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Author:   John Bugbee
Publisher:   University of Notre Dame Press
Imprint:   University of Notre Dame Press
Dimensions:   Width: 15.20cm , Height: 2.70cm , Length: 22.90cm
Weight:   0.836kg
ISBN:  

9780268104450

ISBN 10:   026810445
Pages:   500
Publication Date:   30 December 2018
Audience:   Professional and scholarly ,  College/higher education ,  Professional & Vocational ,  Postgraduate, Research & Scholarly
Format:   Hardback
Publisher's Status:   Active
Availability:   In Print  
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Reviews

The study is engagingly written and insightful in its readings of the individual Tales. Perhaps more importantly, it suggests a new approach to the Christianity of Chaucer's work and of medieval literature more generally: in introducing both a new figure, St. Bernard, who is not typically brought to bear on Chaucer, and a new set of definitions for the Christian ideas in the Tales, particularly suffering/passivity. --Katherine C. Little, University of Colorado Boulder A highly original contribution to Chaucer scholarship... Though the arguments are underpinned by and informed by sophisticated philosophical investigation, the author manages complicated ideas in ways that readers who might have less philosophical training will find both illuminating and easy to negotiate. --Nancy Warren, Texas A&M University John Bugbee's book, based on impressive theological and philosophical learning and argued with energetic lucidity, conducts a scrupulous analysis of the ethical implications of six Canterbury tales to which medieval thought about action and passion, will and law, is particularly relevant. In raising fundamental questions about what kind of poet Chaucer is, it offers a challenge that Chaucerians cannot afford to disregard. --A. C. Spearing, Fellow of Queens' College, Cambridge John Bugbee thinks like a philosopher, writes like a master teacher, and reads like the most acute and subtle of critics. In this stunning first book, he explores the medieval ideal of 'conjoint agency, ' interrogating once familiar but now largely forgotten ideas about the wellsprings of human action with respect to will, law, and divine agency. God's Patients sheds an uncommonly revealing light on Chaucer, showing for example why Custance and her apparent lookalike Griselda are in fact moral opposites. Yet Bugbee's ambitions are much larger. In the words of its preface, this book 'could change not only how we think about medieval literature, but to some extent also simply how we think.' --Barbara Newman, Northwestern University

""The study is engagingly written and insightful in its readings of the individual tales. Perhaps more importantly, it suggests a new approach to the Christianity of Chaucer’s work and of medieval literature more generally: in introducing both a new figure, St. Bernard, who is not typically brought to bear on Chaucer, and a new set of definitions for the Christian ideas in the Canterbury Tales, particularly suffering/passivity.” —Katherine C. Little, University of Colorado Boulder ""A highly original contribution to Chaucer scholarship. . . . Though the arguments are underpinned by and informed by sophisticated philosophical investigation, the author manages complicated ideas in ways that readers who might have less philosophical training will find both illuminating and easy to negotiate.” —Nancy Warren, Texas A&M University ""John Bugbee’s book, based on impressive theological and philosophical learning and argued with energetic lucidity, conducts a scrupulous analysis of the ethical implications of six Canterbury tales to which medieval thought about action and passion, will and law, is particularly relevant. In raising fundamental questions about what kind of poet Chaucer is, it offers a challenge that Chaucerians cannot afford to disregard."" —A. C. Spearing, Fellow of Queens' College, Cambridge ""John Bugbee thinks like a philosopher, writes like a master teacher, and reads like the most acute and subtle of critics. In this stunning first book, he explores the medieval ideal of 'conjoint agency,' interrogating once familiar but now largely forgotten ideas about the wellsprings of human action with respect to will, law, and divine agency. God’s Patients sheds an uncommonly revealing light on Chaucer, showing for example why Custance and her apparent lookalike Griselda are in fact moral opposites. Yet Bugbee’s ambitions are much larger. In the words of its preface, this book 'could change not only how we think about medieval literature, but to some extent also simply how we think.'"" —Barbara Newman, Northwestern University ""God’s Patients is a book anyone interested in premodern models of gendered agency, devotion, or ethics will return to repeatedly. Deeply learned, it demonstrates real theological depth and close reading acuity, offering much for a wide range of scholars of the Middle Ages."" —Modern Philology “The book offers striking new readings of Chaucer’s poems; it proposes a nuanced hermeneutical approach that should prove fruitful in reading a number of other high- and late-medieval works; and, by showing how assumptions about its two fundamental questions have shifted since Chaucer’s time, it provides a powerful new way of thinking about the transition between the Middle Ages and modernity.” —Law and Religion Forum “Bugbee reads Chaucer’s tales with fine attention to detail and writes with fluency and sensitivity about their effects. . . . [T]he author is a careful guide, and the clarity of his exposition makes for an absorbing read.” —The Times Literary Supplement “Bugbee’s work is a thoughtful and detailed corrective to the kinds of interpretive errors that medievalists are prone to make.” —The Medieval Review “Bugbee’s compelling interpretations remind us that the Middle Ages was a subtle, generous, and philosophically sophisticated time, worthy of deference and genuine respect for its own first principles.” —Studies in the Age of Chaucer

The study is engagingly written and insightful in its readings of the individual Tales. Perhaps more importantly, it suggests a new approach to the Christianity of Chaucer's work and of medieval literature more generally: in introducing both a new figure, St. Bernard, who is not typically brought to bear on Chaucer, and a new set of definitions for the Christian ideas in the Tales, particularly suffering/passivity. --Katherine C. Little, University of Colorado Boulder

John Bugbee thinks like a philosopher, writes like a master teacher, and reads like the most acute and subtle of critics. In this stunning first book, he explores the medieval ideal of 'conjoint agency,' interrogating once familiar but now largely forgotten ideas about the wellsprings of human action with respect to will, law, and divine agency. God's Patients sheds an uncommonly revealing light on Chaucer, showing for example why Custance and her apparent lookalike Griselda are in fact moral opposites. Yet Bugbee's ambitions are much larger. In the words of its preface, this book 'could change not only how we think about medieval literature, but to some extent also simply how we think.' -- Barbara Newman, Northwestern University John Bugbee's book, based on impressive theological and philosophical learning and argued with energetic lucidity, conducts a scrupulous analysis of the ethical implications of six Canterbury tales to which medieval thought about action and passion, will and law, is particularly relevant. In raising fundamental questions about what kind of poet Chaucer is, it offers a challenge that Chaucerians cannot afford to disregard. -- A. C. Spearing, Fellow of Queens' College, Cambridge God's Patients is a book anyone interested in premodern models of gendered agency, devotion, or ethics will return to repeatedly. Deeply learned, it demonstrates real theological depth and close reading acuity, offering much for a wide range of scholars of the Middle Ages. -- <i>Modern Philology</i> A highly original contribution to Chaucer scholarship... Though the arguments are underpinned by and informed by sophisticated philosophical investigation, the author manages complicated ideas in ways that readers who might have less philosophical training will find both illuminating and easy to negotiate. -- Nancy Warren, Texas A&M University Bugbee reads Chaucer's tales with fine attention to detail and writes with fluency and sensitivity about their effects. . . . [T]he author is a careful guide, and the clarity of his exposition makes for an absorbing read. -- <i>The Times Literary Supplement</i> The study is engagingly written and insightful in its readings of the individual Tales. Perhaps more importantly, it suggests a new approach to the Christianity of Chaucer's work and of medieval literature more generally: in introducing both a new figure, St. Bernard, who is not typically brought to bear on Chaucer, and a new set of definitions for the Christian ideas in the Tales, particularly suffering/passivity. -- Katherine C. Little, University of Colorado Boulder

Author Information

John Bugbee has taught at the University of Virginia, the University of Texas, and Mount St. Mary's University (Maryland). He is currently a visiting scholar in English at the University of Virginia.

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