Challenging the myth of sexual inactivity among older adults, this insightful work compiles recent research on various sexual issues faced by the elderly, including HIV/AIDS and body image concerns. It features impactful personal testimonies that highlight the realities of their sexual lives, providing a nuanced understanding of aging and sexuality.
The book explores the significant yet often overlooked contributions of women during the Catholic Reformation in France. Hillman reconstructs the devotional practices of a network of influential women, highlighting how they navigated their Catholic faith alongside their positions in the aristocracy. This perspective challenges the traditional notion that the Catholic Reformation was solely a male-driven movement, showcasing the complex interplay between gender, religion, and power during this transformative period.
This volume is an edited collection of original essays on spiritual travel in medieval and early modern Europe. Pilgrimage was a central feature of medieval and early modern Christianity. But holy travel was not only a physical act, it was also an interior disposition and a spiritual process. From at least the late Antique period, the life of a Christian was understood allegorically as a journey towards heaven. Also, many people could not enclosed orders of monks and nuns, men and women with responsibilities tying them to localities, the sick and frail. Virtual travel was instead their recourse to the sacred sites. Thus spiritual pilgrimage, instead of or alongside physical pilgrimage, became prominent in medieval Europe and survived the Reformation in both Protestant and Catholic traditions. These essays show that this experience took many a lively imagining of a journey with holy people or to holy places; an «out-of-body» experience such as the revelations of St Bridget of Sweden; guided journeys; meditations upon holy places such as Jerusalem; and travel in reconstructed landscapes, from the Monti Sacri reconstitutions to convent churches. The volume includes an historiographical introduction by the editors and nine case studies of spiritual journeys, drawn from across the late medieval and early modern periods and from different regions of Europe.