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. Our reading for the class will focus on secondary literature but we will try to read each study with a textual example that will be chosen by one of the students.

MA course