The Crucified God in the Carolingian Era: Theology and Art of Christ's Passion

by Celia Chazelle

The Carolingian "renaissance" of the late eighth and ninth centuries, in what is now France, western Germany and northern Italy, transformed medieval European culture. At the same time it engendered a need to ensure that clergy, monks and laity embraced orthodox Christian doctrine. This book examines Carolingian thinking on the critical issue of the Passion. It considers how changes in the understanding of the Crucifixion are reflected in a range of contemporary writings, and the impact of those developments on a selection of artistic representations of the crucified Christ.

Genres: Art, Medieval, History

352 pages, Hardcover

First published July 1, 2001

Reviews

[Katie]

This book has a rather dire-sounding title, but at its heart it's a book about how Carolingian people thought about their world, and how their intellectual circle functioned. In a lot of ways, it serves to show that Carolingian theology isn't the stagnant repetition of older ideas that it's often portrayed to be. Instead, it was detailed, subtle, and pretty frequently contentious, dealing with little doctrinal matters that eventually coalesced into big theological changes.

Broadly, Celia Chazelle's book looks at several Carolingian depictions off the Crucifixion (visual and textual) and interprets them in light of contemporary theological controversies, especially Adoptionism, Iconoclasm, predestination, and the question of interpreting the Eucharist. It manages to hit a nice balance, offering detailed, inventive readings of her texts but never quite crossing over into over-interpretation.

The analysis and debate surrounding precisely what the crucifixion meant, and how that tied into current controversies, resulted in a kind of ripple effect into broader theological trends. Chazelle traces how an initial interpretation of the crucifixion as a triumphant victory of Christ over death/sin/evil gradually gave way to an emphasis on his human attributes and its impact on the personal life of the individual. Alongside this, it also tended to put an increasing emphasis on the sacraments of the Church, particularly confession and communion. It's a really interesting thesis, and while the book can be dense it's nearly always very worthwhile.

[Sarah]

Fascinating; would definitely like to revisit. What's going on with Paschasius and Ratramnus? Very interesting stuff going on in the so-called dark ages.