"Poor of Christ" Not So Poor: A Paradox of the Cathar Heresy

ZBÍRAL, David. "Poor of Christ" Not So Poor: A Paradox of the Cathar Heresy. In International Medieval Congress 2011: Poor... Rich. 2011.

Basic information

Original name

"Poor of Christ" Not So Poor: A Paradox of the Cathar Heresy

Authors

ZBÍRAL, David (203 Czech Republic, guarantor, belonging to the institution)

Edition

International Medieval Congress 2011: Poor... Rich, 2011

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Other information

Language

English

Type of outcome

Prezentace na konferencích

Field of Study

60300 6.3 Philosophy, Ethics and Religion

Country of publisher

United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland

Confidentiality degree

není předmětem státního či obchodního tajemství

RIV identification code

RIV/00216224:14210/11:00050616

Organization unit

Faculty of Arts

Keywords in English

apostolic poverty; christianity; economy; money

Tags

rivok

Tags

International impact, Reviewed

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Abstract

V originále

This paper explores the relationship between the ideal and the practice of voluntary poverty among dissenting preachers in the 12th to 14th-century Europe who called themselves “Good Men” and were labeled as “Cathars” or simply “heretics”. I argue that the “Good Men” used the ideal of poverty and of the “apostolic life” in their self-presentation narratives but at the same time, quite paradoxically, they had very progressive attitudes to money and profit. Indeed, they practiced a specific “religious” moneymaking, sometimes in quite assertive ways. To explain this paradox, I refer to the developmental theory presented by Lester K. Little in his Religious Poverty and the Profit Economy in Medieval Europe (London: Paul Elek, 1978).

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Links

GP401/09/P191, research and development project

Name: Inkviziční pojmy, klasifikace a identity a jejich ozvuky v badatelské tradici Investor: Czech Science Foundation, Inquisitional Concepts, Classifications and Identities and their Legacy in the Scholarly