"The Carolingian 'renaissance' of the late eighth and ninth centuries, in what is now France, western Germany and northern Italy, transformed medieval European culture. At the same time the need to ensure that clergy, monks and laity embraced orthodox Christian doctrine was a fundamental driving force.".

"This book offers a new perspective on the period by examining transformations in a major current of thought as revealed through literature and artistic imagery: the doctrine of the passion and the crucified Christ.

The evidence of a range of literary sources is surveyed - liturgical texts, poetry, hagiography, letters, homilies, exegetical and moral tractates - but special attention is given to writings from the discussions and debates concerning artistic images, Adoptionism, predestination, and the eucharist.

Topics discussed in detail include the miniatures in the Gellone Sacramentary, Hrabanus Maurus's In honorem sanctae crucis, and later Carolingian crucifixion images such as the Utrecht Psalter illustration to Psalm 115, the miniature in the Drogo Sacramentary, and the ivory cover of the Periocpes of Henry II."--BOOK JACKET.