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Document Details : Title: Heaven is a Place on Earth Subtitle: The Use of Imagination in Sermons Attributed to Johannes Brugman Author(s): BOONSTRA, Pieter H. Journal: Ons Geestelijk Erf Volume: 94 Issue: 1-3 Date: 2024 Pages: 67-87 DOI: 10.2143/OGE.94.1.3293963 Abstract : By examining several sermons attributed to the Observant Franciscan Johannes Brugman, this article argues that religious imagination played an important role in preaching in the late medieval Low Countries, similar to its centrality in other devotional activities. Traces of performativity in sermon texts make it possible to reconstruct some general aspects of preaching as historical event, even if direct accounts of the performance are scarce. Although considered a mental faculty, imagination is largely dependent on the corporeal senses: to be immersed in an religious scene hinged on imagining sensorial experiences as if they were present, blurring the lines between the divine and the mundane. Imagination remains a very grounded and physical affair, heavily intertwined with the bodily senses of sight, hearing, smell, taste, and touch. Medieval preaching thus engaged with multiple layers of multisensoriality: in the delivered sermons as well as in the embodied experience of attending the preaching event. |
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