Sluhovsky's Books

Believe Not Every Spirit

Possession, Mysticism, & Discernment in Early Modern Catholicism

By: Moshe Sluhovsky

Write a review Read reviews Take a Quiz Solve Book Puzzle

Believe Not Every Spirit

Possession, Mysticism, & Discernment in Early Modern Catholicism

By: Moshe Sluhovsky

From 1400 through 1700, the number of reports of demonic possessions among European women was extraordinarily high. During the same period, a new type of mysticism—popular with women—emerged that greatly affected the risk of possession and, as a result, the practice of exorcism. Many feared that in moments of rapture, women, who had surrendered their souls to divine love, were not experiencing the work of angels, but rather the ravages of demons in disguise. So how then, asks Moshe Sluhovsky, were practitioners of exorcism to distinguish demonic from divine possessions? Drawing on unexplored accounts of mystical schools and spiritual techniques, testimonies of the possessed, and exorcism manuals, Believe Not Every Spirit examines how early modern Europeans dealt with this dilemma. The personal experiences of practitioners, Sluhovsky shows, trumped theological knowledge. Worried that this could lead to a rejection of Catholic rituals, the church reshaped the meaning and practices of exorcism, transforming this healing rite into a means of spiritual interrogation. In its efforts to distinguish between good and evil, the church developed important new explanatory frameworks for the relations between body and soul, interiority and exteriority, and the natural and supernatural.

Average ratings

N/A

Write a review

Solve jigsaw puzzle

Age

Page Count

385

Publisher

University of Chicago Press

Published Date

ISBN 10

0226762955

ISBN 13

9780226762951

Becoming a New Self

Practices of Belief in Early Modern Catholicism

By: Moshe Sluhovsky

Write a review Read reviews Take a Quiz Solve Book Puzzle

Becoming a New Self

Practices of Belief in Early Modern Catholicism

By: Moshe Sluhovsky

In Becoming a New Self, Moshe Sluhovsky examines the diffusion of spiritual practices among lay Catholics in early modern Europe. By offering a close examination of early modern Catholic penitential and meditative techniques, Sluhovsky makes the case that these practices promoted the idea of achieving a new self through the knowing of oneself. Practices such as the examination of conscience, general confession, and spiritual exercises, which until the 1400s had been restricted to monastic elites, breached the walls of monasteries in the period that followed. Thanks in large part to Franciscans and Jesuits, lay urban elites—both men and women—gained access to spiritual practices whose goal was to enhance belief and create new selves. Using Michel Foucault’s writing on the hermeneutics of the self, and the French philosopher’s intuition that the early modern period was a moment of transition in the configurations of the self, Sluhovsky offers a broad panorama of spiritual and devotional techniques of self-formation and subjectivation.

Average ratings

N/A

Write a review

Solve jigsaw puzzle

Age

Page Count

228

Publisher

University of Chicago Press

Published Date

ISBN 10

022647304X

ISBN 13

9780226473048

Patroness of Paris

Rituals of Devotion in Early Modern France

By: Moshe Sluhovsky

Write a review Read reviews Take a Quiz Solve Book Puzzle

Patroness of Paris

Rituals of Devotion in Early Modern France

By: Moshe Sluhovsky

The book examines the cult of Sainte Genevieve, patron saint of Paris. Using hagiographic and liturgical documents, as well as municipal, ecclesiastical, and notarial records, it analyzes the religious, political, and social contexts of public devotion in the early modern city.

Average ratings

N/A

Write a review

Solve jigsaw puzzle

Age

Page Count

296

Publisher

BRILL

Published Date

ISBN 10

9004108513

ISBN 13

9789004108516

Book's by Sluhovsky

Believe Not Every Spirit

Believe Not Every Spirit

Becoming a New Self

Becoming a New Self

Patroness of Paris

Patroness of Paris

Username

Password

Username

Password

Password again

Birthday

Email