Contesting Orthodoxy In Medieval And Early Mode... NEW!

As the medieval period wound to a close, the orthodoxy of the Church finally did permeate down through the lowest social class but this hardly did anyone any favors. The backlash against the progressive movement of the 12th century and its new value of women took the form of monastic religious orders such as the Premonstratensians banning women, guilds which had previously had female members declaring themselves men's-only-clubs, and women's ability to run businesses curtailed.

Contesting Orthodoxy in Medieval and Early Mode...

Ryan McDermott is an Associate Professor of English at the University of Pittsburgh. He graduated from Westmont in 2000 with the long-term goals of writing novels and teaching religion and literature. He was rejected by MFA programs three years in a row. In the meantime, with the web design skills he learned launching the Phoenix website, he landed a job as Webmaster for a furniture store. He then followed his wife to West Virginia to teach junior high in a classical school, and then to China to teach English literature and journalism at a private university. Letting go of the MFA dream, Ryan pursued a Masters in Theological Studies at Duke University Divinity School (2003-2005), where he was drawn to medieval philosophy and theology. He proceeded to the Ph.D. program in English at the University of Virginia (where he was accepted off the waitlist). At the University of Pittsburgh, where he has taught since 2010, he teaches primarily medieval and early modern literature and culture. In his research, he works at the intersection of religious history, modern theology, and literary studies. He has published articles in Modern Theology as well as leading journals of medieval literary studies. His first book is Tropologies: Ethics and Invention in England, c. 1350-1600 (University of Notre Dame Press, 2016). He is working on a second book about medieval and Reformation-era vernacular theology that challenges several prominent stories told by modern theologians and secularization theorists about how we became modern. He is also writing a theology of incorruptibility. Ryan and his wife, Darrah, have six kids. He still hopes to write a novel someday. 041b061a72