Medieval Matters - The Terror of History

Medieval Matters is a series of public lectures sponsored by Stanford Continuing Studies, the Center for Medieval and Early Modern Studies, the Office for Religious Life, Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences, and the Sarum Seminar. It explores the relevance of medieval history and culture to understanding the modern world.

Teofilo Ruiz, Professor of History, UCLA,  defines the contours and boundaries of heresy and millenarian movements in the Western tradition, explores their diverse origins, and traces their development as cultural artifact, from ancient Zoroastrian beginnings to the crucial late medieval period. In examining the evolution of dogma and right conduct (and their concomitant dissent and heterodoxy), he will place these movements in specific social, economic, political, and cultural contexts and explain them as forms of escaping history — attempts to resist what he has dubbed the "Terror of History."