The church as sacred space in Middle English literature and culture (Manchester Medieval Literature and Culture)

The church as sacred space in Middle English literature and culture puts us at the heart of medieval religious life, standing inside the church with the laity in order to ask what it meant to them and why. Exploring a range of Middle English pastoral literature including sermons, treatises, miracle narratives and a church foundation legend, alongside liturgy, architecture and material culture the book examines the ways in which the sanctity of the church was constructed and maintained for the edification of the laity. Drawing on a wide range of contemporary theoretical approaches, it offers a reading of the church as continually produced and negotiated by the rituals, performances and practices of its lay communities, who were constantly being asked to attend to its material form, visual decorations and significance. The meaning of the church was a dominant question in late-medieval religious culture. This book provides an invaluable context for students and academics working on lay religious experience and canonical Middle English texts. This book presents an exciting new approach to the medieval church by examining the role of literary texts, visual decorations, ritual performance and lived experience in the production of sanctity. The meaning of the church was intensely debated in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries. This book explores what was at stake not only for the church's sanctity but for the identity of the parish community as a result. Focusing on pastoral material used to teach the laity, it shows how the church's status as a sacred space at the heart of the congregation was dangerously – but profitably – dependent on lay practice. The sacred and profane were inextricably linked and, paradoxically, the church is shown to thrive on the sacrilegious challenge of lay misbehaviour and sin. Front Matter Dedication Contents Figures Acknowledgements Abbreviations Introduction: Reading sacred space in late medieval England The church consecration ceremony and the construction of sacred space The Book of the Foundation of St Bartholomew’s Church: Consecration, restoration, and translation Sacred and profane: Pastoral care in the parish church What the church betokeneth: Placing the people at the heart of sacred space Epilogue Bibliography Index This book places us at the heart of medieval religious life, standing inside the church with the medieval laity in order to ask what it meant to them and why. Drawing on a wide range of theoretical and interdisciplinary approaches, it examines the interplay of vernacular literature, ritual and material culture at the centre of parish life. -- . This text places us at the heart of medieval religious life, standing inside the church with the medieval laity in order to ask what it meant to them and why. Drawing on a wide range of theoretical and interdisciplinary approaches, it examines the interplay of vernacular literature, ritual, and material culture at the centre of parish life __The church as sacred space in Middle English literature and culture__