Kevin Madigan

Nicely done; Madigan is much better (or so it seemed to me) on the high and later middle ages; the early chapters drag a little, with too much written about comparatively unimportant matters. It's not clear to me, in particular, why there are two chapters on Christianity and 'the Jews', but almost nothing at all about western and eastern Christianity. You only know the latter exists because there's a paragraph or so about the schism. Of course, it is clear to me: this is not a book about 'Medieval Christianity,' but a book about medieval Christianity in western Europe, and it was written recently, so the recent historical preoccupations find their way in. But I'm not sure that's a responsible thing to do in what is meant to be an introductory textbook.… (más)

In 1970 the great British medievalist Richard William Southern published his book [b:Western Society and the Church in the Middle Ages|271116|Western Society and the Church in the Middle Ages (The Penguin History of the Church, #2)|R.W. Southern|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1388363010s/271116.jpg|262839]. A volume in the "Penguin History of the Church" series, it served for over four decades as the standard survey on the relationship between Christianity and the medieval world. Kevin Madigan makes it clear at the start of this book that he intends for this book to serve as a replacement for Southern's seminal text. It's a ambitious goal, and one which he achieves successfully by providing a lucid and wide-ranging survey of the role Christianity played in western and central Europe in the Middle Ages.… (más)

Resurrection: The Power of God for Christians and Jews reads with the suspense of a mystery novel as it pursues answers to the question of how we got to the current doctrine (considered orthodox by both Christians and Jews) of a bodily resurrection (not just an ephemeral life after death of some disembodied "soul") considering that the doctrine is not evident in the Hebrew Scriptures. Rather, in the earliest Scriptures, the reward for a holy life is offspring--eternal life through one's heirs. Sheol, commonly now understood as the underworld, was a state that could be experienced before actual death, when very ill or depressed. The most famous resurrection scene in the Old Testament, Ezekiel's vision of dry bones, is really about the nation of Israel as a whole, not about individuals. Yet the image is there, and so are God's promises, which He claims to be eternal. The choice to follow God is seen as the choice of life. All of these factors can only be reconciled by belief in physical resurrection. The God who created the world, can certainly recreate the parts He wishes. Humans are not fully themselves apart from their bodies and the Gnostics, who denied this, fought against the acceptance of Resurrection by the Christian inheritors of second temple Judaism. Madigan and Levenson see Christianity and rabbinic Judaism as siblings, both inheritors of Second Temple rabbinic teaching, which included then, as Orthodox Judaism continued to do (despite common perception to the contrary) of the doctrine that people would be restored to life, both bodies and souls.

In addition to showing the deeply intertwined nature of Judaism and Christianity, the book makes a strong case for acceptance of the traditional doctrine of bodily Resurrection for all who adhere to the Scriptures which depict one all powerful Creator.… (más)