“To Sey or Thinke Otherwise”: Ordinary Theology and Facing Death in Late Medieval Norfolk
Journal Title: Religions - Year 2018, Vol 9, Issue 3
Abstract
This article explores how Jeff Astley’s work on ordinary theology can enrich historical study of late medieval lay religion. Ordinary theology provides scholars with a new set of vocabulary and methodological approaches for accessing the religious discourses of “everyday” Christians and allows medievalists in particular to reach beyond contested labels for lay belief. The article begins with a discussion of the promises and limitations of Astley’s theories for historians of religion and concludes with a test case of how they might guide future research, through a quantitative and qualitative analysis of 152 wills from fifteenth-century Norfolk. The results highlight the diversity of beliefs about the afterlife and associated doctrines among medieval laypeople even as they demonstrated commitment to orthodox Christianity and their local parishes.
Authors and Affiliations
Louisa Foroughi
Keywords
Related Articles
- EP ID EP25935
- DOI https://doi.org/10.3390/rel9030067
- Views 296
- Downloads 9
Psychotherapy with African American Women with Depression: Is it okay to Talk about Their Religious/Spiritual Beliefs?
A growing body of research focusing on African Americans‘ mental health is showing that this group relies heavily on their religious/spiritual beliefs and practices to cope with mental health issues including depressio...
Normative Virtue Theory in Theological Ethics
What place is there for virtue theory in theological ethics? Many question the normative significance of virtue theory in theological ethics today, leaving it to rule-based ethics to provide action-guidance. There are...
The Identity Strategy of “Wild-Geese” Fathers: The Craft of Confucian Fathers
Transnational migration scholarship has discussed parents’ economic and emotional sacrifice for their children as a justification for separation. However, the researchers have overlooked addressing how the parents’ sac...
The Untidy Playground: An Irish Congolese Case Study in Sonic Encounters with the Sacred Stranger
This paper explores the proposal that music, and particularly singing, has unique properties that render it amenable to encounters with “the other” or the sacred stranger. Drawing on the deconstructionist works of Kris...
Spiritual Well-Being as a Component of Health-Related Quality of Life: The Functional Assessment of Chronic Illness Therapy—Spiritual Well-Being Scale (FACIT-Sp)
The Functional Assessment of Chronic Illness Therapy-Spiritual Well-Being (FACIT-Sp-12) is a 12-item questionnaire that measures spiritual well-being in people with cancer and other chronic illnesses. Cancer patients,...