In high medieval France, men and women saw the world around them as the product of tensions between opposites. Imbued with a Christian culture in which a penniless preacher was also the King of Kings and the last were expected to be first, twelfth-century thinkers brought order to their lives through the creation of opposing categories. In a highly original work, Constance Brittain Bouchard examines this poorly understood component of twelfth-century thought, one responsible, in her view, for the fundamental strangeness of that culture to modern thinking.Scholars have long recognized that dialectical reasoning was the basic approach to philosophical, legal, and theological matters in the high Middle Ages. Bouchard argues that this way of thinking and categorizing--which she terms a "discourse of opposites"--permeated all aspects of medieval thought. She rejects suggestions that it was the result of imprecision, and provides evidence that people of that era sought not to reconcile opposing categories but rather to maintain them. Bouchard scrutinizes the medieval use of opposites in five broad areas: scholasticism, romance, legal disputes, conversion, and the construction of gender. Drawing on research in a series of previously unedited charters and the earliest glossa manuscripts, she demonstrates that this method of constructing reality was a constitutive element of the thought of the period.

In high medieval France, men and women saw the world around them as the product of tensions between opposites. Imbued with a Christian culture in which a penniless preacher was also the King of Kings and the last were expected to be first, twelfth-century thinkers brought order to their lives through the creation of opposing categories. In a highly original work, Constance Brittain Bouchard examines this poorly understood component of twelfth-century thought, one responsible, in her view, for the fundamental strangeness of that culture to modern thinking.Scholars have long recognized that dialectical reasoning was the basic approach to philosophical, legal, and theological matters in the high Middle Ages. Bouchard argues that this way of thinking and categorizing—which she terms a "discourse of opposites"—permeated all aspects of medieval thought. She rejects suggestions that it was the result of imprecision, and provides evidence that people of that era sought not to reconcile opposing categories but rather to maintain them. Bouchard scrutinizes the medieval use of opposites in five broad areas: scholasticism, romance, legal disputes, conversion, and the construction of gender. Drawing on research in a series of previously unedited charters and the earliest glossa manuscripts, she demonstrates that this method of constructing reality was a constitutive element of the thought of the period.

More than six billion of us live on this planet now—growing rapidly toward seven billion. We’re separated by many differences: sex, race, religion, language, customs, and geography. Nevertheless, we also have some things in common. We breathe the same air. We all bleed the same red blood. We all need food, rest, and shelter. Oh, yes, we have one other thing familiar to each one of us—we all want happiness. Happiness—an elusive, sort of nebulous something that every one of us spends a lifetime pursuing. Some of us try to find it in things. We think that if only we could be rich, we’d be happy. When we’re rich, we have money. Money buys things, and things make us happy. Or do they? Others of us try to find happiness in becoming well-known—maybe even famous. If the masses adore us, surely, then we would be happy, right? Or maybe we look for happiness in being powerful and important, in plunging headlong into pleasure-seeking and entertainment, or in trying to find someone else who can make us happy. We want happiness. We crave it—all of us. Through all ages of history, we have desired it. Nevertheless, this inexpressible desire of all ages cannot be found in things, in fame, in power, in pleasure-seeking. It can be found only in a Person, and you can probably guess who that Person is. This book is His story. In Him is the end of your quest for happiness.

In four years at a Southern Baptist university, we wrote our theses. Mine was about the “Silence of Jesus.” After graduation, my paper was converted to “Messianic Prophecies, Cross-Examined,” a book nominated for the Erik Hoffer Award. In this riveting divine drama, unlike His Sanhedrin trial, and after two millennia of silence and guilty verdict, Jesus is represented by a defense council that energetically defends Him against the opposing council, Caiaphas' interrogations. It will energize your heart, mind, and soul! A pleasure to read, a one-stop. The thesis concluded with the fifth chapter, but the book has a sixth chapter about His Second Coming, so read it last. Will the Son of Man return by the same Name? Will His followers be known as Christians, or will they be given a new Title? The combined force of sixty-five Bible (KJB) texts removes all uncertainty concerning His potential New Name. The sixth chapter discusses these and other thought-provoking subjects. This book discusses forty-nine topics that our preachers are unable to address in their sermons. In words of one reader, Messianic Prophecies, Cross-Examined, shifted my consciousness.