ABSTRACT
The pre-modern Christian view of the universe is sketched by E. M. w. Tillyard in The Elizabethan World Picture (New York, 1944), which sets out to explain the background to Shakespeare's plays. Jaroslav Pelikan's The Christian Tradition: A History of the Development of Doctrine, especially vol. 1, The Emergence of the Catholic Tradition (100-600) (Chicago, Ill., 1971) and vol. 3, The Growth of Medieval Theology (6001300) (Chicago, Ill., 1978), provides a detailed survey of formal medieval theology. Augustine of Hippo had a huge influence on the western Christian view of human nature and human society. For a readable account of his ideas see Herbert A. Deane, The Political and Social Ideas of St. Augustine (New York, 1963). The devil in medieval thought is treated by Jeffrey Burton Russell, Lucifer, The Devil in the Middle Ages (Ithaca, NY, 1984). On the saints see the interesting book by Donald Weinstein and Rudolph Bell, Saints and Society. The Two Worlds of Western Christendom, 1000-1700 (Chicago, Ill., 1982).
