Leprosy has afflicted humans for thousands of years. It wasn’t until the twelfth century, however, that the dreaded disease entered the collective psyche of Western society, thanks to a frightening epidemic that ravaged Catholic Europe. The Church responded by constructing charitable institutions called leprosariums to treat the rapidly expanding number of victims. As important as these events were, Timothy Miller and John Nesbitt remind us that the history of leprosy in the West is incomplete without also considering the Byzantine Empire, which confronted leprosy and its effects well before the Latin West. In Walking Corpses, they offer the first account of medieval leprosy that integrates the history of East and West. 
In their informative and engaging account, Miller and Nesbitt challenge a number of misperceptions and myths about medieval attitudes toward leprosy (known today as Hansen’s disease). They argue that ethical writings from the Byzantine world and from Catholic Europe never branded leprosy as punishment for sin; rather, theologians and moralists saw the disease as a mark of God’s favor on those chosen for heaven. The stimulus to ban lepers from society and ultimately to persecute them came not from Christian influence but from Germanic customary law. Leprosariums were not prisons to punish lepers but were centers of care to offer them support; some even provided both male and female residents the opportunity to govern their own communities under a form of written constitution. Informed by recent bioarchaeological research that has vastly expanded knowledge of the disease and its treatment by medieval society, Walking Corpses also includes three key Greek texts regarding leprosy (one of which has never been translated into English before).

Walking Corpses: Leprosy in Byzantium and the Medieval West

History

Miller, Timothy S.

Nesbitt, John W.

Europe

Cornell University Press

In recent years scholars have shown considerable interest in early Christian attitudes toward peace and war. Some researchers have expanded this field of study to include Augustine's views and their elaboration during the Middle Ages; others have focused on Reformation concepts about the virtues of peace and the causes of armed conflicts. Very few scholars, however, have considered how Byzantine theologians, politicians, and secular intellectuals conceived of the two. This volume of essays, compiled in honor of prominent Byzantine scholar George T. Dennis, S.J., is the first to examine the Byzantine Christian tradition of peace and war. Grouped into three distinct sections, the essays collected here offer the reader an opportunity to examine aspects of a Christian tradition different from that of Roman Catholicism or Protestantism. The first essays examine how Byzantine society conceived of peace, the essays in the second section treat the manner in which the Byzantines waged war and how their soldiers actually lived, and the essays in the third section address specific sources for Byzantine military history. Although this last part is primarily for specialists, even here one finds information of general interest. While the essays focus on many diverse aspects of Byzantine military history, two major themes emerge: first, that Byzantine religious and political writers considered peace the highest gift of God and the principal purpose of any legitimate state; and second, that the soldiers of Byzantium, both as the Empire's protectors from impious barbarians and as members of a profession stained with blood, held an ambivalent position in society. Because an examination of the Byzantine moral perspective on the problem of organized violence may provide valuable new insights on the challenge of preserving peace in our time, this collection of original scholarly essays should appeal to a diverse audience--not only to those with an interest in Byzantine history but also to individuals interested in social and military history, theology, canon law, and the psychology and justification of war. Timothy S. Miller is associate professor of history at Salisbury State University in Maryland. John Nesbitt is a research fellow at Dumbarton Oaks Center for Byzantine Studies in Washington, D.C., and an instructor at American University. Contributors: John W. Barker, John V. A. Fine, Thomas Halton, Walter K. Hanak, Emily Albu Hanawalt, David W. Johnson, S.J., Alexander Kazhdan, Leslie S. B. MacCoull, Eric McGeer, Stamatina McGrath, Timothy S. Miller, Joseph A. Munitiz, S.J., John Nesbitt, Nicholas Oikonomides, Marios Philippides, Robert F. Taft, S.J., Patrick Viscuso, and John Wortley.

Peace and War in Byzantium: Essays in Honor of George T. Dennis

Literature & Fiction

Nesbitt, John

Dennis, George T.

Essays & Correspondence

Catholic Univ of Amer Pr

Among the controversial issues in America today is the debate over how best to care for abandoned and neglected children. Largely absent from the debate, however, is any discussion of past practices. In this book, historian Timothy Miller argues that it is necessary to look at the history of orphanages, of their successes and failures, and of their complex roles as social institutions for unwanted and homeless children.
In The Orphans of Byzantium, Miller provides a perceptive and original study of the evolution of orphanages in the Byzantine Empire. Contrary to popular belief and even expert opinion, medieval child-welfare systems were sophisticated, especially in the Byzantine world. Combining ancient Roman legal institutions with Christian concepts of charity, the Byzantine Empire evolved a child-welfare system that tried either to select foster parents for homeless children or to place them in group homes that could provide food, shelter, and education. Miller discusses how successive Byzantine emperors tried to improve Roman regulations to provide greater security for orphans, and notes that they achieved their greatest success when they widened the pool of potential guardians by allowing women relatives to accept the duties of guardianship. 
 After a thorough discussion of each element of the Byzantine child care system, the book closes by showing how Byzantine orphanages provided models for later Western group homes, especially in Italy. From these renaissance orphan asylums evolved the system of modern European and American religious orphanages until the foster care movement emerged at the beginning of the twentieth century. Miller's study of these systems can provide useful models for reforming the troubled child-welfare system today.
Timothy S. Miller is Professor of History at Salisbury University in Maryland. He has written or edited numerous books and articles on the Byzantine Empire, including The Birth of the Hospital in the Byzantine Empire and Peace and War in Byzantium. 
 Praise for the book:
"A very important contribution to Byzantine social and family history. . . . Like his other works, The Orphans of Byzantium commends Professor Miller as an indefatigable researcher and leading social historian of the Byzantine era. [This] is an original book, extensively researched, well documented, and readable, of value to students and teachers of Byzantine civilization, and the history of philanthropy and welfare. . . . Dr. Miller deserves congratulations and our gratitude for making another major contribution to Byzantine studies."―Demetrios J. Constantelos, Catholic Historical Review
"Timothy Miller has become an expert on the Byzantine Empire's system of social welfare, and here he provides an exhaustive study at a millennium of Byzantine care of orphans. . . . Miller's work is, by any gauge, thorough, and while there is not a plethora of evidence on this topic, readers can be sure that Miller has carefully analysed what there is."―Daniel Boice, Catholic Library Wolrd
"What should a morally responsible society do with orphans? Ignore and thus condone possible slavery, certain neglect, probable death? Encourage adoption? Institutionalize and therefore confine and marginalize? In this handsomely produced text, established Byzantine historian Miller (Salisbury Univ.) explicitly addresses a perennial issue of social policy by investigating and assessing the strategies that the classical and Byzantine worlds employed for abandoned or neglected children. Miller competently reviews the Hellenistic and Roman legalities and realities that Byzantine church, state, and private society sought to improve, then informatively describes the importance of the orphanage as institution (religiously or privately controlled); the sometimes effective encouragement (notably, by giving female kin greate

The Orphans of Byzantium: Child Welfare in the Christian Empire

Miller, Timothy

Americas

The Catholic University of America Press

The Virgin Mother's image - a moldy shadow with patches of holy light - has appeared under the Triple Underpass right next to the Grassy Knoll. The image of the Virgin Mother - so close to the site where JFK was assassinated - brings believers to pay their respects and to ponder its meaning.
But Hal Scott has more to worry about than the Virgin Mother.
Recovering alcoholic, lover of secrets, and quickly approaching middle-age, Scott discovered his best friend dead in his downtown Dallas apartment. And all fingers point to Scott as the murderer.
There is a conspiracy under way, and it is tied to a gubernatorial campaign, illicit photographs, and a video that will undermine the election. And more than likely get Hal Scott killed.
The only one Scott can turn to is "Lemon" - the self-proclaimed bastard son of Lee Harvey Oswald. Lemon's mother owns Conspiracy Books, just blocks away from the old Texas School Book Depository, and she used to dance at the Carousel Club, owned by the notorious Jack Ruby. The FBI, the CIA, and the John Birch Society all want what Lemon has discovered in her mouldering attic. What he found is bigger than them all, and there will be a price to pay for it exposure.

City of Hate

Literary

Goliad Media Group, LLC

In Walking Corpses, Timothy S. Miller and John W. Nesbitt contextualize reactions to leprosy in medieval Western Europe by tracing its history in Late Antique Byzantium, which had been confronting leprosy and its effects for centuries. Integrating developments in both the Latin West and the Greek East, Walking Corpses challenges a number of misperceptions about attitudes toward the disease, including that theologians branded leprosy as punishment for sin (rather, it was seen as a mark of God's favor); that Christian teaching encouraged bans on the afflicted from society (in actuality, it was Germanic customary law); or that leprosariums were prisons (instead, they were centers of care, many of them self-governing). Informed by extensive archival research and recent bioarchaeology,&nbsp;Walking Corpses&nbsp;also includes new translations of three Greek texts regarding leprosy, while a new preface to the paperback edition updates the historiography on medieval perceptions and treatments of leprosy.

Ursula K. Le Guin’s "A Wizard of Earthsea": A Critical Companion (Palgrave Science Fiction and Fantasy: A New Canon)

Teen & Young Adult

PALGRAVE~MACMILLAN

&#8203;This book assesses the work of one of the foundational figures of American fantasy, Peter S. Beagle. Through its focused analysis of&nbsp;The Last Unicorn,&nbsp;this study contextualises Beagle's work in relation to the popularity of the fantasy genre, following its growing success in the aftermath of Tolkien's&nbsp;The Lord of the Rings.&nbsp;In addition, through reference to the film adaptation of&nbsp;The Last Unicorn&nbsp;and also Beagle's other works, this study highlights the author's longevity and the influence that his metafictional and comedic work has had on contemporary fantasy.&nbsp;

Peter S. Beagle's “The Last Unicorn”: A Critical Companion (Palgrave Science Fiction and Fantasy: A New Canon)

History & Criticism

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