La pensée au Moyen Âge dans les textes hagiographiques

Abstract

Reading a medieval text is immersing yourself in another way of thinking, another way of looking at reality, and everything obviously finds its explanation in religion and, implicitly, in theology. The hagiographical texts of French literature from the Middle Ages (and more precisely, the Sequence of Saint Eulalia and also Life of Saint Alexis), starting from this constant, present two postulates of thought in the Middle Age: on the one hand, the dichotomous relationship between inner and inner beauty (that is, between body and soul) and, on the other hand, the antithesis between faith and philosophy. The first texts of French literature in the Middle Ages, in this sense, come from the biblical and patristic tradition. However, we should not consider this imprint on the literary sphere as a stigma or as a deficiency, but, on the contrary, as a specific way looking at the world, as an emblem of the beginning of modern culture. Thus, we will focus in the following lines on the role that these texts had and on the thinking that reflects from them. And at the same time, we hope to demonstrate, in one way or another, the fact that the Middle Age cannot be categorized only as an age of darkness; this period is, as Jean Verdon notes, between shadows and lights.