Abstract
This article considers the reasons for the wide popularity of late medieval Gospel meditations, such as the Imitatio Christi topos, which instruct the meditator to create visual narratives within the mind. The mechanism of this kind of participatory and affective devotionalism is rooted in neurobiological functions that automatically coordinate body and mind in accordance with the information about the surrounding world obtained through ‘mirroring’ (the mirror neuron system). These late medieval Gospel meditations may be rightly considered as a good meme-complex (a group of mutually reinforcing memes). The cognitive mechanism of such spirituality resembles contemporary computer-based virtual simulation.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Similar content being viewed by others
Notes
All citations from Love's Mirror are indicated by numbers in this format: page(s).line(s).
See, for example, Karnes, who summarizes recent scholarship on the relationship between ‘Interiority, imagination and meditations on the life of Christ’ in the Middle Ages: Karnes, 2007, 380–384.
References
Azuma, H . 2009 [2001]. Otaku: Japan’s Database Animals, trans. J.E. Abel and S. Kono. Minneapolis, MN: University of Minnesota Press.
Azuma, H . 2006. Gēmu-teki Rialisum no Tanjō: Dōbutsuka Suru Posutomodan 2 [The Birth of Gamelike Realism]. Tokyo, Japan: Kōdansha.
Benko, A. and S.L. Cecilia. 2009. Ambient Intelligence in Multimedia and Virtual Reality Environments for the Rehabilitation. In Multimedia Techniques for Device and Ambient Intelligence, eds. E. Damiani and J. Jeong, 165–178. New York: Springer.
Blackmore, S . 1999. The Meme Machine. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press.
Bynum, C.W . 2008. Patterns of Female Piety in the Later Middle Ages. In Crown and Veil: Female Monasticism from the Fifth to the Fifteenth Centuries, ed. J.F. Hamburger and S. Marti, 172–90. New York: Columbia University Press.
Damasio, A . 1999. The Feeling of What Happens: Body and Emotion in the Making of Consciousness. New York: Harcourt Brace.
Damasio, A . 2003. Looking for Spinoza: Joy, Sorrow, and the Feeling Brain. New York: Harcourt Brace.
Damasio, A . 2005 [1994]. Descartes’ Error: Emotion, Reason, and the Human Brain. New York: Penguin Books.
Dawkins, R . 2006 [1976]. The Selfish Gene. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press.
Gackenbach, J.I., B. Kuruvilla, R. Dopko and H. Le . 2010. Dreams and Video Game Play. In Computer Games: Learning Objectives, Cognitive Performance and Effects on Development, eds. A. Soria and J. Maldonado, 127–136. Hauppauge, NY: Nova Science.
Gerrig, R.J . 1993. Experiencing Narrative Worlds: On the Psychological Activities of Reading. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press.
Giaccardi, G . 2006. Accessing the Numinous: Apolline and Dionysian Pathways. In The Idea of the Numinous: Contemporary Jungian and Psychoanalytic Perspectives, ed. A. Casement and D. Tacey, 137–152. New York: Routledge.
Gibbs, R.W . 2005. Embodiment and Cognitive Science. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.
Greenfield, S . 2000. The Private Life of the Brain. London: Allen Lane/Penguin.
Hodgson, P ., ed. 1944. ‘The Cloud of Unknowing’ and ‘The Book of Privy Counselling’. EETS o.s. 218. London: Oxford University Press.
Hofstadter, D.R . 1985. On Viral Sentences and Self-Replicating Structures. January 1983. In Metamagical Themas: Questing for the Essence of Mind and Pattern, ed. D.R. Hofstadter, 49–69. New York: Basic Books.
Iacoboni, M . 2008. Mirroring People: The New Science of How We Connect with Others. New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux.
Iacoboni, M . 2009. Mirroring People: The Science of Empathy and How We Connect with Others. New York: Picador.
James, W . 1884. What is an Emotion? Mind 9 (34): 188–205.
James, W . 1890. The Principles of Psychology, 2 Vols. New York: Dover Publications.
Janet, P . 1926. Un délire religieux chez une extatique. Vol. 1 of De l’angoisse à l’extase: Études sur les croyances et les sentiments. Paris, France: Félix Alcan.
Julian of Norwich. 1993 [1976]. A Revelation of Love, ed. M. Glasscoe. Exeter, UK: University of Exeter Press.
Jung, C.G . 1966 [1922]. On the Relationship of Analytical Psychology to Poetry. In Vol. 15 of C.G. Jung, The Collected Works, ed. H. Read, M. Fordham, G. Adler, and W. McGuire, 65–83. London: Routledge & Kegan Paul.
Kaartinen, M . 2002. Religious Life and English Culture in the Reformation. New York: Palgrave.
Karnes, M . 2004. The ‘School of Devotion’: Imagination and Cognition in Medieval Meditations on Christ. PhD dissertation, University of Pennsylvania.
Karnes, M . 2007. Nicholas Love and Medieval Meditations on Christ. Speculum 82 (2): 380–408.
Keysers, C., B. Wicker, V. Gazzola, J.-L. Anton, L. Fogassi and V. Gallese . 2004. A Touching Sight: SII/PV Activation during the Observation and Experience of Touch. Neuron 42 (2): 335–346.
Love, N . 2005. The Mirror of the Blessed Life of Jesus Christ: A Full Critical Edition Based on Cambridge University Library Additional MSS 6578 and 6686 with Introduction, Notes and Glossary, ed. M.G. Sargent. Exeter, UK: University of Exeter Press.
Mâle, É . 1995 [1908]. L’Art religieux de la fin du Moyen Âge en France: Étude sur l’iconographie du Moyen Âge et sur ses sources d’inspiration, 7th edn. Paris, France: Armand Colin.
More, T . 1990. Letter to Bugenhagen, Supplication of Souls, Letter against Frith. Vol. 7 of The Complete Works of St Thomas More, ed. F. Manley, G. Marc’hadour, R. Marius, and C.H. Miller. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press.
Rizzolatti, G. and C. Sinigaglia . 2008. Mirrors in the Brain: How Our Minds Share Actions and Emotions, trans. F. Anderson. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press.
Rolle, R . 1915. The Incendium Amoris of Richard Rolle of Hampole, ed. M. Deanesly. Manchester, UK: Manchester University Press.
Sheets-Johnstone, M . 1999. The Primacy of Movement. Amsterdam: Benjamins.
Taguchi, M . 2012. Devotional Terms and the Use of the Bible in Nicholas Love’s Mirror of the Blessed Life of Jesus Christ. In Proceedings of the Sixth International Conference on Middle English, ed. R. Dance and L. Wright. Frankfurt am Main: Peter Lang.
Taussig, M . 1993. Mimesis and Alterity: A Particular History of the Senses. New York: Routledge.
Turner, M . 1996. The Literary Mind. New York: Oxford University Press.
Wexler, M., S. Kosslyn and A. Berthoz . 1998. Motor Processes in Mental Rotation. Cognition 68 (1): 77–94.
Whitford, R . 1532. The Pype. London: Robert Redman.
Zimler, J. and J.M. Keenan . 1983. Imagery in the Congenitally Blind: How Visual are Visual Images? Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition 9 (2): 269–282.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Taguchi, M. Imitating Christ as a meme. Postmedieval 3, 315–327 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1057/pmed.2012.22
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/pmed.2012.22