arden at the Roof of the World

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The Literature

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Christianity

Before the Black Death destroyed the vast majority of those Priests who put the cares of their congregation before the cares of themselves, Christianity during this period was going through a flowering of growth.  Aristotelian logic was replacing Platonic absolutism through the work of Thomas Aquinas.  Albertus Magnus laid the foundations of scientific thought and exploration in a church embracing the exploration and understanding of the world and its workings.  The Fourth Laterine Council recognized both Eucharist and Penance as Holy Sacraments.  Christianity was even changing its approach to animals through the naturalism of the Franciscans.  Christian mysticism flourished, with the music of Hildegard of Bingham and the meditations of Bonaventure being chief examples.  Christianity would face its main challenge in this era from the dangerous idea of Romantic Love.  The idea of devotion to another person instead to God as an act worthy of poetry, story and song spread like wildfire across secular Europe.

Judaism

Judaism had had a long and tumultuous dialectic with Greek Philosophy, and in Maimomedes, Aristotelian logic was brought systematically for the first time into serious use in the study of the Torah.  Reactions to this were less than the adoration with which Maimomedes is held today, and many congregations begged the Christians to ban the publication and distribution of this work, and other congregations embracing this rationalization of their religion.  Jewish mysticism was also flourishing with the first publications of the Kabalah and an exploration of the idea that the Torah itself was the Tree of Life and to those who held fast to it would provide joy and peace.

Islam

While much of Islam was focused political matters, in the heart of the Seljuk Empire the Sufi movement was flourishing, embracing dance and mystical poetry.  The love poems of Rumi, who lived in the capital city of Konya, would be embraced by all the world as how Romantic love is a clear mirror of the love between God and humanity.

Hinduism (Sanātana Dharma)

Bhakti was an important reform movement of this era.  Bhakti, which means devotion, taught that one must move beyond just ritual worship of God to find a way to have a loving relationship with God.  There were two basic forms of Bhakti in the 13th century.

Madhva taught Bhagavata: 9 stages to Bhakti: sravana – hearing, kirtana – singing the name of god, smarana – remembering the divine name, padasevana – serving the holy feet, arcane – worship, vandana – salutation, dasya – servitude, dakhya – friendship with God, atmanivendana – annihilation of the self.

Narada, who founded the Bhakti movement taught another kind: 11 stages of Bhakti: Singing the quantities of God, a desire to see his form, worshipping the image of God, meditation on God, service of God, friendship with God, affection towards God, love to God as to a husband, surrender of one’s own self to God, atonement with God, the agony of separation from God.

Followers of this older kind of Bhakti included some historic women, Andal and Kanhupatra, both of whom sought marriage with God, much like some of the Christian Nuns.

Both kinds of Bhakti focused on either Vishnu or Siva, masculine avatars of God (there are plenty of Hindus who would be very upset with me to have Vishnu and Siva as fellow avatars of Divinity, but there is the concept of Trimurti, with Hiranyagabha (Brahma), Hari (Vishnu), and Sankara (Siva). One only God, with triple energy. The manifest and unmanifest are both in him, issuing from spirit and passing into the fourth mode of being: time.)
 

Buddhism (dharma)

I know of no new movements within Buddhism in the 13th century other than that of Zen.  As Japan is not figured in the novel, I will take a moment to explain the form of the religion in the Himalayas.  Much like Christians wait for the return of Christ, Buddhists in medieval Tibbet awaited the return of Maitreya.  Maitreya (the name means loving kindness) is a bodhisattva who is to appear on Earth, achieve complete enlightenment, and teach the pure dharma.

In Tibet, lamas frequently ministered to they dying, with prayer, incantation and poetry, trying to help liberate them while in this transitory state.