Heresy and the Making of European Culture

Analysts looking for the roots of the extraordinary creativity and innovation found in Europe from the Middle Ages have thus far neglected the important role of religious heresy. The papers collected here - reflecting the disciplines of history, literature, theology, philosophy, economics and law - [...]
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Analysts looking for the roots of the extraordinary creativity and innovation found in Europe from the Middle Ages have thus far neglected the important role of religious heresy. The papers collected here - reflecting the disciplines of history, literature, theology, philosophy, economics and law - examine the intellectual and social investments characteristic of both deliberate religious dissent such as among the Cathars of Languedoc, the Balkan Bogomils, the Hussites of Bohemia and the attempts to police or eradicate it, such as the Inquisition. However, contributors also go 'behind the headlines' in looking beyond polarised oppositions between heresy and orthodoxy to present a rather less dramatic vision of heresy as a process, highlighting ways in which, especially in the Eastern Orthodox Churches, 'the heretic' was seen as a pilgrim engaged in a return journey home to the Church. Consequently, papers also explore how issues of heresy could be blurred and avoided through, as one contributor puts it, 'unofficial orthodoxy', while other contributions examine how orthodoxy itself was troublingly dependent on the prurient fascinations of dissidence and deviance.From Armenia to the Atlantic the dance of heresy and orthodoxy involved transgressions more or less licit, coping strategies and the laying down and defence of boundaries. From a contemporary perspective, heresy appears 'too important to be left to the pale fingers of archivists', as a 1970s Polish dissident put it. Europe is still reaping the cultural harvest that resulted from the social and intellectual activity of the Middle Ages. Essays here focus on issues such as the role of heresy in French radical thought of the 1960s and Communist Poland. Finally, a ground-breaking study from a modern economist demonstrates how the discarded 'heretical' arguments for 'just price' deployed by the fourteenth-century Spiritual Franciscans can help modern arguments for fair trade.