Die Geschichten der Geretteten

"His disciples should look more redeemed to me", wrote Friedrich Nietzsche about Christians. But what does redemption look like, can it be seen at all? This book reads the Legenda aurea, the most influential collection of saints' vitae of the Middle Ages, as a narrative illustration of the Christian understanding of redemption - away from dogmatic theology. And it reads them from the margins, from the "subordinates": What does redemption mean for women, for Jews, foreigners, even for dragons and animals? Can redemption be experienced in the here and now? A critical re-reading of this medieval tradition poses surprisingly modern questions about today's understanding of redemption beyond formulaic theory.