of Margery Kempe - Rosalynn VoadenFinding St Francis: Early Images, Early Lives - Eamon Duffy