Medieval Christianity holds up a helpful mirror to the contemporary church.
In recent decades, evangelicals studying faith in the Middle Ages have done much to recover its variety and richness. Yet a popular perception persists of this period as a “dark age” of artistic and cultural stagnation. In Jesus through Medieval Eyes: Beholding Christ with the Artists, Mystics, and Theologians of the Middle Ages, Grace Hamman, an independent writer and scholar, brings this era to life for contemporary believers. Greg Peters, professor of medieval and spiritual theology at Biola University, spoke with Hamman about her efforts to make medieval Christians better known and appreciated.
What made you want to write this book?
The idea first came to me during the COVID-19 season. I had just had a baby and left the academy, and I was feeling sad about leaving medieval literature behind and not knowing what was coming next. I started thinking about how I could make space for people outside the academy to encounter medieval literature in a nonintimidating way. This paved the way for a series on my podcast, Old Books with Grace, where I explored the various ways medieval folks speak about and portray Jesus. From there, I figured I could keep running with this theme. I didn’t want to stop.
In the book, you examine seven images of Jesus as seen through medieval eyes. Do you have one or two favorites?
It’s hard to say! But one that comes to mind is the image of Jesus as a mother. Medieval contemplatives like Julian of Norwich and Marguerite of Oingt were riffing on a preexisting monastic tradition of depicting Christ in this way. To modern Christian ears, this can sound vaguely New Age or slightly heterodox. But the image has deep roots in Scripture, such as when Jesus speaks of himself as a mother …