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Introduction

Authors :
Sari Katajala-Peltomaa
Source :
Demonic Possession and Lived Religion in Later Medieval Europe
Publication Year :
2020
Publisher :
Oxford University Press, 2020.

Abstract

This chapter contextualizes the phenomenon of demonic possession and discusses its medieval interpretations as well as demonstrating its connections to fields of study such as heresy, demonology, and witchcraft. It sets out the main analytical concept of lived religion and shows how demons were integral within it, intersecting cultural, communal, and individual levels. Religion created a performative space and demonic presence was a fluid and multifaceted category within it. This chapter introduces the corpus of source material and methodological elements of canonization processes: the final records were an outcome of collaboration between lay witnesses and the inquisitorial committee, an amalgam of personal choices in the use of rhetoric, communal memories of actual past events, and the demands of canon law and the miracle genre. Therefore, depositions reveal inconsistencies in the universalizing discourse of the Church and manifest local nuances in the way people lived their religion.

Details

Database :
OpenAIRE
Journal :
Demonic Possession and Lived Religion in Later Medieval Europe
Accession number :
edsair.doi...........f54cb80f733f7e1490f389d762a42077
Full Text :
https://doi.org/10.1093/oso/9780198850465.003.0001