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Festschriften are, not without reason, an often-maligned genre. This volume, however, does the genre proud with essays of unusually high quality, very clearly written, and a focus on topics that not only relate to Van Engen's own work but also raise important issues in current research. --Speculum, vol. 91, no. 4, October 2016

Festschriften are, not without reason, an often-maligned genre. This volume, however, does the genre proud with essays of unusually high quality, very clearly written, and a focus on topics that not only relate to Van Engen's own work but also raise important issues in current research. --Speculum

Christianity and Culture in the Middle Ages is a fitting tribute to one of America's leading medievalists by his former students and other distinguished colleagues in the fields that Van Engen has investigated. The essays are wonderfully conceived and well executed to show the wide-ranging influence Van Engen has had on the interpretation of medieval Christianity and Judaism from the twelfth-century context of his early work to the late medieval world of his recent studies. The volume has an unusual unity and compelling narrative flow for a collection of essays by different authors. --Paul Freedman, Chester D. Tripp Professor of History, Yale University Christianity and Culture in the Middle Ages: Essays to Honor John Van Engen is a thrilling collection, both wide-ranging and informative. The contributions are well structured, well argued, and comprehensive in bibliography and source materials--a welcome volume to celebrate the work of John Van Engen. --Anthony Lappin, National University of Ireland, Maynooth The editors of Christianity and Culture in the Middle Ages: Essays to Honor John Van Engen have succeeded in producing a very fine volume. Most of the contributions honor John Van Engen by referring in various ways to his work. A remarkably large number are well written, original, thoughtful, and trenchant. --Robert E. Lerner, Peter B. Ritzma Professor in the Humanities, Northwestern University Here is a collection as multifaceted as the scholar it honors. John Van Engen came to prominence as a force for renewal in the study of medieval religious and intellectual culture. How well he succeeded is written on every page by luminaries of his generation to rising stars of the future, many his former students. Every medievalist will find something of value here. Highly recommended. --James Murray, the Medieval Institute, Western Michigan University These essays in [van Engen's] honor craft a thread from each contributor's work to the groundbreaking work of van Engen. . . . This book is a fine resource for scholars wanting to keep abreast in their field as well as for graduate students wanting to be grounded in the best critical thinking in their field. --Magistra This is a particularly fine tribute to a particularly fine scholar . . . The essays are evenly important, generally well-written, suggestive, signposting additional research possibilities: they are a credit to the editors and worthy of presentation to Van Engen. --Parergon Festschriften are, not without reason, an often-maligned genre. This volume, however, does the genre proud with essays of unusually high quality, very clearly written, and a focus on topics that not only relate to Van Engen's own work but also raise important issues in current research. --Speculum One of the great hallmarks of Van Engen's method is his ability to evoke these precise settings--the landscapes and the cityscapes--in which the authors he studies were writing. It is above all this spirit that runs throughout the essays in the present collection: a desire to engage intimately with the people whom we can glimpse, as it were, still living in the texts and other artifacts that they have left us. --Irish Theological Quarterly

. . .this is an impressive collection in which all of the essays make interesting and insightful points. Despite the diversity of contributions, the repeated references to Van Engen's influence and the carefully conceived four-part structure ensure that the volume retains coherence. The wide geographical coverage, as well as the balance between case studies and broader discussions, is also to be admired. --The Journal of Ecclesiastical History The chapters assembled in Christianity and Culture in the Middle Ages explore European history across centuries and regions. The volume's coherence and charm arise from the homage offered by each contribution to an inspiring historian and teacher--John Van Engen. . . .This rich and well-written volume offers something of interest for every medievalist. It also reminds us how often good medievalists are a creating graceful and learned 'emotional communities.' --The Catholic Historical Review Christianity and Culture in the Middle Ages is a fitting tribute to one of America's leading medievalists by his former students and other distinguished colleagues in the fields that Van Engen has investigated. The essays are wonderfully conceived and well executed to show the wide-ranging influence Van Engen has had on the interpretation of medieval Christianity and Judaism from the twelfth-century context of his early work to the late medieval world of his recent studies. The volume has an unusual unity and compelling narrative flow for a collection of essays by different authors. --Paul Freedman, Chester D. Tripp Professor of History, Yale University Christianity and Culture in the Middle Ages: Essays to Honor John Van Engen is a thrilling collection, both wide-ranging and informative. The contributions are well structured, well argued, and comprehensive in bibliography and source materials--a welcome volume to celebrate the work of John Van Engen. --Anthony Lappin, National University of Ireland, Maynooth The editors of Christianity and Culture in the Middle Ages: Essays to Honor John Van Engen have succeeded in producing a very fine volume. Most of the contributions honor John Van Engen by referring in various ways to his work. A remarkably large number are well written, original, thoughtful, and trenchant. --Robert E. Lerner, Peter B. Ritzma Professor in the Humanities, Northwestern University Here is a collection as multifaceted as the scholar it honors. John Van Engen came to prominence as a force for renewal in the study of medieval religious and intellectual culture. How well he succeeded is written on every page by luminaries of his generation to rising stars of the future, many his former students. Every medievalist will find something of value here. Highly recommended. --James Murray, the Medieval Institute, Western Michigan University These essays in [van Engen's] honor craft a thread from each contributor's work to the groundbreaking work of van Engen. . . . This book is a fine resource for scholars wanting to keep abreast in their field as well as for graduate students wanting to be grounded in the best critical thinking in their field. --Magistra The eighteen essays in this festschrift echo the breadth and the focus of John Van Engen's contributions to the field of medieval history. . . . The volume is thus a fitting tribute to an important and influential scholarly and also, very evidently, pedagogical career. --The Medieval Review Festschriften are, not without reason, an often-maligned genre. This volume, however, does the genre proud with essays of unusually high quality, very clearly written, and a focus on topics that not only relate to Van Engen's own work but also raise important issues in current research. --Speculum This is a particularly fine tribute to a particularly fine scholar . . . The essays are evenly important, generally well-written, suggestive, signposting additional research possibilities: they are a credit to the editors and worthy of presentation to Van Engen. --Parergon One of the great hallmarks of Van Engen's method is his ability to evoke these precise settings--the landscapes and the cityscapes--in which the authors he studies were writing. It is above all this spirit that runs throughout the essays in the present collection: a desire to engage intimately with the people whom we can glimpse, as it were, still living in the texts and other artifacts that they have left us. --Irish Theological Quarterly

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David C. Mengel is an associate professor of history at Xavier University.

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