Producing Christian Culture ─ Medieval Exegesis and Its Interpretative Genres

Producing Christian Culture takes as its thread the 'interpretative genres' within which medieval people engaged with the Bible. Contributors to the volume present specific material as a case study illustrative of a specific genre, whether devotional, homiletical, scholarly, or controversial. The chronological range moves from St Augustine to the use of Gospel texts in polemical writing of the first two decades of the 1500s, with focal sections on early medieval Anglo-Saxon and Carolingian theology, the scholastic turn of the High Middle Ages, and the influence of vernacular writing in the later Middle Ages. The tremendous range and vitality of medieval responses to biblical texts are highlighted within the studies.

With degrees in both history and theology, Giles Gasper is a specialist in the history of high medieval thought, and the making of medieval theology, from its biblical and patristic roots to the beginning of the 14th century. He has written extensively on Anselm of Canterbury, re-assessing the inheritance of ideas with which he worked, and the legacy that he left; his publications include Anselm of Canterbury and His Theological Inheritance (2004), Anselm of Canterbury and His Legacy (2012). Monastic learning in the period of the later 11th to early 13th centuries, especially on notions of spiritual and material economy, forms another strand of research. A third strand of research focuses on Robert Grosseteste. Giles is Principal Investigator on the AHRC funded Ordered Universe project. After posts at King’s London and Aberdeen, Francis Watson joined the Department of Theology and Religion in Durham in 2007. Early work on Pauline Studies, culminating with Paul and the Hermeneutics of Faith (2004) and Paul, Judaism and the Gentiles: Beyond the New Perspective (Revised and Expanded Edition, 2007, provided the background for current research projects on the Gospels (canonical and non-canonical) and their reception. Gospel Writing: A Canonical Perspective ( 2013) proposes a new and broader paradigm for the study of the gospels which includes their early reception not only in theological writing but also in art. Francis leads the related AHRC funded project Gospel Writing and entitled, "The fourfold gospel and its rivals" (2012-16). Gemma Wain recently completed her PhD on the image of Eve in twelfth-century theological and literary writing, examined by Professor Corinne Saunders and Professor Mary Carruthers. She is currently working on a book-length study of Eve in the Middle Ages.