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Elite Reform and Popular Heresy in c.1000: ‘Revitalization Movements’ as a Model for Understanding Religious Dissidence Historically
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 21 March 2016
Extract
Amongst various features still being evaluated as characteristic of West Frankish society in c.1000 AD, one of the most striking, is that into the middle of the century a range of essentially unrelated and geographically widespread sources speak of ‘heresy’ newly affecting the populace. But how should we interpret these apparently diverse phenomena? Of the models which heresiologists explore, too often overlooked is that proposed by Janet Nelson in this very forum in 1971. Her thesis, that a ‘crisis in theodicy’ produced a cognitive need for new explanations which ‘heresy’ answered, whilst not explicitly anthropological, focused on understanding phenomena within societal wholes. This explanation was challenged by the anthropologist Talal Asad, who argued that heretical activity simply indicated urban movements over which clerics were unable to extend their authority.
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References
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