Light of the Everlasting Life

From disability metaphors to narratives structured around bodies presented as aberrant, early medieval English thoughtworlds conveyed the promise of resurrection and the hope of salvation through crip and disabled bodies. Light of the Everlasting Life argues that early medieval Christian eschatology...

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Váldodahkki: Parker, Leah Pope
Materiálatiipa: Online
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Almmustuhtton: University of Michigan Press 2025
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author Parker, Leah Pope
author_browse Parker, Leah Pope
author_facet Parker, Leah Pope
author_sort Parker, Leah Pope
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description From disability metaphors to narratives structured around bodies presented as aberrant, early medieval English thoughtworlds conveyed the promise of resurrection and the hope of salvation through crip and disabled bodies. Light of the Everlasting Life argues that early medieval Christian eschatology, as manifested in Old English literary texts, was a crip eschatology: a theology of the afterlife that relied upon disabled bodies and concepts related to disability in order to convey promises of resurrection and salvation. In addition to demonstrating how literature manifested theological approaches to the afterlife, Leah Pope Parker articulates the ways of thinking about bodies and disability that were available to ordinary early medieval people, many of whom experienced their bodies in ways that resonate with what we call disability today, but who rarely appear in the historical record. By analyzing Old English texts, including Alfredian translations, Ælfric’s saints’ lives, and poetry from the Exeter and Vercelli Books, Parker introduces novel ways of characterizing disability’s effects in literature. “Spiritual prosthesis” reveals rhetorical, narrative, and theological reliance upon disability to convey the promise of a Christian afterlife. “Systems of aberrance” emerge as a result, in which bodies marked as deviant—including disabled, monstrous, heroic, saintly, and dead bodies—form a network of embodiments that reinforce the narratives they inhabit and that of Christian salvation history. Locating crip eschatology in early medieval literature, Light of the Everlasting Life rewrites standard histories of disability, of the body, and of medieval Christian eschatology.
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spelling doab-20.500.12854ir-1665112025-09-13T05:04:29Z Light of the Everlasting Life Parker, Leah Pope Alfred the Great, Andreas, Ælfric of Eynsham, Lives of Saints, Christ in Judgement, Christianity, crip eschatology, crip theory, crip time, Cynewulf, disability, early medieval Christianity, early medieval England, eschatology, Exeter Book, hagiography, homilies, medieval, Old English Literature, Old English Poetry, Old English prose, salvation, soteriology, St. Æthelthryth, St. Swithun, Venerable Bede, Vercelli Book, Alfred Jewel, Ascension, Benedictional of St. Æthelwold, Blickling Homilies, Elene, Fates of the Apostles, Juliana, Old English Boethius, Old English Soliloquies thema EDItEUR::J Society and Social Sciences::JB Society and culture: general thema EDItEUR::J Society and Social Sciences::JB Society and culture: general::JBF Social and ethical issues::JBFM Disability: social aspects thema EDItEUR::D Biography, Literature and Literary studies::DB Ancient, classical and medieval texts thema EDItEUR::Q Philosophy and Religion::QR Religion and beliefs::QRM Christianity::QRMB Christian Churches, denominations, groups From disability metaphors to narratives structured around bodies presented as aberrant, early medieval English thoughtworlds conveyed the promise of resurrection and the hope of salvation through crip and disabled bodies. Light of the Everlasting Life argues that early medieval Christian eschatology, as manifested in Old English literary texts, was a crip eschatology: a theology of the afterlife that relied upon disabled bodies and concepts related to disability in order to convey promises of resurrection and salvation. In addition to demonstrating how literature manifested theological approaches to the afterlife, Leah Pope Parker articulates the ways of thinking about bodies and disability that were available to ordinary early medieval people, many of whom experienced their bodies in ways that resonate with what we call disability today, but who rarely appear in the historical record. By analyzing Old English texts, including Alfredian translations, Ælfric’s saints’ lives, and poetry from the Exeter and Vercelli Books, Parker introduces novel ways of characterizing disability’s effects in literature. “Spiritual prosthesis” reveals rhetorical, narrative, and theological reliance upon disability to convey the promise of a Christian afterlife. “Systems of aberrance” emerge as a result, in which bodies marked as deviant—including disabled, monstrous, heroic, saintly, and dead bodies—form a network of embodiments that reinforce the narratives they inhabit and that of Christian salvation history. Locating crip eschatology in early medieval literature, Light of the Everlasting Life rewrites standard histories of disability, of the body, and of medieval Christian eschatology. 2025-09-13T05:04:28Z 2025-09-13T05:04:28Z 2025-09-12T12:23:00Z 2025 book ONIX_20250912T141556_9780472905171_2 https://library.oapen.org/handle/20.500.12657/105966 9780472905171 9780472077595 9780472057597 https://directory.doabooks.org/handle/20.500.12854/166511 eng Corporealities: Discourses Of Disability open access image/jpeg Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International https://library.oapen.org/bitstream/20.500.12657/105966/1/9780472905171.pdf University of Michigan Press 10.3998/mpub.12571891 10.3998/mpub.12571891 b7359529-e5f7-4510-a59f-d7dafa1d4d17 9780472905171 9780472077595 9780472057597 306 open access
spellingShingle Alfred the Great, Andreas, Ælfric of Eynsham, Lives of Saints, Christ in Judgement, Christianity, crip eschatology, crip theory, crip time, Cynewulf, disability, early medieval Christianity, early medieval England, eschatology, Exeter Book, hagiography, homilies, medieval, Old English Literature, Old English Poetry, Old English prose, salvation, soteriology, St. Æthelthryth, St. Swithun, Venerable Bede, Vercelli Book, Alfred Jewel, Ascension, Benedictional of St. Æthelwold, Blickling Homilies, Elene, Fates of the Apostles, Juliana, Old English Boethius, Old English Soliloquies
thema EDItEUR::J Society and Social Sciences::JB Society and culture: general
thema EDItEUR::J Society and Social Sciences::JB Society and culture: general::JBF Social and ethical issues::JBFM Disability: social aspects
thema EDItEUR::D Biography, Literature and Literary studies::DB Ancient, classical and medieval texts
thema EDItEUR::Q Philosophy and Religion::QR Religion and beliefs::QRM Christianity::QRMB Christian Churches, denominations, groups
Parker, Leah Pope
Light of the Everlasting Life
title Light of the Everlasting Life
title_full Light of the Everlasting Life
title_fullStr Light of the Everlasting Life
title_full_unstemmed Light of the Everlasting Life
title_short Light of the Everlasting Life
title_sort light of the everlasting life
topic Alfred the Great, Andreas, Ælfric of Eynsham, Lives of Saints, Christ in Judgement, Christianity, crip eschatology, crip theory, crip time, Cynewulf, disability, early medieval Christianity, early medieval England, eschatology, Exeter Book, hagiography, homilies, medieval, Old English Literature, Old English Poetry, Old English prose, salvation, soteriology, St. Æthelthryth, St. Swithun, Venerable Bede, Vercelli Book, Alfred Jewel, Ascension, Benedictional of St. Æthelwold, Blickling Homilies, Elene, Fates of the Apostles, Juliana, Old English Boethius, Old English Soliloquies
thema EDItEUR::J Society and Social Sciences::JB Society and culture: general
thema EDItEUR::J Society and Social Sciences::JB Society and culture: general::JBF Social and ethical issues::JBFM Disability: social aspects
thema EDItEUR::D Biography, Literature and Literary studies::DB Ancient, classical and medieval texts
thema EDItEUR::Q Philosophy and Religion::QR Religion and beliefs::QRM Christianity::QRMB Christian Churches, denominations, groups
topic_facet Alfred the Great, Andreas, Ælfric of Eynsham, Lives of Saints, Christ in Judgement, Christianity, crip eschatology, crip theory, crip time, Cynewulf, disability, early medieval Christianity, early medieval England, eschatology, Exeter Book, hagiography, homilies, medieval, Old English Literature, Old English Poetry, Old English prose, salvation, soteriology, St. Æthelthryth, St. Swithun, Venerable Bede, Vercelli Book, Alfred Jewel, Ascension, Benedictional of St. Æthelwold, Blickling Homilies, Elene, Fates of the Apostles, Juliana, Old English Boethius, Old English Soliloquies
thema EDItEUR::J Society and Social Sciences::JB Society and culture: general
thema EDItEUR::J Society and Social Sciences::JB Society and culture: general::JBF Social and ethical issues::JBFM Disability: social aspects
thema EDItEUR::D Biography, Literature and Literary studies::DB Ancient, classical and medieval texts
thema EDItEUR::Q Philosophy and Religion::QR Religion and beliefs::QRM Christianity::QRMB Christian Churches, denominations, groups
url ONIX_20250912T141556_9780472905171_2
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