Ringleaders of Redemption - How Medieval Dance Became Sacred

In popular thought, Christianity is often figured as being opposed to dance. Throughout the medieval era, the Latin Church denounced and prohibited dancing, often aligning it with demonic intervention, lust, pride, and sacrilege. However, Ringleaders of Redemption reveals how the historical sources - including biblical commentaries, sermons, saints' lives, ecclesiastical statutes, mystical treatises, vernacular literature, and iconography from France, Italy, Germany, England, Spain, and beyond - tell a different story. During the High and Late Middle Ages, Western theologians, liturgists, and mystics not only tolerated dance; they transformed it into a dynamic component of religious thought and practice.

List of contents

• List of Illustrations


• List of Abbreviations


• Acknowledgements


• Introduction


• Part I: Gracing the Idols


• 1. Dance Typologies: The Medieval Bible


• 2. Ghost Dancers: The Saints


• 3. Dance of the Hours: The Liturgy


• Part II: Grace before its Master


• 4. Discipline and Redemption: Dances of Penitence


• 5. Partnering Divinity: Mystical Dancers


• 6. Romancing the Dance


• 7. Decadence and Death


• Epilogue: Mastering Grace


• Notes


• Index

About the author

Kathryn Dickason is a Postdoctoral Fellow in the Society of Fellows in the Humanities and the School of Religion at the University of Southern California.

Product details

• Authors: Kathryn Dickason, Kathryn (Postdoctoral Fellow Dickason
• Publisher: Oxford University Press
• Languages: English
• Product format: Hardback
• Released: 24.02.2021
• EAN: 9780197527276
• ISBN: 978-0-19-752727-6
• No. of pages: 392
• Series: Oxford Studies in Historical Theology
• Subjects: Humanities, art, music > Religion/theology > Christianity; Dance, History, HISTORY / General, RELIGION / Christianity / History, SOCIAL SCIENCE / Archaeology, RELIGION / Christianity / General, RELIGION / Christian Rituals & Practice / General, PERFORMING ARTS / Dance / General, Christianity, CE period up to c 1500, History of Religion, Archaeology, Christian worship, rites & ceremonies, Worship, rites, ceremonies and rituals, History and Archaeology, C 500 CE To C 1000 CE