This event is part of the Institute for Religion, Culture and Public Life's Devotion and Distraction series.
Speaker: Jamie Kreiner (University of California, Los Angeles)
Respondent: Seth Kimmel (Columbia University)
We tend to think of the problem of paying attention while being bombarded with an overwhelming quantity and variety of information and seduced by ever more invasive forms of distraction as a uniquely contemporary one. But medieval monks, pious early modern poets, and others from the past developed strategies to focus during what they perceived as their own moments of distraction or information overload. What were the pious practices of attention that these medieval and early modern Christians cultivated? How might better understanding these practices from the past help us to think critically about focus and distraction today in both sacred and secular contexts?
About the speaker:
Jamie Kreiner is a historian of the early Middle Ages whose work explores how people understood the world and how cultural and ethical systems were quietly shaped over time. Kreiner's research engages with narrative, cognition, ecology, religion, and science. Kreiner is the author of several books, including The Wandering Mind, How to Focus, Legions of Pigs in the Early Medieval West, and The Social Life of Hagiography in the Merovingian Kingdom
Free and open to the public, but registration is required—please register in advance to reserve your spot. All prospective attendees must register by 11:59PM on Thursday, October 16. Registration will close at that time.
