The Way to the Other World in Medieval Literature and Art
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 8931111 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Peter Dinzelbacher (0000-0002-8872-7487, University of Stuttgart, corresponding author) |
| Year | 1986 |
| Volume | 97 |
| Issue | 1 |
| Pages | 70-87 |
| Publication date | 1986-01-01 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | No |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Folklore (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0015-587X • E-ISSN: 1469-8315 |
| Publisher | Routledge (PUBLISHER • GB) |
| DOI | 10.1080/0015587x.1986.9716368 |
| OpenAlex | W2090441046 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 3 |
| References cited | 4 |
JUDGING by the sources, medieval man must have spent much time with thoughts, fears and hopes concerning the Other World. That there was a life to come was a conviction left nearly unchallenged during the Age of Faith. The speculations on the how and where of this afterlife show a marked difference when compared to those of most Christians nowadays: they are markedly concrete, realistic, palpable. The places, receptacula, of the other world were not situated beyond this cosmos, but formed part of our disk-like earth, or of the spheres towering up over it.' Hell, divided into different compartments as infernus superior, infernus inferior, limbus patrum, limbus puerorum (sometimes identified with one another), was thought to be in the middle of earth; purgatory bordered upon it. The earthly paradise was sought somewhere in the east and formed both a topic for map-makers to define, and a goal for regular expeditions. Heaven, or, more correctly the heavens (from three to seven), were spread out in hemispheres not in some unimaginable transcendence, but above where you stood, above the clouds.2 So it is quite natural that there existed a lot of traditions not only about the eschatological regions, but also about the ways leading thither. How the passage to the other world was imagined will be dealt with first. But often medieval sources also speak about another kind of way to the future life, i.e. the way a man covers during his lifetime. It is the allegory of the homo viator or the peregrinus in terris, which was to find its definite delineation in Bunyan's The Pilgrim's Progress from this World to That which is to Come. I shall give some few examples of this theme afterwards, and show some points of connection between these two conceptions in conclusion
Afterlife · Art · Art history · Damnation · Faith · Heaven · Literature · Mythology · Paradise · Purgatory · Theology · Transcendence (philosophy · Wildness · Byzantine Studies and History · Historical, Literary, and Cultural Studies · History · Law · Philosophy · Religious Studies and Spiritual Practices
| Unique citing works | 3 |
|---|---|
| Citations per year | 0,1 |
| Citation span | 1996 - 2020 (25) |
| Citation velocity | historical |
| Highly cited | No |
| Citation types | Neutral: 2 |