This project thoroughly re-evaluates thinking about the soul in Latin Christendom in the early middle ages (c. 400-900). Ideas about the soul were central in medieval thought about man's nature and psychology, and the idea of the immortality of the individual soul was central to medieval religion. Early medieval thought about the soul forms the basis for the better known scholastic discussions on these issues in the high middle ages. The study looks into how the soul's nature was conceived of and why. It uses late ancient and early medieval texts on the soul and their early manuscripts, as well as contemporary narrative sources, such as histories and saints' lives. It deepens our understanding of early medieval thought, its contexts and methods, and demonstrates the place of the period in the western history of thought about the human mind.

2019

2025