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Books by Celia Chazelle
The Crucified God in the Carolingian Era: Theology
and Art of Christ's Passion /
Paradigms and Methods in Early
Medieval Studies
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Professor Celia Chazelle
Advocates Christian Social
Activism
in Keynote Speech
Delivered at Medieval Studies Conference
By
Kam
Williams
What ordinarily
comes to mind when one thinks of a lecture about
medieval Europe is a talk a lot less relevant to
present-day worldly concerns than the keynote speech
recently delivered by Professor Celia Chazelle at a
conference held at University College Cork entitled
“Envisioning Christ on the Cross.” Chazelle, who
chairs the Department of History at The College of
New Jersey, had been invited to Ireland to speak
about “The Mass and the Eucharist: ‘Image’ of the
Crucified Christ, in the Christianization of Early
Medieval Europe.”
While the bulk of
her otherwise academic address certainly explored
that topic at considerable depth, she prefaced her
remarks by reading a poem by her Irish-born pastor,
Father Michael Doyle, about the seeming futility of
the never-ending fight to eradicate the suffering
evident in his midst. For 35 years now, Doyle has
presided over Sacred Heart Church in Camden, the
poorest city in the US, where over 90% of the
population is black and Hispanic.
With the assistance
of volunteers like his dedicated parishioner Celia
Chazelle, Doyle’s been directly ministering to the
needs of the poor via a number of Sacred Heart-based
organizations, among them the church’s St. Vincent
de Paul Society and affiliated Heart of Camden.
These sponsor a weekly dinner, a thrift store,
building and home renovations, and a variety of
other social programs. Another affiliated
organization, the Center for Transformation,
oversees a greenhouse, community gardens, and
neighborhood cleanups, engages in environmental
education and activism in the area, and is in the
final stages of establishing a retreat center. All
this is located right within Camden’s deteriorating
exoskelton.
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Professor Chazelle made a smooth segue
from a discussion of Camden to the
Christianization of Europe during the
early Middle Ages by pointing out the
parallels between the frustrations of
Father Doyle as expressed in the poem
and the path of Jesus, a path marked by
failure yet leading to resurrection,
symbol of faith in the promise of a
better tomorrow. The thrust of her
ensuing thesis explored the rise of
Christianity as a grassroots movement
emanating from the bottom up. This
incendiary idea cuts a sharp contrast
with the conventional thinking of many
historians who tend to focus on the
conversion of kings and the rest of the
aristocratic class as the seminal force. |
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Nonetheless, in
deliberate fashion, Chazelle proceeded to mount a
most persuasive case, convincingly threading the
fruits of her painstakingly-researched, scholarly
efforts with additional anecdotal asides about
Father Doyle. Furthermore, the lecture was augmented
with photographs effectively juxtaposing
contemporary Camden with historical artifacts
illustrating the religious rite of the Eucharist,
the reenactment of the Last Supper, as routinely
practiced by the salt of the Earth a millennium ago.
Ultimately, Chazelle
came full circle, returning to share some final
insights about her beloved Sacred Heart parish
before closing with a rhetorical flourish suggesting
that one might partake in the holy tradition of
sharing Christ’s body and blood beyond the
sacrosanct confines of church in such unlikely
environs as a soup kitchen ministering to the
homeless or even at the dinner table while simply
breaking bread with family and friends. These were
the earnest, inspirational sentiments of a foot
soldier in the struggle for social justice.
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Make a donation or
volunteer at the Camden Center of
Transformation
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The Crucified God in the Carolingian Era
Theology and Art of Christ's Passion
By Celia Chazelle
The Carolingian
‘Renaissance’ of the late eighth and ninth
centuries, in what is now France, western Germany
and northern Italy, transformed medieval European
culture. At the same time it engendered a need to
ensure that clergy, monks, and laity embraced
orthodox Christian doctrine. This book offers a
fresh perspective on the period by examining
transformations in a major current of thought as
revealed through literature and artistic imagery:
the doctrine of the Passion and the crucified
Christ.
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The
evidence of a range of literary sources
is surveyed—liturgical
texts, poetry, hagiography, letters,
homilies, exegetical and moral tractates—but
special attention is given to writings
from the discussions and debates
concerning artistic images, Adoptionism,
predestination, and the Eucharist.
• Gives
serious consideration to the neglected
area of the development of Carolingian
theology • Offers an interdisciplinary
approach, combining artistic, religious,
and literary sources • Offers a
reassessment of some of the most
striking and enigmatic representations
of the Crucifixion to survive from the
Carolingian era.—Publisher,
Cambridge University Press
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Contents
List of
illustrations
Preface
List of
abbreviations
1.
Introduction
2.
The passion and Christological inquiry
at the court of Charlemagne
3.
The crucified God in the Gellone
Sacramentary and Hrabanus Maurus' In
honorem sanctae cruces
4.
The crucified Christ in later
Carolingian literature
5.
For whom did Christ die?: the
controversy over divine predestination
6.
One-time sacrifice, daily food and
drink: the controversy over the
eucharist
7.
Three later Carolingian crucifixion
images
8.
Conclusion; Select bibliography; Index. |
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Reviews
The result is
without doubt the most thorough study of the passion
in the Carolingian period to date.—David
Appleby, The Medieval Review
[A]n interesting and
thorough book, full of insights.—Journal
of Ecclesiastical History
This book is filled
with illustrations, most of them of great interest.
. . .There is a comprehensive index and a select
bibliography.—Oxford
Academic Journals
Chazelle’s careful,
perceptive and engaging discussions, and her firm
grasp of the sources, both primary and secondary,
make this book an important contribution to the
burgeoning literature on the so-called Carolingian
Renaissance.—Journal
of Ecclesiastical History
This is a work of
fine scholarship in a little known area, presented
with style as well as insight, illuminating many
theological themes which are of relevance today but
above all showing how artistic representation and
written word complement and illuminate one another.—Journal
of Theological Studies
This is a book in
the best tradition of sophisticated theological,
intellectual, and iconographical analysis. It should
be required reading for all those concerned to
explain that most distinctive of medieval
constructions: the devotion - both intellectual and
affective - to the crucified Christ.—Journal
of Religion
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Basil Davidson's "Africa Series"
Different
But Equal /
Mastering A Continent /
Caravans
of Gold /
The King and the City /
The Bible and The Gun
West Africa Before the Colonial Era: A
History to 1850
By
Basil Davidson
African Slave Trade: Precolonial History,
1450-1850
By Basil Davidson
John Henrik Clarke—A Great and Mighty Walk
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Blacks in Hispanic Literature: Critical Essays
Edited by
Miriam DeCosta-Willis
Blacks in Hispanic Literature is a
collection of fourteen essays by scholars and
creative writers from Africa and the Americas.
Called one of two significant critical works on
Afro-Hispanic literature to appear in the late
1970s, it includes the pioneering studies of
Carter G. Woodson and
Valaurez B. Spratlin, published in the 1930s, as
well as the essays of scholars whose interpretations
were shaped by the Black aesthetic. The early
essays, primarily of the Black-as-subject in Spanish
medieval and Golden Age literature, provide an
historical context for understanding 20th-century
creative works by African-descended, Hispanophone
writers, such as Cuban
Nicolás Guillén and Ecuadorean poet, novelist,
and scholar
Adalberto Ortiz, whose essay analyzes the
significance of Negritude in Latin America. This
collaborative text set the tone for later
conferences in which writers and scholars worked
together to promote, disseminate, and critique the
literature of Spanish-speaking people of African
descent. . . .
Cited by a
literary critic in 2004 as "the seminal study in the
field of Afro-Hispanic Literature . . . on which
most scholars in the field 'cut their teeth'."
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Sister Citizen: Shame, Stereotypes, and Black Women in
America
By Melissa V.
Harris-Perry
According to the
author, this society has historically exerted
considerable pressure on black females to fit into one
of a handful of stereotypes, primarily, the Mammy, the
Matriarch or the Jezebel. The selfless
Mammy’s behavior is marked by a slavish devotion to
white folks’ domestic concerns, often at the expense of
those of her own family’s needs. By contrast, the
relatively-hedonistic Jezebel is a sexually-insatiable
temptress. And the Matriarch is generally thought of as
an emasculating figure who denigrates black men, ala the
characters Sapphire and Aunt Esther on the television
shows Amos and Andy and Sanford and Son, respectively.
Professor Perry
points out how the propagation of these harmful myths
have served the mainstream culture well. For instance,
the Mammy suggests that it is almost second nature for
black females to feel a maternal instinct towards
Caucasian babies.
As for the source
of the Jezebel, black women had no control over their
own bodies during slavery given that they were being
auctioned off and bred to maximize profits. Nonetheless,
it was in the interest of plantation owners to propagate
the lie that sisters were sluts inclined to mate
indiscriminately.
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The White Masters of the
World
From
The World and Africa, 1965
By W. E. B. Du Bois
W. E. B. Du Bois’
Arraignment and Indictment of White Civilization
(Fletcher)
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Ancient African Nations
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Negro Digest /
Black World
Browse all issues
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Enjoy!
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The Death of Emmett Till by Bob Dylan
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The Lonesome Death of Hattie Carroll
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Only a Pawn in Their Game
Rev. Jesse Lee Peterson Thanks America for
Slavery /
George Jackson /
Hurricane Carter
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The Journal of Negro History issues at Project Gutenberg
The
Haitian Declaration of Independence 1804
/
January 1, 1804 -- The Founding of
Haiti
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posted 18 April 2010
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