Jesse Keskiaho, Dreams and Visions in the Early Middle Ages: The Reception and Use of Patristic Ideas, 400–900. Cambridge Studies in Medieval Life and Thought. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2015, ix, 329 pp.

Abstract

This book reached me only in 2019, but it still deserves a critical review. After all, the topic quickly proves to be highly relevant and significant both for the early Middle Ages and the entire world of imagination, dreams, and visions. This study is based on Keskiaho’s doctoral dissertation submitted to the University of Helsinki <?page nr="376"?>in 2012. Examining a wide range of patristic and other religious sources, Keskiaho highlights the wide ranging discourse on these phenomena from ca. 400 to ca. 900, taking into view particularly Augustine of Hippo and Gregory the Great, who all were deeply concerned with distinguishing between divinely or demonically inspired dreams and visions, which continued to be a highly problematic, or challenging, issue throughout the Middle Ages and far beyond. Already Tertullian struggled hard with this question how to distinguish between a dangerous and a sanctifying experience in the subconsciousness, as we would call it today.