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- Aldrin, Viktor, 1980-
(författare)
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Prayer in Peasant Communities : Ideals and Practices of Prayer in the Late Medieval Ecclesiastical Province of Uppsala, Sweden
- 2010
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- The aim of this study has been to identify, explain and delineate praying among peasant communities in the ecclesiastical province of Uppsala, Sweden. Four aspects have been examined through the perspectives of ideals and practices, namely the standards of prayer, devotional prayer, prayer in times of need and prayer cultures. The standards of prayer considered the physical and mental behaviour of the praying peasant woman or man. The most ordinary way to act during prayer was to stand with hands together, palm against palm, and to pray in the vernacular often using mental themes to enhance the devotion. Devotional prayers were foremost the three ‘standard’ prayers Paternoster, Hail Mary and Apostolic Creed, and could be used separately or combined. Prayer in times of need was possibly considered a matter of praying to saints, something that cannot be proven to have been either practiced or recommended on other, ordinary occasions where God and the Virgin Mary were considered the proper recipients of prayer. A few authentic prayers exist that were possibly said by peasant women and men in connection with miracles and these show the ability to construct elaborate prayers and to propose businesslike agreements with saints. These three prayers were required knowledge for a peasant woman or man and were put to the test in order to become a godparent, and were therefore made available in the vernacular by the parish priests. Ways to maintain the prayer cultures were through mnemonic techniques, and indulgences stipulating and confirming prayers used or to be used in connection with certain churches, days and places within the churches. Name saints could also be used, since the person and the name saint were considered to have a special bond. Prayer could also be used as protection for the living; since a prayer was considered to generate either merits or favours from a celestial patron to his or her client. The prayer life of those belonging to peasant communities was both elaborate and full of nuances.
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| 2. |
- Letzter, Eva-Marie, 1984-
(författare)
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Med öga för publiken : Moralisk fostran genom heliga Birgittas och de svenska predikanternas exempelberättelser, cirka 1340-1500
- 2018
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- This dissertation is a comparative and deconstructive study of the use of narrative exempla in the Revelations of Saint Birgitta (also known as Saint Bridget of Sweden) and in Swedish sermon collections from the Late Middle Ages. The purpose is to show how Birgitta during the 14th century and Swedish preachers during the 15th century morally educated their audiences through the inclusion of exemplary stories in their works. Furthermore, this dissertation discusses and analyses the ways in which these authors adapted their stories to suite their respective audience. It distinguishes between how Birgitta addressed the worldly and religious leaders of Europe and how the Swedish preachers addressed a socially stratified Swedish congregation by applying Jonathan Cohen’s theory of identification with media characters. This dissertation hereby contributes not only to research concerning the didactics of Christian exemplary literature, but also to the methodology in which audience adaptation in this literature can be evaluated.Among the results of this study one finds that the exemplary stories in the Revelations and Swedish sermon collections are often used to rhetorically reinforce doctrinal lessons concerning man’s reciprocal relationship with God. Many of the lessons deal with Christ’s justice, the devil’s evil nature and man’s proper faith and hope in God. However, Birgitta tends to use her stories as analytical explanations for theses lessons, while the Swedish preachers use theirs as simple arguments for them. In view of narrative structure and content, Birgitta tends to focus on describing protagonists’ thoughts and inner disposition in her stories, whereas the Swedish preachers focus on protagonists’ physical course of action in their stories. Moreover, both authors depict international characters, settings and complication motives. Still, Birgitta highlights those associated with the higher estates, while the Swedish preachers emphasize those associated with general church life and the lower laity.These results correlate well with strategies suggested in media research for enticing audience identification with characters. In particular, I find that the virtuous or sinful way of life, led by the protagonists in the exemplary stories, mimics that of Birgitta’s and the Swedish preachers’ different target groups. Yet even more strikingly, numerous protagonists are also found to possess attractive heroic ideals. They embody heroic role models, which the authors’ respective audience can be expected to have wished to emulate themselves, and which Birgitta and the Swedish preachers likewise wanted their audience to follow, though to different extents and in different manners. While Birgitta and the Swedish preachers both used exemplary stories to morally educate their recipients in accordance with the Christian exemplary tradition, I thus conclude that their teaching differed in several significant ways, supporting the premise that the authors knew what they wanted to convey, and that they had a good eye for their respective audience.
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