Gabriel Byng

2 months ago | the-tls.co.uk | Gabriel Byng |Jonathan Buckley |Robert Bevan |Serguei Alex. Oushakine

To access over 1000 book reviews, essays and more, subscribe hereA sense of wonderHow medieval people responded to their buildingsWhenever somebody muses on how impressive medieval churches must have been to their contemporaries, I think, “Sure, but are they any less spectacular now?” There are still few architectural experiences as thrilling as stepping into a vast, chilly cathedral and looking up.

Nov 28, 2024 | churchtimes.co.uk | Gabriel Byng

ANNETTE KEHNEL begins her book with a bleak account of our modern condition. We are on the brink of a human-made environmental apocalypse, driven by our relentless consumption, and our only solutions are Enlightenment-era beliefs in progress, growth, and maximisation. The alternative? We need to open our minds to other ways of life by learning more about history, and particularly the European Middle Ages.

Oct 5, 2023 | churchtimes.co.uk | Gabriel Byng

I HAVE occasionally wondered whether we are in danger of reaching peak Julian. There must be no other medieval writer who has become so overwhelmingly popular with both scholars and the public as the Norwich anchoress, the subject of dozens of TV documentaries, histories, and popular introductions. Even a fan (and I count myself among them) might confess some Julian fatigue. In any case, I was wrong.

Jun 8, 2023 | churchtimes.co.uk | Gabriel Byng

A SCHOOLBOY learning Latin in the years after 1500 might have been given some sentences like these to translate: “I am weary of study. Thou stinkest. [. .