Before Church and State: A Study of Social Order in the Sacramental Kingdom of St. Louis IX - Couverture rigide

Jones, Andrew Willard

Couverture rigide

ISBN 10 : 1945125144 ISBN 13 : 9781945125140

Editeur : Emmaus Academic, 2017

Synopsis

Explores in great detail the "problem of Church and State" in thirteenth-century France. It argues that while the spiritual and temporal powers existed, they were not parallel structures attempting to govern the same social space in a contest over sovereignty. Rather, the spiritual and the temporal powers were wrapped up together in a differentiated and sacramental world, and both included the other as aspects of their very identity. The realm was governed not by proto-absolutist institutions, but rather by networks of friends that cut across lay/clerical lines. Ultimately, the king's "fullness of power" and the papacy's "fullness of power" came together to govern a single social order.

Before Church and State reconstructs this social order through a detailed examination of the documentary evidence, arguing that the order was fundamentally sacramental and that it was ultimately congruent with contemporary incarnational and trinitarian theologies and the notions of proper order that they supported. Because of this, modern categories of secular politics cannot be made to capture its essence but rather paint always a distorted portrait in modernity's image.

In addition to a detailed reconstruction of the institutions of the kingdom, the work offers a reading of the political and ecclesiological thought of St. Thomas Aquinas that is consistent with that reconstruction. Thomas is here rescued from the liberal or Whig reading that has dominated in recent centuries and is returned to his thirteenth century context.

Previously, scholars interested in challenging modern conceptions of the secular and the religious when treating the Middle Ages, have had to rely largely on historical scholarship written from within the conventional modern paradigm. In this text, Jones provides these scholars with a methodologically and technically rigorous alternative. If the book's thesis is widely accepted, it will call for the reconsideration of the accepted narrative of medieval Church and State.

A propos du livre

À propos de l'auteur

Andrew Willard Jones holds a PhD in Medieval History from Saint Louis University with a focus on the Church of the High Middle Ages and is an associate professor at Franciscan University of Steubenville. Jones's work is primarily concerned with historical political theology and with the reconciliation of the post-modern with the pre-modern. Methodologically, his work treats history as a theological discipline and not as a secular archaeology. Jones is the author of The Two Cities: A History of Christian Politics.

Détails de l'édition

• Éditeur: Emmaus Academic
• Date d'édition: 2017
• Langue: anglais
• ISBN 10: 1945125144
• ISBN 13: 9781945125140
• Reliure: Relié
• Nombre de pages: 510
• Coordonnées du fabricant: non disponible
• Personne responsable: non disponible