Mysteries of the Middle Ages by Thomas Cahill

These books include How the Irish Saved Civilization, The Gifts of the Jews, and the latest volume, Mysteries of the Middle Ages: The Rise of Feminism, Science, and Art from the Cults of Catholic Europe. Thomas Cahill is the author of 'The Hinges of History,' a prospective seven-volume series in which the author recounts formative moments in Western civilization. Like scientists, artists began to explore reality as they pondered how to depict the human body, motion, and space. Could mud become gold, as the alchemists believed? What about the Eucharist? Did it at some point change from ordinary bread into a mystical reality?

The advent of courtly love and the invention of sex as romance. The cult of the Virgin and how it encouraged powerful medieval female figures such as Hildegard of Bingen and Eleanor of Aquitaine, who were precursors to modern-day heroines like Eleanor Roosevelt and even Madonna. Cahill and Atwood will explore the European cities, people, and ideas that make the Middle Ages so fascinating and essential to who we are today: Join historian Thomas Cahill and novelist/poet Margaret Atwood as they discuss Cahill's new book, Mysteries of the Middle Ages: The Rise of Feminism, Science, and Art from the Cults of Catholic Europe. This dark, albeit incorrect, view of the Middle Ages might seem like the ideal setting for an adventure film or bodice-ripper novel, but the truth of the time period is far more interesting. But most people today have exactly the opposite understanding of medieval life, envisioning instead rampant barbarism, superstition, and oppression both religious and secular interspersed with impressive castles and gallant knights as high points. The High Middle Ages (1100 - 1347 A.D.) were extraordinary years for the advancement of science, women, and the arts.

Mysteries of the Middle Ages by Thomas Cahill