This book does an excellent job of defining the world view of medieval people by identifying the principal influences on life, letters, and thought in a period covering roughly a thousand years (ca. 400 - 1400). It is appropriate that the initial chapter of the four comprising Part I The Foundations of the Middle Ages is The Bible, as the authors point out "...far and away the most influential text in the Middle Ages." The discussion of the content of the Old and New Testaments, with ample text examples, will go far to fill the gap so evident in the current students' knowledge of the Christian Bible as well as the Judaic texts underlying it. The emphasis on the continuity of thought from the classical cultures into the cedieval period is also a welcome change from the more common segmentation that not too long ago led to the designation of the Middle Ages as the Dark Ages. The discussion here, with a number of longer textual samples, underlines the Classical Heritage (chapter 2), the impact that ideas and interests from that period had on Early Christianity (chapter 3) and the merging and expression of Classical learning and Christian thought and training as represented by The Latin Fathers: Jerome and Augustine (chapter 4). This first part could, with no difficulty, serve as the basis for an introductory course on the Middle Ages, especially in view of the wide range of sources cited in the notes and the insightful comments that provide guidelines to further reading and study.
Part 2, The Early Middle Ages, adds to the major categories of the first part, Judaeo-Christian and Greco-Roman, a set of cultural phenomena that not only changed the landscapes and civilization of medieval Europe but also created new modes and methods of expression in the secular and religious spheres. The Germanic invasions (chapter 5) led to profound changes among the Germanic peoples themselves and the Latin-Christian culture with which they were interacting. The second phenomenon, Monasticism (chapter 6), had enormous influence beyond the ascetic lifestyles of male and female monastics. As the authors note, "It was in the monasteries of early medieval Europe that the first fully Christian culture developed... With the brief exception of the reign of Charlemagne (768-814) and the years immediately following, monastic schools had a virtual monopoly on education until the twelfth century." (142). The discussion of The First Medieval Synthesis (chapter 7) provides strong evidence of the validity of the concept of a 'Carolingian Renaissance' and, despite its brevity and reversals in the aftermath of Charlemagne's death, its central role in making possible the events that are commonly seen as the 'Renaissance of the Twelfth Century.'
Part 3, The High Middle Ages and Beyond, follows with one exception, the pattern of earlier parts of the book by emphasizing broad categories: Church, State, and Society (chapter 8); The Renaissance of the Twelfth Century (chapter 9); The Fourteenth Century (chapter 11). Chapter 10 stands out as the only one in which a personality is identified as the basis of the discussion of impact and influence: Francis of Assisi and the Mendicants. The initial discussion of Francis's conversion and commitment to imitation of the life of Christ is a well-written summary of the ideals of a man whose followers, over time and through social changes, would find it more and more difficult to emulate him, but whose commitment to his ideals led to inevitable changes in the institution he founded without repudiating the goals and virtues he espoused.
The apparatus at the end of this book is admirable for its scope and its inclusiveness. The Bibliography includes a thoughtful note on Primary Sources, guides to current English language translation projects of primary sources (Ongoing Projects) as well as older series offering classical and early Christian texts, annotated references to other series offering important medieval texts, and Websites, Sources in Translation, Reference Works, and a host of other references too numerous to mention here but which will be most useful for students and scholars of the Middle Ages.
This book deserves a place on the syllabus of any course on the Middle Ages and has much to offer beginning and advanced students of medieval literature, culture, and civilization.