Many evangelicals today have marinated in the imaginative and apologetic writings of C. S. Lewis, J. R. R. Tolkien, G. K. Chesterton, and Dorothy L. Sayers. We love these writers for their Christian imaginations and their clear insights into how the gospel critiques modern culture and speaks to modern hearts and minds. But we do not stop to look into the deep well from which each of these drew: medieval Christianity. Each was a published scholar in the field of medieval studies. Together, they serve as a group of docents, ushering us into the strength and wisdom of medieval faith. I will use them as such in this introductory chapter.
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We share with all the saints one Lord
Francis of Assisi--part of an altarpiece by Bartolomeo Vivarini, in the Brooklyn Museum
From a mid-15th-century Dutch prayerbook: Saint James the Great; Saint Joseph; Saint Ghislain, abbot of St Ghislain, near Mons; Saint Eligius; Saint Ermes (Hermes)
Gregory the Great and St. Mamertinus, from a 14th-century French translation of Jacobus de Voragine, Legenda aurea
Cologne Cathedral
The clocktower of the Saint-Leu-Saint-Gilles church in Saint-Leu-la-Forêt (Val-d'Oise), France
Masaccio, Crucifixion, 1426 (Naples, Museo Nazionale di Capodimonte); the blonde figure is Mary Magdalen
Door of Tewkesbury Abbey cloister
Medieval Wisdom for Modern Christians
Grateful to the dead 