Quidditas Volume 34 Article 3 2013 Holy Places & Imagined Hellscapes: Qualifying Comments on Loca Sancta Sermon Studies—Christian Conversion in Northern Europe & Scandinavia, c. 500-1300 Todd P. Upton Denver, Colorado Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarsarchive.byu.edu/rmmra Part of the Comparative Literature Commons, History Commons, Philosophy Commons, and the Renaissance Studies Commons Recommended Citation Upton, Todd P. (2013) "Holy Places & Imagined Hellscapes: Qualifying Comments on Loca Sancta Sermon Studies—Christian Conversion in Northern Europe & Scandinavia, c. 500-1300," Quidditas: Vol. 34 , Article 3. Available at: https://scholarsarchive.byu.edu/rmmra/vol34/iss1/3 This Article is brought to you for free and open access by the Journals at BYU ScholarsArchive. It has been accepted for inclusion in Quidditas by an authorized editor of BYU ScholarsArchive. For more information, please contact
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[email protected]. Quidditas 34 (2013) 29 Holy Places & Imagined Hellscapes: Qualifying Comments on Loca Sancta Sermon Studies—Christian Conversion in Northern Europe & Scandinavia, c. 500-1300 Todd P. Upton Denver, Colorado The paper uses methods from medieval sermon studies to argue that an insularity in “monastic consciousness” can be traced to earlier centuries than the more generally discussed (and better documented) scholastic environments of 13th century monastic and cathedral schools. It assesses how a monastic discourse reliant on Biblical typologies informed the Christian conversion of northern Germanic and Scandinavian peoples (c. 500-1300, including the British Isles and Iceland). Moments of encounter between Christian missionaries and pagan cultures helped delineate this discourse, most apparent in extant records that reveal Christian and Norse perceptions of geography, holy places, deity worship, and eschatological expectations.