Medieval Christianity: A New History

by Kevin J. Madigan

An expansive guide to the medieval world, with new attention to women, ordinary parishioners, attitudes toward Jews and Muslims, and more

For many, the medieval world seems dark and foreign—an often brutal and seemingly irrational time of superstition, miracles, and strange relics. The aggressive pursuit of heretics and attempts to control the “Holy Land” might come to mind. Yet the medieval world produced much that is part of our world today, including universities, the passion for Roman architecture and the development of the gothic style, pilgrimage, the emergence of capitalism, and female saints.

This new narrative history of medieval Christianity, spanning the period 500 to 1500 CE, attempts to integrate what is familiar to readers with new themes and narratives. Elements of novelty in the book include a steady focus on the role of women in Christianity; the relationships among Christians, Jews, and Muslims; the experience of ordinary parishioners; the adventure of asceticism, devotion, and worship; and instruction through drama, architecture, and art. Madigan expertly integrates these areas of focus with more traditional themes, such as the evolution and decline of papal power; the nature and repression of heresy; sanctity and pilgrimage; the conciliar movement; and the break between the old Western church and its reformers.

Illustrated with more than forty photographs of physical remains, this book promises to become an essential guide to a historical era of profound influence.

Genres: History, Religion, Christianity, Church History, Medieval, Nonfiction, Medieval History

512 pages, Hardcover

First published January 13, 2015

About the author

Kevin Madigan is Winn Professor of Ecclesiastical History at Harvard Divinity School. He specializes in the study of medieval Christian religious practice and thought. His books include Olivi and the Interpretation of Matthew in the High Middle Ages and The Passions of Christ in High-Medieval Thought: An Essay on Christological Development, and he is co-author of Ordained Women in the Early Church: A Documentary History and Resurrection: The Power of God for Christians and Jews. He lives in Cambridge, MA.

Reviews

[Beauregard Bottomley · Rating 5 out of 5]

Properly presented medieval history is exciting. Some books or lectures go astray by presenting the facts by using the one-darn-thing-after-another (ODTAA) method. This book does not. It covers the topic thematically with a chronological order providing coherence through its focus on Christianity. This book is an incredibly happy compromise between a history strictly of Christianity and a history strictly of the middle ages. By combining both topics into one book the author gives a synthesis that's almost magical in the telling. I love this period of time but sometimes I get lost in the fog of historical facts or theological arguments that are irrelevant to me because I can't follow them. That doesn't happen with this book and therefore I can say I really enjoyed this book. (Durant's "Age of Faith" covers the topics as well as this book, but he's dated, racist, sexist and often anachronistic and a modern reader just has to hold ones nose with him, but he is worth the read).

I just love this period of history but not all books know how to tell the story as well as this one does. There's a theme that does run through out and it is of the order of how did we go from forming 'beliefs before reason' to using our reason to determine our beliefs. Thus producing a man such as Thomas Aquinas and therefore leading to the reformation and the starting of the foundations of science and modernity.

The process that Christianity needed to discover itself and lead to who we are today is laid out elegantly in this book. The book never really dwells on the theological fine points but always seems to keep the story moving. Theology as a rigorous philosophy starts with Peter Abelard and Peter Lombard and his "The Sentences" (Thomas Aquinas got a Masters in "The Sentences"). The author takes time to explain who they are and what they thought, but I was never overwhelmed with the complexities of their arguments.

Our understanding of history changes. This book points how our current understanding often differs from 30 years ago. The Cathars are more prominent, Wycliffe was more influential, the Avignon Papacy was more relevant than what was recently believed, for example.

Overall, a well written and understandable book which demonstrates why this time period can be so much fun to read about.

[Steve Donoghue · Rating 4 out of 5]

A superb and surprisingly readable summary of Christianity during the long centuries when it ruled the Western world! The author gives the subject a deep and wide-ranging examination but never forgets to be readable and interesting. My full review:
https://www.stevedonoghue.com/review-...

[Michael Beck · Rating 4 out of 5]

A decent overview of the Western church in the Middle Ages. A large portion of the book was spent on the developments within the papacy and monasticism. A helpful resource book but not all that thrilling to read.

[Illiterate · Rating 2 out of 5]

Soild introduction, blending themes and narrative. Echoes the current interest in women, other faiths, etc., but with little sense of the cultural turn.

[Derek · Rating 5 out of 5]

Although this reads like a textbook, it offers fantastic coverage of almost all of the major elements of Latin Christendom in the Middle Ages. It covers everyday religious experience, monastic reform movements, papal politics, major heresies, medieval charity, the great schism with orthodoxy, the crusades, anti-Semitism, Islamic relations, Aristotle's legacy, the influence of the Church fathers, mysticism, scholasticism, pilgrimages, rituals, processions, feasts, relics, religious art, Medieval Christendom's ideas about gender, the influence of Greco-Roman philosophy, clerical literacy, Germanic invasions, Conciliarism, the Avignon Papacy, the Investiture Controversy, the Merovingian and Carolinian Empires, the Holy Roman Empire, the Papal States, feudalism and the church, the growth of towns, priestly celibacy, Cistercians, Knights Templar, Diocletian, Constantine, Justinian, Abelard and Heloise, Thomas Becket, St. Antony, the Rule of St. Benedict, Dominicans, Franciscans, the Inquisition, St. Augustine, St. Jerome, the Expulsion of the Jews from Spain, etc. and so on. If anything is lacking, it’s a more comprehensive account of cathedrals.

[Mark · Rating 4 out of 5]

In 1970 the great British medievalist Richard William Southern published his book Western Society and the Church in the Middle Ages. A volume in the "Penguin History of the Church" series, it served for over four decades as the standard survey on the relationship between Christianity and the medieval world. Kevin Madigan makes it clear at the start of this book that he intends for this book to serve as a replacement for Southern's seminal text. It's a ambitious goal, and one which he achieves successfully by providing a lucid and wide-ranging survey of the role Christianity played in western and central Europe in the Middle Ages.

[Noah Calcagno · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book was quite interesting and did an excellent job capturing the essence of medieval Europe, as well as describing various historical events.

The downside, however, was that the author is clearly secular and tried to downplay the importance of Christianity and Christian unity throughout the Middle Ages. It felt like a revisionistic, humanistic way of viewing that period of history.

[Tim Michiemo · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.2 Stars

The middle ages are a rarely delved into era of church history, often reserved only for scholarly discussion or modern critique. For Protestant Christians, which I am one, this period of history is viewed as the "Dark Ages" not simply because it was an era of civilizational decline, but because it is a period darkened to our understanding. Few are the Protestants who know even a "mustard seed" of medieval church history. Madigan's book Medieval Christianity seeks to change that and bring medieval church history to a new generation in an understandable way. Madigan builds upon the works of previous medieval scholars (R.W. Southern in particular) but brings to the forefront issues familiar to modern readers. (i.e. the role of women, Jewish society, the life of commoners).

Medieval Christianity is a thorough book, covering 600 - 1500 AD, which is close to one thousand years of church history in under 500 pages. Madigan breaks the middle ages into three eras (Early Medieval, High Medieval, Later Medieval) and treats each part in detail. Madigan offers treatments on the better-known parts of medieval church history such as monasticism, papacy, inquisition, crusades, and scholasticism. In these areas, Madigan does not offer much new information, but his book shines when he begins to discuss issues concerning women, Judaism, and Islam. Of note is his discussion of the role of women in the medieval church. Madigan brings us into the world of anchorites, nuns, and mystics. There are sparse treatments that address the lives of women in the medieval church, and Madigan skillfully takes the information we have in order to bring us into their world.

One detriment to this book is the Madigan's secular view on church history. Madigan begins his book accepting the historical-critical view that there were multiple streams of Christianity in the early church and the Christianity that we have today is simply the one that won out. As well absent is a discussion on how theology shaped much of the thinking of the members of the early church. Particularly, Madigan's treatment of Augustine as a stern predestinarian was not the best. These two treatments of the early church and Augustine show Madigan's disposition towards Christianity, seeing it as merely a religious movement rather than a work of God.

Overall, I learned a lot from this book and will reference this work in future studies of medieval church history. Madigan brings us a lot of old information on medieval Christianity in a helpful way, and some new information in a profound way, despite its secularity. Madigan succeeds in presenting us with a "New History" of medieval Christianity that is readable and brief. I would recommend this book to many who are looking to understand medieval church history better.

[kacey · Rating 2 out of 5]

i prefer my historical introductions organized chronologically rather than topically, which is one of the reasons i wanted a different work on this topic. alas, when the library website says a book is on the shelf, it doesn't always mean the librarians know which shelf it's on. so, Madigan rather than Lynch, and reading about 12th-century women mystics in the final chapter, just pages after discussing 15-century street preaching in Florence.
the topical structure in itself isn't necessarily a deal-breaker, but Madigan's project is one of wheedling apology for the less savory endeavors of the medieval church – the Inquisition was really *that* bad, y'all! – and the topical organization of chapters lets him neatly compartmentalize the narrative, giving sanitized introductions to most of the major players in the main chapters and reserving mention of their shitty beliefs and/or actions for the chapters on anti-Semitism and the Crusades (which, natch, are always at the end of the major sections). if you want your medieval Christian history sans mass murder, look no further! just skip the chapters with "Heresy" or "Jews" in the headings.
also his writing is vague, circuitous, and prone to making unsubstantiated pronouncements.

[Phil · Rating 5 out of 5]

I picked this up just before my March Break holiday because I wanted a new book to read and I happened to notice this in the new books shelf of my favourite theological book store. I had been thinking I'd like to read up on where mediaeval church history has gone over the last few decades, mostly because, while I had done extensive reading in mediaeval history in my undergrad days, I hadn't really been following the field. Madigan's book seemed to fit the bill for updating myself and it has done so admirably. In this very accessible book, Madigan goes through the traditional focal points of mediaeval church history as well as highlighting new developments and directions for research. Madigan opens this scholarly world knowledgeably and skillfully, especially given the breadth of the field. It is well worth the time for reading.

If you are looking for a similar update on mediaeval church history, this is the book for you.

[Hunter Quinn · Rating 2 out of 5]

Madigan's treatment emphasizes the economic and sociological forces at play in the medieval church. That is well and good; a good history takes those into account. However, the medievals believed themselves to be *theologians.* In order to properly understand them, you have to understand their own views of themselves. In a book about Christian history, I would have expected a greater emphasis on the role which theology plays in the individuals who inhabited in the medieval church. I felt like the men and women Madigan sought to explain lost their individuality and uniqueness in his approach, and the medieval conception of God drifted out of focus. I learned a lot of information...but I felt like Madigan did not help me make *sense* of that information.

[Samuel Parkinson · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book has grand aims: it aims to replace Richard Southern’s wonderful classic, 'Western Society and the Church in the Middle Ages', which is now fifty years old. Madigan is not wrong that the time has come for an update - we have, surely, learned a lot since then, both via archaeology and via excellent work on a constellation of minor figures. But he’s set his aim, and his claims, high, and so he should be evaluated against those criteria.

In a narrow sense, he succeeds: we have a broad narrative that covers a huge swathe of history, managing to cover hundreds of years with remarkably few major gaps (though we’ll get to some of those gaps in a minute). It’s a very readable narrative, very well put together: those familiar with the subject will find lots of gentle allusions to deeper issues and significant people, but those who aren’t won’t find the book hard going.

The core problem with this book is that Madigan does not seem to have updated it primarily to reflect modern *discoveries* as modern *concerns.* There’s very little that’s actually new to the reader of Southern here: just an ‘new’ perspective. That perspective primarily consists of looking down on medieval people as very bad.

Needless to say, this is not conducive to understanding them as people, to getting an inside understanding of how they thought and existed. Some modern concerns are commmendable - it ***is*** good to have more treatment of women, both in the mass as, for instance, aspiring nuns; or in particular, as with women mystics like Hildegard. And it is definitely good to deal more roundly with the treatment of Jews and how this interfaced with Christian faith - that’s something that Madigan does very well indeed. But beyond this, his approach produces numerous serious problems.

Part of the issue is that Madigan writes beyond his range of competence. He is an expert on the high middle ages; he runs into serious issues when he goes all the way back to the second Century, and serious issues when he writes about the late middle ages.

To start with the earlier period, his discussion of heresy in the pre-medieval church is woefully dated; he depends on the Bauer thesis, the idea that the early church was a hotchpotch of deeply varied ideas that was slowly replaced by ‘orthodoxy’, and that if orthodoxy was around early then it wasn’t particularly more significant than other groups. While this thesis was fashionable for decades, Madigan doesn’t even acknowledge more moderate views, let alone the fierce debate over the thesis or the extremely strong arguments and evidence marshalled against it in recent years. Basically, he’s both simplistic and dated, and that colours his entire picture of this period.

The section on the high middle ages are much more useful and reliable - he manages to hold together coverage of high politics, of the Popes and new religious orders, with more information about grassroots Christianity than older books contain. This is the book’s great strength, and it is the point where recent research adds most to our picture of the medieval church. Theologically, too, it’s relatively well-balanced, so that Lombard gets the emphasis he deserves and so often doesn’t get.

The Late medieval period, sadly, is not treated with anything like the nuance that the high middle ages receive. There are perceptive observations on the tension inherent in ever more religious laity, in the hunger for deeper spirituality, and the impossibility of assurance of salvation in nominalism. But Madigan has lost interest in theology by this point: Scotus and Ockham are ignored barring a brief aside in the very last pages. This might seem a mere lapse, but it reinforces one of the most enduring misconceptions about the middle ages - that it was a time when Aquinas was seen as ****the**** great theologian. Madigan does nothing to correct this; you wouldn’t know from his narrative that in actual fact Thomas was seen as a rather minor figure and that Scotus and Ockham were the serious figures whose arguments defined theological debate.


Ultimately more exasperating, though, than the issues with content is the tone of this book; it is constantly sneering. It is full of meaningless asides and jibes at medieval people. It’s not just when he has legitimate disagreements with the medieval worldview, either - to pick an example that is so trivial that it is telling, he informs us that the life of the Popes during the Avignon papacy became less and less like the apostolic model ‘as then imagined’. Who, now or ever, imagined that the apostolic model involved prostitutes and priceless works of art and jobs for all one’s relatives?

There is, without question, much good in this textbook, and doubtless it will be required reading for many courses in medieval history and Christianity. But, ultimately, a key test of good history is that it helps us understand the people of a particular time. History must explain them so that even when we disagree with them, we can begin to understand how it was possible for them to think as they did, how. if we were in their place and their culture, we could reason as they did. Madigan fails that test - he is so concerned to point out the moral failings of the middle ages, to editorialise rather than to explain, that he ends up distancing the period, making it more opaque rather than clearer. He is right that Richard Southern’s work should be updated, after fifty years of research; but this book is not that replacement. Anyone wanting general understanding of the period would still be best advised to make sure they read Southern first.

[Emmanuel Boston · Rating 4 out of 5]

Still very much worth reading, but you'll find that the author's presuppositions cloud his interpretation and convolute the narrative somewhat. He is occasionally ungenerous to interpretations and resorts to a few mischaracterizations, particularly when it comes to the matters of orthodox Christian faith—misrepresenting (and it would be hard to see how it could be other than intentional when so many primary sources are at pains to explain exactly what they believe) some beliefs and ascribing motives and intention in an anachronistic psycho-analysis. Though those 80 composite pages (estimated) are unfortunate, the rest of the book is excellent. However, when historians undercut their reliability through such misrepresentation, it does make you wonder if they're being honest about the rest of the stuff you can't properly evaluate. In other words, make good use of this book, but as a launching pad to pursue the primary sources deeper and with coherence.

[Rhea Dooley · Rating 4 out of 5]

It reads like a textbook but a good overview of medieval Christianity.

[Moss Bertin · Rating 4 out of 5]

It delivers.

[Nancy · Rating 3 out of 5]

by Kevin J. Madigan (no photo)



Finish date: 24.04.2017
Genre: nonfiction
Rating: B+
Table of contents: 21 chapters
Timeline:  600 - 1500 AD

Good News: The Middle Ages formed a bridge between the Dark Ages
- the powerful ruled, while the powerless looked only to survive -and the future filled with knowledge starting from one monastery to another. We think of the Middle Ages as brutal filled with superstition and strange relics. But it produced much of what we have in the world today:universities appreciation of Roman architecture - Gothic style - pilgrimages.

Bad News: Most confusing: - The Great Schism (Papal Schism) 1378-1417…. 3 different popes!
Most belligerent figures: Boniface VIII en Koning Philip IV France.
They refused to compromise….so one of them had to die!

Most misunderstood thinker: Peter Abelard (1079-1142) He clashed with St. Bernard and his view of monastic theology. All you need is faith. Abelard’s view of scholastic theology brought light  into the dark ages! He believed we needed to use our common sense and reason to
come closer to God.

Good News: Ch 1-7: I thought the book  would be very easy read
but I was challenged from the beginning.
Gnostics, Donatists and Pelagianism are movements I have heard about but
never understood.  Now I do!

I push on to monks, bishops, kings and popes.
These are  endless pages of history about the rise of Christianity in
Spain, Ireland, UK, France and Germany.
I had to pace myself. (1-3 chapters per sitting)
Often I thought “ I’ve had enough for today…."
You can’t rush history.

Ch 8: Suddenly a 'lightbulb' lit up in my head.
The similarities between Trump and Pope Gregory VII are astonishing!
"...he was capable of imagining new rules, new laws,
if ancient ones did not suit or could not be located..."
I had to make a connection to the present to keep myself
engaged with the book.

Ch 9: Adage 'What doesn't kill you, can only make you stronger...is not valid
… when it comes to St. Norbert of Xanten (1080-1134).
He adopted an asceticism so fierce that it killed his first three disciples.
Oops!"

Ch 11-12 Madigan delves into the lives of some famous saints:
St Dominic and his followers who were know as the 'hounds of the Lord.
They were inquisitors who were the
most dedicated and ruthless.
We learn about St Francis of Assisi (birth name: John).
Dante imagined Francis in Paradiso as a rising sun.

Ch 13-21:  I began to falter during the last few chapters.
They were filled with anecdotal material
about heretics (Wycliffe, Hus) mystics, anchoresses and
some saints we have long forgotten.

Personal: Would I recommend the book? Yes, without any reservations
….it will inform any interested reader. Caveat: The book is long.
What was my impression of the book? This book gives us a  picture of Medieval Christianity
well-informed carefully balanced. The title mentioned ‘A New History’. But  I felt is just repeated the
…basics about the Middle Ages.

I had hoped for information that has been discovered in the last 40 years by scholars.
I wanted more and got less.
The Middle Ages formed a bridge between the Dark Age the powerful ruled, while the powerless looked only to survive. and the future filled with knowledge starting from one monastery to another.

[Benny Nicholson · Rating 3 out of 5]

I hope we never do figure time travel out because watching historians duke it out, spill blood over minor doctrinal differences between christian sects that died out hundreds of years ago is brilliant

[Todd Stockslager · Rating 4 out of 5]

Review title: In the long run

One of the enduring mysteries of Christianity for me (an evangelical Protestant) is the fact that in the Gospels Jesus left the work of spreading the word around the world to human beings who he knew were fatally flawed. And in the long run, it seems to me to be a long way from the living rocks of the Aran Islands to the cold marble of Rome. That last remark refers to my powerful moments alone on the Aran Island of Inishmor off the west coast of Ireland standing amongst the ruins of 6th and 8th century churches and grave memorials which spoke so powerfully to the warm living faith of these solitary people beyond the edge of the known world.

Meanwhile, back in civilization, as Madigan provides in a thumbnail introduction, the church was created by the reinvigorated apostles after Pentecost and progressed from persecution to imperial approval in Rome over its first 500 years; those distant Celtic Christian men and women (Celtic monasteries were communities of men, women, and children) are poignant witness to the geographical growth of the church as well as its demographic and organizational growth in the center. Madigan then gives an introductory narrative account of the next 1000 years of Christian history divided into Early (600-1050 AD), High (1050 to 1300), and Late (1300 to 1500) Medieval Christianity.

It is of course an account of popes and priests, hermits and heritics, theologians and kings, monks, nuns, and knights,. The seemingly incidental and coincidental division of saints and sinners cuts across all those categories in ways that defy easy descriptions and historical explanations. These distinctions and nuances of the historical record and accepted historical analysis make for interesting reading in Madigan's capable writing style. Intending Medieval Christianity as a textbook introduction, Madigan does a good job of outlining, organizing, and then recapping his material as only a professor familiar with his material could do with this level of ease, while his writing ability makes the material come to life for the general reader just "auditing" the subject. He provides chapter notes for further reading, but not footnotes to trace specific references, along with a chronology and glossary and some maps and illustrations.

The narrative of 1000 years of history is too long and twisted to be served by any sort of recap, so let me just highlight what I took away as one of the key threads in the history: Madigan talks in terms of three different ways of representing the church which grew and shifted in numerous an unpredictable ways throughout this millennium:

1. The clergy facing God representing the church to God.

Madigan points out that in the earliest period of the church, preaching and ministry to the laypeople of the church (as a denominational whole or in individual congregations) was an unknown concept. Instead, the clergy literally faced God at the alter, saying the approved prayers and liturgy with backs to the congregation, speaking in a language (Latin) unknown to most of the listeners in any case, and in fact probably impossible to hear because of poor acoustics, the lack of amplification, and possibly an intentional effort to obscure the spoken words by mumbling or speaking in a low voice!

2. The clergy facing the church representing God to the church.

This view saw the clergy turning around, again literally, interpreting God in the form of the holy scripture, including both the original Hebrew "old" testament and the written "new" testament, the now canonical Gospels, Acts of the Apostles, and the epistles to the early church. This view of the church had major ramifications for the structure of the church: for it to represent God to the church through scripture it had to have a consistent and authoritative voice, giving rise to theology, orthodoxy and (not paradoxically) heresy. From these roots grew a central church organization and bureaucracy, centered in Rome and basing its authority on Jesus's commission to Peter as the Rock upon which He would build His church. Yet even while facing the congregation in this view of the church, preaching and ministerial care were not yet part of the church.

3. The church as an invisible universal body nourished by the clergy.

The second view of the church took root and grew despite the early account of missionary journeys throughout the Mediterranean region and the recorded instances of sacrificial caring in the Acts, a shortcoming that was addressed in the third view of the church. This view arose in fact in contrast to, and in many cases opposition from, the established church organization and authority by "preaching friars" whose vows of poverty, service, and walking missionary zeal grew out of the cloistered monasterial view of separation from the world. Combined with a sometimes ecstatic visions and callings directly from God (words which then and still today are still looked upon by established church organizations with nervous apprehension and concerns for defense of the established orthodoxy) these men and women abandoned or gave away property and health as they took to the road preaching and caring for the world outside of the church. In response, the Medieval church began to incorporate these services into their services, as it were, co-opting some of the zeal and good will created by these wandering servants of men and God. While some of these mendicant orders were themselves co-opted by the church and frail human nature, becoming in time fabulously wealthy and often corrupt organizations, they fostered the spread of the view of the church as an invisible and universal body of believers, some saints and some sinners, but all in need of care.


Throughout this period, as Christianity grew, spread, and matured, the organization of the church was growing apace as well. This led to bureaucracy and institutional politics, of which there are plenty of examples in Madigan's account. But while he documents the history of corrupt popes and royal conflicts at the top and center of Christianity (with the important caveat that modern terms like "secular" and "national" government don't apply to the time and place of which he is writing), he also provides as much insight as can be gained or at least inferred from limited historical sources about the way normal people worshipped and believed, and about women's roles in the church and Christianity. The history and justification for pilgrimages, veneration of saints, and the collection and display of relics are vital parts of the story, providing a historical foundation for the saints and relics I just read about in Saints Preserved. If the story stopped with the cold marble of papal palaces in Rome, the story of Medieval Christianity would be a sad, sad story indeed, but Madigan gives us the human touch when it can be found.

But what about Jesus's decision to leave his church in the hands of humanity, of Peter no less, the most impetuous and mercurial of the Apostles. It was bound to be a train wreck, wasn't it? And indeed, as Madigan wraps up his history in 1500, Martin Luther is already in the church, just a few short years from posting Sola Dei Gracia on the door to the hearts of now billions of people in history since the beginning of the Protestant Reformation. But is it really a train wreck, or just the inscrutable turn of history and divine wisdom as God has never been more alive and worshipped in more churches by more hearts in more ways than anyone could ever have imagined in 600, or 1000, or 1500?

[AskHistorians]

'This is a book for beginners' claims Madigan at the beginning of his extensive endnotes. While producing a book for beginners might have been his intention, Madigan's command of a vast wealth of scholarship spanning the pre-history and entirety of the Middle Ages makes a beginner even of the seasoned professional. The scope and greatest strength of this magnificent new addition to the study of medieval Christianity is the thorough contextualisation of lines of development in medieval Christianity from the beginnings of the early churches right to the inception of the Reformation. Madigan achieves this without falling into the trap of ever painting these developments as inevitable - chiefly through taking a series of asides exploring alternative, later unorthodox, branches and expressions of spiritual Christianity. Like any survey, the author occasionally glides lightly over particularly contentious pressure points in modern historiography and sometimes the pressure of a subject stretching from ca. 150 to 1500 is noticeable. Still, Madigan is able to expound not only on the relevant clerical or religio-cultural context but set these within a wider social, political, and economic framework. A must read for anyone interested in medieval history. A small criticism is perhaps in an occasionally overly obtuse language which can occasionally spoil the rhetorical flow of the work - but your mileage (and vocabulary) may vary.

[Justin Evans · Rating 4 out of 5]

Nicely done; Madigan is much better (or so it seemed to me) on the high and later middle ages; the early chapters drag a little, with too much written about comparatively unimportant matters. It's not clear to me, in particular, why there are two chapters on Christianity and 'the Jews', but almost nothing at all about western and eastern Christianity. You only know the latter exists because there's a paragraph or so about the schism. Of course, it is clear to me: this is not a book about 'Medieval Christianity,' but a book about medieval Christianity in western Europe, and it was written recently, so the recent historical preoccupations find their way in. But I'm not sure that's a responsible thing to do in what is meant to be an introductory textbook.

[Genevieve · Rating 4 out of 5]

A great overview of the current state of the field. Good for novices as well as those with a little more experience on the subject.

[Adam Shields · Rating 4 out of 5]

Summary: Medieval Christianity is important to understand the development of Christianity, but also the development of Christianity is a result of both theology and social issues outside of the church. 

I have been slowly working through Medieval Christianity for months. After reading Jesus Wars, I had questions about The Virgin Mary, which led me to pick up Medieval Christianity and Cultural Christians in the Early Church. As with any good history of Christianity, you realize that Christian history is not simply a history of people thinking big thoughts about Christ. It is also about a response to events and realities outside the church. Discussions about the role of the Pope in political affairs are not just theological but also have a relationship to tax rates, the need for armies,  potential invasions from outside of Europe, the way reform movements frame their arguments, and how the technology of information transmission works.

One of my seminary classes was about the history of Christian thought, and the professor's method was to talk about philosophical ideas, but he did not connect them to the history that helped to give rise to those ideas. As someone who likes to ground ideas in historical movements, I felt lost throughout the class because I did not feel like I had anything to connect those ideas to the context from which they arose.

This is a question outside of the time period of Medieval Christianity, but I was having a conversation last week about the differences and similarities between Ignatius and Luther. They overlapped in time and had many similar issues they were trying to respond to, but their response was very different. Personality and personal history is part of the reason for their difference, but also their culture and the local history is another part.

Madigan is trying to write a history textbook that pays more attention to women and the daily life of laypeople while telling the larger story of a huge span of time and geography. There is no way to get to a high level of detail in everything, given the reality of nearly 1000 years of history being told. The fact that this was only a bit over 500 pages is about the editing process of what needed to be focused on. I do not have the background to evaluate whether the editing decisions were right. But I felt like I better understood the era than I did before I picked up Medieval Christianity. I was not new to this era. I have read several large-scale histories of Christianity. And I will keep picking up different histories every few years. I thought this was helpful, especially since this audiobook was free to me from Audible's member library.

Originally posted on my blog at https://bookwi.se/medieval-christianity/

[Thomas Brooks · Rating 5 out of 5]

As I plan to write a novel on Francis of Assisi; and I've read a number of books about the Saint it seemed to me that I should step back and take a look at the wider perspective of Medieval Christianity. With this in mind I set out to listen to a Mediieval Christianity: A New History by Kevin J. Madigan. Prof. Madigan did not disappoint.

One might imagine that a history of Medieval Christianity would become a bit tedious. Not for this reader. It's been a long time since my Medieval Christianity Course back in the mid 1980s at Union Theological Seminary in New York. I do remember the following summer reading Umberto Ecco's 'The Name of the Rose'; and being a bit flummoxed as I could not tell where Ecco's fiction began and the history ended so well crafted was that murder mystery. It may say more about my grasp of the material in the previous course.

What Madigan's New History did for me was to reaffirm the importance of Francis' role in the history of the church. He devotes quite a bit of material to this singular historical figure. Later, his followers would go on to play significant roles in the development of the medieval academy, the inquisition, and more. As I was listening; a wide array of subjects came up which I will want to pursue in the novel. In fact, I may need to listen to this book again, and again, and again. I'll need to check it out of the Library or shudder add the book to my increasing library.

[Fred · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a tremendous book. It aims high and delivers on its ambition. Kevin Madigan expertly takes us through the birth, development and maturity of Medieval Christianity. He writes with objectivity and fairness revealing both a knowledge of the many historical works that inform and precede him, as well as a deep respect for the Christian tradition he is chronicling. Madigan helps us understand the early Medieval notion of the priesthood and the liturgical and theological assumptions that led to the monastic culture. But he also examine what it meant to be a layperson and how church would have functioned in village culture. He shows how the priestly duties came to embrace scholarship, preaching, pastoral care and lay discipleship throughout this period. As he moves through history examining kings, popes and the great theologians of each era, he always stops and considers what this meant for those outside the realms of power. He also consistently examines the roles of women, in and to of the convent as well as the church's (often sorry) relationship with Jews and Muslims. Madigan's work is always engaging, readable and informative.

[Tyler Fahey · Rating 4 out of 5]

Briefly, if you're very academically oriented, mainly into scholarly reading, this book is perfect for you. I do not mind it, but this book is dense, but very factual, informative, and has a lot of great information. I've learned a lot of things in this class up until I dropped it as incomplete due to an internship opportunity. If you're interested in the Roman Catholic Church, it's history, and the development of the Christian Church throughout the Middle Ages, this book is for you primarily if you are interested in politics and cultural aspects of the Middle Ages.

Dr. John Eby, my professor of history, is very knowledgeable about the Monks and Monestarys in Europe during this period, and this book does talk about those subjects to some extent. Like I previously mentioned in "The Birth of Popular Heresy," it's an excellent book for class discussions. If you have a great facilitator, but, this is a scholarly book, to me, academic publications can be bland, but there is a lot of great information in this book.

[Jennifer · Rating 3 out of 5]

This reads like a textbook, so it felt a bit dense at times. (Or maybe I was the one who was dense). There were parts I found fascinating and flew through easily and others were more of a slog; I don't know how much of that had to do with my own circumstances and state of mind as I approached the text. I'm relatively unfamiliar with the historical time period and was reading this as an introduction, so I can't speak to biases in the work. The topical approach (as opposed to chronological) sometimes made it hard to follow, and there wasn't much of a common thread/narrative arc (yes, I realize it's nonfiction, but even still, you're telling a story).

[Karalee James · Rating 4 out of 5]

I mean this was a textbook lol but I remember last year this was literally the only thing I had to read for school that didn't make me want to die. I think this will be a great thing to reference back to as I continue my religion major !

We literally read the whole thing front to back and I NEVER went to class but ACTUALLY read this whole damn thing. It was very educational. If you wanna know about all the weird little sects and branches of Christianity, monastic life, the early papacy and REALLY early Christianity you have to read. It's v good. I finally finished the last five pages after 6 months 💀💀💀 slay.

[David Blankenship · Rating 5 out of 5]

I thought that this was a terrific overview of almost a thousand years. Lots of times books about medieval 'Christianity' are more about 'Christendom', in which the various secular political players are emphasized more than the actual elements of faith. But this book does a very good job speaking of the many varied streams of Christianity (limited, of course, to 'western' Christianity, for to go beyond this would have required several more volumes) that appeared during this time period. Well worth the long period it takes to read and absorb!

[Tadas Talaikis · Rating 4 out of 5]

Wanted more in depth, but then probably it wouldn't fit into several volumes, but this is also good.

What I've got from this book most is one thing. Such things ("idiocracy") are exceptionally interesting for me. It's about massacres of Jews by Christians that led to Dickens' et al idiotic stories depicting the "stereotypical Jew" (greedy, etc.) that further led indoctrinated kids admire racist "A Christmas Carol". It's a laugh on the floor, when you "know things" :-D

[Seth Mcdevitt · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a wonderful overview of Christianity in the medieval ages. It gives more attention to the lives and influence of women on medieval Christianity than others I have read, which is wonderful. Not for those casually interested in history, but it is not so scholarly that the significantly interested, but not scholarly, (me), can't gain a lot of information and insight from this book. Worth the money and time.