In this Book

buy this book Buy This Book in Print
summary
Supper at Emmaus traces various important intellectual topics from the ancient world to the modern period. Generally, as in its treatment of the question of whether the long-standing contrast between cyclical and linear views of history is helpful, it introduces important thinkers who have considered the question. A preoccupation of the book is the appearance and reappearance across the centuries of patterns used to organize temporal and cultural experience. After an opening essay on transcendental truth and cultural relativism, the second chapter traces a distinction, common in historical writings during the past two centuries, between an alleged ancient classical "cyclic" view of time and history, used to describe the claimed repetitiveness of and similarities between historical events ("nothing is new under the sun"), and a contrasting Jewish-Christian linear view, sometimes described as providential in that it moves through a series of unique events to some end intended by God. In the latter, history is "about something," the education of the human race or the redemption of humankind. As in each of the remaining essays, the book then attempts to draw out the limitations of what the current consensus on this topic has become. It does this for such things as our current understanding of religious toleration, humanism, natural law, and teleology. Some of the essays, such as those on debate about Augustine's understanding of marriage or the concluding illustrated essay on the baroque city of Lecce, are published for the first time. Others are based on previously published contributions to the scholarly literature, though generally each of these chapters concludes with a postscript that engages with current scholarly debate on the subject.

Table of Contents

restricted access Download Full Book
  1. Cover
  2. restricted access
    • Download PDF Download
  1. Title Page, Copyright Page
  2. pp. i-iv
  3. restricted access
    • Download PDF Download
  1. Contents
  2. pp. v-vi
  3. restricted access
    • Download PDF Download
  1. List of Illustrations
  2. pp. vii-viii
  3. restricted access
    • Download PDF Download
  1. Acknowledgments
  2. pp. ix-x
  3. restricted access
    • Download PDF Download
  1. Introduction
  2. pp. xi-xxiv
  3. restricted access
    • Download PDF Download
  1. Part 1. Patterns in Ancient Time and Culture
  2. pp. 1-2
  3. restricted access
    • Download PDF Download
  1. 1. Transcendental Truth and Cultural Relativism: A Historian’s View
  2. pp. 3-15
  3. restricted access
    • Download PDF Download
  1. 2. Problems with the Contrast between Circular and Linear Views of Time in the Interpretation of Ancient and Early Medieval History
  2. pp. 16-38
  3. restricted access
    • Download PDF Download
  1. 3. Marriage, Feminism, Theology, and the New Social History: Dyan Elliott’s Spiritual Marriage
  2. pp. 39-53
  3. restricted access
    • Download PDF Download
  1. 4. Augustine’s View of Marriage: The Clash of Interpretation
  2. pp. 54-128
  3. restricted access
    • Download PDF Download
  1. Part 2. Setting Boundaries
  2. pp. 129-130
  3. restricted access
    • Download PDF Download
  1. 5. Setting Boundaries: Early Medieval Reflections on Religious Toleration and Their Jewish Roots
  2. pp. 131-162
  3. restricted access
    • Download PDF Download
  1. 6. The Middle Ages in the History of Toleration: A Prolegomena
  2. pp. 163-184
  3. restricted access
    • Download PDF Download
  1. Part 3. Humanism, Natural Law, and Teleology
  2. pp. 203-204
  3. restricted access
    • Download PDF Download
  1. 8. Humanism: The Struggle to Possess a Word
  2. pp. 205-222
  3. restricted access
    • Download PDF Download
  1. 9. The Natural Law: The First Grace
  2. pp. 223-243
  3. restricted access
    • Download PDF Download
  1. 10. The Return of Purpose
  2. pp. 244-258
  3. restricted access
    • Download PDF Download
  1. 11. Lecce’s Baroque longue durée
  2. Glenn W. Olsen and Suzanne Olsen
  3. pp. 259-272
  4. restricted access
    • Download PDF Download
  1. Bibliography
  2. pp. 273-320
  3. restricted access
    • Download PDF Download
  1. Index
  2. pp. 321-327
  3. restricted access
    • Download PDF Download
Back To Top

This website uses cookies to ensure you get the best experience on our website. Without cookies your experience may not be seamless.