Il bruco e l'arcobaleno. Nuovi paradigmi per la storia culturale e religiosa dell'alto medioevo

The article emphasizes the need to find new epistemological categories to redefine the relationship between medieval history and religious history, a relationsip that has been in crisis for almost twenty years. After providing a broad historiographical overview and some concrete examples, the A. suggests that we need to begin anew from fields of research – such as the history of religions, ethnolinguistics, cognitive science and evolutionary biology – that have been able to express the great heuristic potential in the study of religious experience on the basis of new explicative paradigms of cultural change.

Parole chiave: Cristianizzazione; Epidemiologia; Iconimo; Santità.

Keywords: Christianization; Epidemiology; Iconymous; Sanctity.