Ghosts in the Middle Ages: The Living and the Dead in Medieval Society

by Jean-Claude Schmitt

Paperback, 1999

Status

Available

Call number

909

Genres

General Nonfiction

History

All Topics

Religion & Spirituality

Nonfiction

Collection

Your library

Publication

University Of Chicago Press (1999), Paperback, 298 pages

Description

Through this vivid study, Jean-Claude Schmitt examines medieval religious culture and the significance of the widespread belief in ghosts, revealing the ways in which the dead and the living related to each other during the middle ages. Schmitt also discusses Augustine's influence on medieval authors; the link between dreams and autobiographical narratives; and monastic visions and folklore. Including numerous color reproductions of ghosts and ghostly trappings, this book presents a unique and intriguing look at medieval culture. "Valuable and highly readable. . . . [Ghosts in the Middle Ages] will be of interest to many students of medieval thought and culture, but especially to those seeking a general overview of this particularly conspicuous aspect of the medieval remembrance of the dead."--Hans Peter Broedel, Medieval Review "A fascinating study of the growing prevalence of ghost imagery in ecclesiastical and popular writing from the fifth to the fifteenth century."--Choice… (more)

User reviews

LibraryThing member meandmybooks

Right up front I'll point out that this is a book of social history, not ghost stories. Schmitt is interested in what ghost stories tell us about developments in institutions and society in the Middle Ages. Who tells the stories, to what audience, and what aspects of the encounters are deemed

important are the focus here. Schmitt is not a skeptic about the existence of ghosts. Skeptic implies a degree of uncertainty, and our author wants to be absolutely sure his readers understand that he knows that ghosts are imaginary, and that the places they are said to come from or go to, be that Hell, Purgatory, or Heaven, are equally imaginary (and this is fine with me, but he goes to wearying lengths to be sure no one misses this point). What he does believe in, though, is the value of what ghost stories can tell us about developments in the Church and its teachings, and in various types of social relationships, and his exploration of this topic, if often repetitive and excessively academic in style, is fairly interesting. Three and a half stars.

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