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Using many different medieval texts, Schmitt examines medieval religious culture and the significance of the widespread belief in ghosts, asking who returned, to whom, from where, in what form, and why. Through this vivid study, we can see the ways in which the dead and the living related to each other. Schmitt focuses on everyday ghosts - recently departed ordinary people who were a part of the complex social world of the living.
Schmitt argues that beliefs and the imaginary depend above all on the structures and functioning of society and culture, and he shows how the Christian culture of the Middle Ages enlarged the notion of ghosts and created many opportunities for the dead to appear. Schmitt also points out that the church happily proliferated ghost stories as a way to promote the liturgy of the dead, to develop pious sentiments among parishioners, and to solicit alms on behalf of a relative or friend's salvation.
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Showing 2 featured editions. View all 2 editions?
Edition | Availability |
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1
Ghosts in the Middle Ages: The Living and the Dead in Medieval Society
December 1, 1999, University Of Chicago Press
Paperback
in English
- New Ed edition
0226738884 9780226738888
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2
Ghosts in the Middle Ages: the living and the dead in Medieval society
1998, University of Chicago Press
in English
0226738876 9780226738871
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Book Details
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"The dead have no existence other than that which the living imagine for them."
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- Created April 30, 2008
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October 10, 2020 | Edited by ImportBot | import existing book |
August 4, 2020 | Edited by ImportBot | import existing book |
August 12, 2010 | Edited by IdentifierBot | added LibraryThing ID |
April 24, 2010 | Edited by Open Library Bot | Fixed duplicate goodreads IDs. |
April 30, 2008 | Created by an anonymous user | Imported from amazon.com record |