the maladies of mediaevalism?

In the last decade of the nineteenth century, the notorious Lord Henry wittily states to Dorian Gray:

"I believe that if one man were to live out his life fully
and completely, were to give form to every feeling, expression to
every thought, reality to every dream--I believe that the world
would gain such a fresh impulse of joy that we would forget all
the maladies of mediaevalism, and return to the Hellenic ideal--"

Oscar Wilde’s second chapter of The Picture of Dorian Gray juxtaposes the “maladies of mediaevalism” to the “Hellenic ideal”—an ideal that includes the realization of beauty, feeling, and expression. These “maladies” to which Lord Henry refers include the medieval period’s emphases on morality and didacticism—two things which run entirely against Wilde’s “art for art’s sake” mindset, emphasized by the final line of Dorian Gray’s Preface: “All art is quite useless.”

Following the teachings of Walter Pater, Wilde believed that art existed only for the purpose of aesthetic delight, and for nothing else. Art should not be a means for teaching a lesson or for telling a story—it should be, in essence, useless. Art, like life, should not progress towards a goal, but should instead be saturated with momentary pleasure. In light of this philosophy, Lord Henry’s statement suggests that by living this kind of epicurean lifestyle (“eat, drink, and be merry!”), one can “gain such a fresh impulse of joy.”

I believe that Lord Henry is right in seeing in mediaevalism an emphasis on instruction and morality; however, I believe that the primary malady of medievalism for Lord Henry (and most people) is how intangible and divorced it is from a modern perspective. I believe that the European Middle Ages (c. 500-1500) was (/were) one of the most intellectually complex periods of time—during which time Platonic and Aristotelian thought begin to interact and mesh with Christianity; many modern practices and institutions are established, such as the University; and a kind of “post-modernism” comes about within the constraints of a God-created, providential universe. I have created this blog both to express the reasons for my own fascination with the Middle Ages in an attempt to create a similar fascination in others and to relate the medieval period to our modern cultural happenings (from pop music to political struggles).