This course will examine the way those who were not necessarily part of the elite expressed their religious belongings and beliefs in medieval Europe. We will study a number of different approaches to the question of distinguishing between the learned elite and the laity and outline different connections between practice and belief. The course will focus on northern Europe but will include comparisons between Christians and members of other religions, especially Islam and Judaism. Read more about Popular Religion in Medieval Europe
This course will address the Jewish family as a unit and will investigate the ways we can learn about the family from a wide variety of sources. Methods from other disciplines and especially from anthropology will be central to our inquiry. A comparison between Jewish communities under Islam and under Christianity will be the central focus in the course.
