Bibliography

Classen, Albrecht (ed.), Mental health, spirituality, and religion in the middle ages and early modern age, Fundamentals of Medieval and Early Modern Culture, 15, Berlin, New York: De Gruyter, 2014.

  • edited collection
Citation details
Work
Mental health, spirituality, and religion in the middle ages and early modern age
Place
Berlin • New York
Publisher
De Gruyter
Year
2014
Contributions indexed individually i.e. contributions for which a separate page is available
Description
Abstract (cited)
This volume continues the critical exploration of fundamental issues in the medieval and early modern world, here concerning mental health, spirituality, melancholy, mystical visions, medicine, and well-being. The contributors, who originally had presented their research at a symposium at The University of Arizona in May 2013, explore a wide range of approaches and materials pertinent to these issues, taking us from the early Middle Ages to the eighteenth century, capping the volume with some reflections on the relevance of religion today. Lapidary sciences matter here as much as medical-psychological research, combined with literary and art-historical approaches. The premodern understanding of mental health is not taken as a miraculous panacea for modern problems, but the contributors suggest that medieval and early modern writers, scientists, and artists commanded a considerable amount of arcane, sometimes curious and speculative, knowledge that promises to be of value and relevance even for us today, once again. Modern palliative medicine finds, for instance, intriguing parallels in medieval word magic, and the mystical perspectives encapsulated highly productive alternative perceptions of the macrocosm and microcosm that promise to be insightful and important also for the post-modern world.
(source: Publisher)
Subjects and topics
Contributors
Dennis Groenewegen
Page created
May 2014, last updated: November 2022