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Dietmar Mieth's novel "Ketzerflammen in Paris / Heretic Flames in Paris" paints a historically accurate portrait of life in 14th century France

In his recently published novel "Heretic Flames in Paris", Dietmar Mieth, former head of the Meister Eckhart Research Centre at the Max-Weber-Kolleg at the University of Erfurt, tells the captivating story of the beguine Marguerite Porete during the Inquisition.

The story of Porete, a mystic who dared to write a religious textbook as a woman and was cruelly burned at the stake for it, is closely interwoven with the biographies of numerous well-known personalities from ecclesiastical and secular life.

"Knowledgeable and exciting, Mieth tells the story of the people involved, letting them have their say and justify themselves before an imagined tribunal. Conflicts of self-determination in faith, the role of femininity in a male-dominated society and the relationships between power, politics and love of faith in the High Middle Ages are unfolded. The result is a historically accurate portrait of life in 14th century France," according to the publisher's website (31 January 2024).

Information about the author:

Dietmar Mieth was born in Berlin in 1940. After studying Theology, German and Philosophy in Freiburg, Trier, Munich and Würzburg, he was appointed Professor of Moral Theology at the University of Fribourg (Switzerland) in 1974. From 1981 to 2008, he was Professor of Theological Ethics at the Faculty of Catholic Theology at the University of Tübingen.

Mieth was also spokesman for the "International Center for Ethics in the Sciences and Humanities" (IZEW) (1990-2001) and President of the Meister Eckhart Society (2008-2014). From 2009 to 2023, he has been head of the Meister Eckhart Research Centre at the Max-Weber-Kolleg at the University of Erfurt, an institution he established and still contributes to. In addition to numerous essays on ethics, he has published important writings on mysticism, including a definitive biography of Meister Eckhart.

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