Feeling Like a Holy Warrior: Western Authors' Attributions of Emotion as Proof of Motives for Violence Among Christian Actors in Military Conflicts, Tenth Through Early Twelfth Centuries
type: CreativeWork
description: This dissertation explores two areas of human experience that have been criticized as potentially dangerous and uncontrollable almost consistently since Late Antiquity: violence and those who engage in it, and emotions. However, it will be seen that in the Western Mediterranean and Southern and Central Western Europe, from Late Antiquity through the early-Twelfth Century, these areas were carefully controlled and directed by complex philosophical and religious systems. Polytheist Roman, and later patristic Christian, authors who wrote within classical and late antique philosophical and religious systems created the accepted norms for the undertaking of organized violence - that which was fought under recognized leadership and undertaken for an acceptable moral or ethical goal. These authors also constructed norms for acceptable experiences and expressions of emotions such as anger, fear, courage, joy, sorrow and religious devotion. This project demonstrates that attitudes toward both violence and emotion changed slowly over time as the Christian faith rose to dominance in the Roman Empire; the western Roman Empire dissolved into Christian successor kingdoms; Christian insitutions in the West grew in number and complexity as well as territorial and cultural influence; and territorial conflicts inside Europe and conflicts on and beyond its borders classified by contemporaneaous and later historians as holy wars and crusades brought Christians face to face with new forces they perceived as enemies who threatened the faith. This dissertation examines a large number of clerically authored and influenced juridical, prescriptive, narrative, and epistolary texts composed from Late Antiquity through the Early Twelfth Century, for evidence of attitudes toward and definitions of emotions, and attitudes toward organized violence. Changes over time in attitudes concerning organized violence and methods for judging those who shed blood will be seen in juridical texts by popes and…
abstract: This dissertation explores two areas of human experience that have been criticized as potentially dangerous and uncontrollable almost consistently since Late Antiquity: violence and those who engage in it, and emotions. However, it will be seen that in the Western Mediterranean and Southern and Central Western Europe, from Late Antiquity through the early-Twelfth Century, these areas were carefully controlled and directed by complex philosophical and religious systems. Polytheist Roman, and later patristic Christian, authors who wrote within classical and late antique philosophical and religious systems created the accepted norms for the undertaking of organized violence - that which was fought under recognized leadership and undertaken for an acceptable moral or ethical goal. These authors also constructed norms for acceptable experiences and expressions of emotions such as anger, fear, courage, joy, sorrow and religious devotion. This project demonstrates that attitudes toward both violence and emotion changed slowly over time as the Christian faith rose to dominance in the Roman Empire; the western Roman Empire dissolved into Christian successor kingdoms; Christian insitutions in the West grew in number and complexity as well as territorial and cultural influence; and territorial conflicts inside Europe and conflicts on and beyond its borders classified by contemporaneaous and later historians as holy wars and crusades brought Christians face to face with new forces they perceived as enemies who threatened the faith. This dissertation examines a large number of clerically authored and influenced juridical, prescriptive, narrative, and epistolary texts composed from Late Antiquity through the Early Twelfth Century, for evidence of attitudes toward and definitions of emotions, and attitudes toward organized violence. Changes over time in attitudes concerning organized violence and methods for judging those who shed blood will be seen in juridical texts by popes and…
author: Ordman, Jilana
keywords: History
date published: 2013-01-01T08:00:00Z
date modified: 2026-07-24T02:55:50Z
provider: Loyola University Chicago
publisher: Networked Digital Library of Theses and Dissertations
type: WebPage
source organization: Loyola University Chicago