Abbreviations

Introduction: The Infancy of Scholarship on the Medieval Christ Child
Mary Dzon and Theresa Kenney

SECTION ONE: The Christ Child as Sacrifice

The Christ Child as Sacrifice: A Medieval Tradition and the English Cycle Plays
Leah Marcus

The Manger as Calvary and Altar in the Middle English Nativity Lyric
Theresa Kenney

Signs of Death: The Sacrificial Christ Child in Late Medieval Art
Elina Gertsman

The Christ Child in the Tree: The Motif in the Thirteenth-Century Wood-of-the-Cross Legends and Arthurian Romances
Nicole Fallon

SECTION TWO: The Christ Child and Feminine Spirituality

Birgitta of Sweden and Christ’s Clothing
Mary Dzon

Women Wielding Knives: The Circumcision of Christ by His Mother in an Illustrated Manuscript of the Meditationes vitae Christi (Paris Bibliothèque Nationale de France MS. ital. 115)
Holly Flora

Ihesus ist unser!: The Christ Child in the German Sister Books
Richard Kieckhefer

SECTION THREE: The Question of the Christ Child’s Development

The Holy Tooth: Dentition, Childhood Development, and the Cult of the Christ Child
William MacLehose

‘The Ink of Our Mortality’: The Late-Medieval Image of the Writing Christ Child
Mary McDevitt

Reshapings of the Childhood Miracles of Jesus
Pamela Sheingorn

Epilogue

Miri Rubin

Manuscripts Cited

Works Cited

Contributors

Index

Promotional Information

'An excellent collection! ... With its impressive, forward-thinking scholarship, these essays will find a broad readership of scholars and students from a variety of disciplines.' -- Josie Campbell, Department of English, University of Rhode Island

About the Author

Mary Dzon is an associate professor in the Department of English at the University of Tennessee. Theresa M. Kenney is a professor in the Department of English at the University of Dallas.

Reviews

‘The abiding impression of this collection – and every essay repays reading and re-reading – is of the extraordinary richness and poetry of medieval devotions and its remarkable freedom from sentimental fripperies.’
*Journal of Ecclesiastical History*

‘A lively collection of essays.’
*Speculum*

‘A fascinating volume that makes highly entertaining reading, and should be of widespread scholarly interest.’
*The Medieval Review*

‘Meticulously documented and edited, this book provides an impressively rich display of the intersections of medieval theology with the visual arts, literary expression, and popular devotion… We will certainly keep this “source-book” to explore further the ever-endearing and engaging figure of God as baby and little boy.’
*The Catholic Historical Review vol 101:03:2015*

‘The book is highly relevant for those interested in the Middle Ages, the history of Christianity, as well as religion and the arts; it can be an interesting point of departure for future studies on the construction of childhood in the West.’
*Journal of Religion and Culture*

Table of Contents

Promotional Information

About the Author

Reviews