Belief and Unbelief in Medieval Europe

Download or read book Belief and Unbelief in Medieval Europe written by John H. Arnold and published by Bloomsbury Academic. This book was released on 2005-06-30 with total page 328 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Historians have no record of what the people who lived in medieval Europe between 1100-1500 did or did not believe regarding their Christian faith. This penetrating study sifts through the traces of evidence left across Europe to assemble a more complete picture. While religion in medieval Europe was a central part of people's lives and affected even the most mundane aspects of everyday existance, the period was far from uniform as the "Age of Faith". By focusing on lay people, this comprehensive analysis unlocks the multiple meanings of religion, asking how it functioned and what effect it had on the population, revealing the meanings and struggles that lay behind the misleading, commonly held myth of ubiquitous religious life in medieval Europe.