Chaucer and Religion (Christianity and Culture: Issues in Teaching and Research)

xix, 216 pp. New essays on Chaucer's engagement with religion and the religious controversies of the fourteenth century. How do critics, religious scholars and historians in the early twenty-first century view Chaucer's relationship to religion' And how can he be taught and studied in an increasingly secular and multi-cultural environment' The essays here, on [the Canterbury Tales, Troilus and Criseyde, lyrics and dream poems, aim to provide an orientation on the study of the the religions, the religious traditions and the religious controversies of his era - and to offer new perspectives upon them. Using a variety of theoretical, critical and historical approaches, they deal with topics that include Chaucer in relation to lollardy, devotion to the saint and the Virgin Mary, Judaism and Islam, and the Bible; attitudes towards sex, marriage and love; ethics, both Christian and secular; ideas on death and the Judgement; Chaucer's handling of religious genres such as hagiography and miracles, as well as other literary traditions - romance, ballade, dream poetry, fablliaux and the middle ages' classical inheritance - which pose challenges to religious world views. These are complemented by discussion of a range of issues related to teachingChaucer in Britain and America today, drawn from practical experience. Contributors: Anthony Bale, Alcuin Blamires, Laurel Broughton, Helen Cooper, Graham D. Caie, Roger Dalrymple, Dee Dyas, D. Thomas Hanks Jr., Stephen Knight, Carl Phelpstead, Helen Phillips, David Raybin, Sherry Reames, Jill Rudd. CONTENTS: General Editors' Foreword; Acknowledgements; List of Contributors; Abbreviations; Introduction by Helen Cooper; Love, Marriage, Sex, Gender, by Alcuin Blamires; Chaucer and the Bible, by Graham D. Caie; Chaucer and Lollardy, by Francis M. McCormack; 'Toward the Fen': Church and Churl in Chaucer's Fabliaux, by Stephen Knight; 'A Maner Latyn Corrupt': Chaucer and the Absent Religions, by Anthony Bale; The Matter of Chaucer: Chaucer and the Boundaries of Romance, by Helen Phillips; Mary, Sanctity and Prayers to Saints: Chaucer and Late-Medieval Piety, by Sherry Reames; 'Th'ende is every tales strengthe': Contextualizing Chaucerian Perspectives on Death and Judgement, by Carl Phelpstead; Chaucer and the Saints: Miracles and Voices of Faith, by Laural Broughton; Chaucer and the Communities of Pilgrimage, by Dee Dyas; Classicizing Christianity in Chaucer's Dream Poems: the Book of the Duchess, Book of Fame and Parliament of Fowls, by Stephen Knight; Morality in the Canterbury Tales, Chaucer's Lyrics and the Legend of Good Women, by Helen Phillips; 'To demen by interrogaciouns': Accessing the Christian Context of the Canterbury Tales with Enquiry-Based Learning, by Roger Dalrymple; 'Gladly wolde [they] lerne [']': US Students and the Chaucer Class, by D. Thomas Hanks, Jr.; Teaching Teachers: Chaucer, Ethics, and Romance, by David Raybin; Reflections on Teaching Chaucer and Religion: The Nune's Priest's Tale and the Man of Law's Tale, by Gillian Rudd; Index.