Manchester University Press Religious Franks: Religion and Power in the Frankish Kingdoms: Studies in Honour of Mayke De Jong

Religious Franks is a coherent, thematically well-defined collection of essays that focuses on the importance of religion for Frankish politics and elaborates on the work of Mayke De Jong, the book's honouree. To many scholars today it may seem self-evident that religion and politics in the Middle Ages were inextricably bound up with each other, but this awareness is in fact the result of ground-breaking research of amongst others Mayke De Jong, who in her work unremittingly urges students of early medieval society to take religion seriously. The contributors of this volume have taken her admonition to heart and build upon De Jong's insights, while bringing in their own expertise and suggesting new directions of research and discussion. The kind of cooperation displayed in this volume makes it a unique and fresh contribution that will be indispensable for relevant future research in the field. The collection addresses issues such as the nature of royal authority, the definition of a polity, unity and dissent, ideas of correction and discipline, the power of rhetoric and the rhetoric of power and the diverse ways in which power was institutionalised and grounded in a venerable and Christian past. Religious Franks contains a large number of contributions from internationally renowned specialists in the field of early medieval history and will be of interest to specialists and advanced students in various related disciplines.