Wonder and Skepticism in the Middle Ages explores the response by
medieval society to tales of marvels and the supernatural, which
ranged from firm belief to outright rejection, and asks why the
believers believed, and why the skeptical disbelieved. Despite
living in a world whose structures more often than not supported
belief, there were still a great many who disbelieved, most notably
scholastic philosophers who began a polemical programme against
belief in marvels. Keagan Brewer reevaluates the Middle Ages'
reputation as an era of credulity by considering the evidence for
incidences of marvels, miracles and the supernatural and
demonstrating the reasons people did and did not believe in such
things. Using an array of contemporary sources, he shows that
medieval responders sought evidence in the commonality of a report,
similarity of one event to another, theological explanations and
from people with status to show that those who believed in marvels
and miracles did so only because the wonders had passed evidentiary
testing. In particular, he examines both emotional and rational
reactions to wondrous phenomena, and why some were readily accepted
and others rejected. This book is an important contribution to the
history of emotions and belief in the Middle Ages.
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