Sympathy for the Lord: The Host and Elements of Sympathetic Magic in Late Medieval Exempla
When Jesus identified Himself as the bread of life, He meant that He could be allegorically eaten, metabolized so as to dwell inside the body of the faithful. In fact, this led the eucharistic bread to be venerated and, occasionally and more or less intentionally, desecrated. Many late medieva...
| Main Author: | |
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| Format: | Electronic Article |
| Language: | English |
| Check availability: | HBZ Gateway |
| Journals Online & Print: | Drawer...
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| Fernleihe: | Fernleihe für die Fachinformationsdienste |
| Published: |
Penn State Univ. Press
[2017]
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| In: |
Journal of medieval religious cultures
Year: 2017, Volume: 43, Issue: 2, Pages: 209-230 |
| IxTheo Classification: | CB Christian life; spirituality KAC Church history 500-1500; Middle Ages NBP Sacramentology; sacraments |
| Online Access: |
Volltext (Verlag) |
| Summary: | When Jesus identified Himself as the bread of life, He meant that He could be allegorically eaten, metabolized so as to dwell inside the body of the faithful. In fact, this led the eucharistic bread to be venerated and, occasionally and more or less intentionally, desecrated. Many late medieval exempla, edifying tales intended for use in sermons, tell of the miraculous powers of the Host but also of its misuse by both clerics and laypeople, who hoped to exploit the divine essence of the consecrated wafer for their own purposes. This article offers a parallel between such beliefs and practices and an ancient, traditional conceptshared by many peoples in the pastaccording to which it was possible to absorb someone's attributes by eating part of their body. From this viewpoint, the Christian theophagy proves somewhat original but also extremely contradictory. |
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| ISSN: | 2153-9650 |
| Contains: | Enthalten in: Journal of medieval religious cultures
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