Binding: Hardcover
Description: A Fake Saint and the True Church uncovers the remarkable story of a fake saint to tell a tale about truth. It begins at the end of the 1650s when a large quantity of forged documents suddenly appeared throughout the Kingdom of Naples. Narrating the life and deeds of a previously unknown medieval saint named Giovanni Cal the trove generated much excitement around the kingdom. No one was more delighted by the news than Carlo Cal Giovanni's wealthy and politically influential seventeenth - century descendant. Attracted by the prospect of adding a saint to the family tree Carlo presented Giovanni's case to the Roman Curia. The Catholic authorities however immediately realized that the sources were forged and that Giovanni was not real (let alone holy). Yet it took more than two decades before the forgery was exposed: why? Vividly reconstructing the intricate case of the supposed saint Stefania Tutino explores the tensions between historical and theological truth. How much could the truth of doctrine depend on the truth of the facts before religion lost its connection with the supernatural? To what extent could the truth of doctrine ignore the truth of the facts without ending up engulfed in falsity and deceit? How could the absolute truth of theology relate to the far less absolute certainty of human affairs? This story of a fake saint illuminates early modern tensions. But the struggles to distinguish between facts opinions and beliefs remain with us. Examining as this book does how our predecessors dealt with the relationship between truth and authenticity guides us too in thinking through what is true and what is not.
Title: A Fake Saint And The True Church The Story Of A Forgery In Seventeenth - Century Naples
Author(s): Tutino Stefania (Professor Of History Professor Of History University Of California Los Angeles)
Publisher: Oxford University Press Inc
Barcode: 9780197578803
Pages: 208 Pages
Publication Date: 9/1/2021
Category: Roman Catholicism, Roman Catholic Church