Religious Movements in the Middle Ages - by Herbert Grundmann (Hardcover)

Book Synopsis

Medievalists, historians, and women's studies specialists will welcome this translation of Herbert Grundmann's classic study of religious movements in the Middle Ages because it provides a much-needed history of medieval religious life--one that lies between the extremes of doctrinal classification and materialistic analysis--and because it represents the first major effort to underline the importance of women in the development of the language and practice of religion in the Middle Ages.

From the Back Cover

Religious Movements in the Middle Ages describes a lay religious movement of the eleventh and twelfth centuries that emphasized the centrality of lifestyle rather than doctrine. The religious groups that developed and solidified out of this movement were considered heterodox by some standards, orthodox by others. However, despite initial condemnation, these groups, among them any women's groups, were given permissive rules to suit their peculiarities. Grundmann explicates the doctrines that lay behind these religious movements and captures the material contexts that fostered them. Most importantly, he is able to recapture the dynamism of the groups themselves and to identify the historically contingent events that carried them along their various paths. Perhaps the greatest synthetic daring of Grundmann's study is his emphasis on the common point of departure shared by the religious groups that were ultimately to become located on either side of orthodoxy as defined by the pope. Prior to Grundmann's study, scholars had only discussed either high medieval heresy or new orders within the Church, but never, as Grundmann does here, the common inspiration that lay behind both.

"This translation makes available to the English-speaking world one of the greatest works of German historical scholarship from the twentieth century and one of the greatest works of medieval history ever written. Sixty years after its original publication, Religious Movements in the Middle Ages remains not only learned and powerful, but innovative--even radical--as well." --Caroline Walker Bynum, Columbia University

The late Herbert Grundmann was President of the Monumenta Germaniae Historica in Munich, Germany.

Review Quotes

"This translation makes available to the English-speaking world one of the greatest works of German historical scholarship from the twentieth century and one of the greatest works of medieval history ever written. Sixty years after its original publication, Religious Movements in the Middle Ages remains not only learned and powerful, but innovative--even radical--as well." --Caroline Walker Bynum, Columbia University

"With the publication of Religious Movements in the Middle Ages sixty years ago, Herbert Grundmann set the conceptual framework for the historical study of several significant topics-including the origins of medieval heresy, the pastoral care of women, the rise of vernacular literature, and the origins of the friars. For two generations every scholar working on those topics has been influenced directly or indirectly by Grundmann's masterful work." --Joseph H. Lynch, Ohio State University

About the Author

The late Herbert Grundmann was President of the Monumenta Germaniae Historica in Munich, Germany.

Steven Rowan is Professor of History at the University of Missouri, St. Louis.