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    The Christ Child in Medieval Culture
    Alpha Es Et O!

    Mary Dzon (Author), Theresa M. Kenney (Author)

    9780802098948

    Hardback, published 9 May 2012

    360 pages, 47 illustrations
    23.6 x 16 x 2.7 cm, 0.71 kg

    ‘The abiding impression of this collection – and every essay repays reading and re-reading – is of the extraordinary richness and poetry of medieval devotions and its remarkable freedom from sentimental fripperies.’

    - Henrietta Leyser (Journal of Ecclesiastical History)

    ‘A lively collection of essays.’

    - Elisabeth Dutton (Speculum)

    ‘A fascinating volume that makes highly entertaining reading, and should be of widespread scholarly interest.’

    - Judith Oliver (The Medieval Review)

    ‘Meticulously documented and edited, this book provides an impressively rich display of the intersections of medieval theology with the visual arts, literary expression, and popular devotion… We will certainly keep this "source-book" to explore further the ever-endearing and engaging figure of God as baby and little boy.’

    - Laurie Postlewate (The Catholic Historical Review vol 101:03:2015)

    ‘The book is highly relevant for those interested in the Middle Ages, the history of Christianity, as well as religion and the arts; it can be an interesting point of departure for future studies on the construction of childhood in the West.’

    - Daniel Sáenz (Journal of Religion and Culture)

    The cult of the Christ Child flourished in late medieval Europe across lay and religious, as well as geographic and cultural boundaries. Depictions of Christ's boyhood are found throughout popular culture, visual art, and literature. The Christ Child in Medieval Culture is the first interdisciplinary investigation of how representations of the Christ Child were conceptualized and employed in this period.

    The contributors to this unique volume analyse depictions of the Christ Child through a variety of frameworks, including the interplay of mortality and divinity, the medieval conceit of a suffering Christ Child, and the interrelationships between Christ and other figures, including saints and ordinary children. The Christ Child in Medieval Culture synthesizes various approaches to interpreting the cultural meaning of medieval religious imagery and illuminates the significance of its most central figure.

    Abbreviations

    1. Introduction: The Infancy of Scholarship on the Medieval Christ Child
      Mary Dzon and Theresa Kenney

    SECTION ONE: The Christ Child as Sacrifice

    1. The Christ Child as Sacrifice: A Medieval Tradition and the English Cycle Plays
      Leah Marcus
    2. The Manger as Calvary and Altar in the Middle English Nativity Lyric
      Theresa Kenney
    3. Signs of Death: The Sacrificial Christ Child in Late Medieval Art
      Elina Gertsman
    4. The Christ Child in the Tree: The Motif in the Thirteenth-Century Wood-of-the-Cross Legends and Arthurian Romances
      Nicole Fallon

    SECTION TWO: The Christ Child and Feminine Spirituality

    1. Birgitta of Sweden and Christ’s Clothing
      Mary Dzon
    2. Women Wielding Knives: The Circumcision of Christ by His Mother in an Illustrated Manuscript of the Meditationes vitae Christi (Paris Bibliothèque Nationale de France MS. ital. 115)
      Holly Flora
    3. Ihesus ist unser!: The Christ Child in the German Sister Books
      Richard Kieckhefer

    SECTION THREE: The Question of the Christ Child’s Development

    1. The Holy Tooth: Dentition, Childhood Development, and the Cult of the Christ Child
      William MacLehose
    2. ‘The Ink of Our Mortality’: The Late-Medieval Image of the Writing Christ Child
      Mary McDevitt
    3. Reshapings of the Childhood Miracles of Jesus
      Pamela Sheingorn
    4. Epilogue

    Miri Rubin

    Manuscripts Cited

    Works Cited

    Contributors

    Index
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