The Impact of Time and Place on Gregor Narekac'i's Theology, Spirituality and Poetics
Sets Grigor Narekatsi in the material and political conditions of tenth-century Armenia: the restoration of the Armenian monarchy and an improving economy fuelled a boom in monastic construction, reported at length by the eyewitness historian Stepanos Asoghik. Aristocratic patronage of church building served as a display of power, piety and enduring fame, and Gagik Artsruni's programme of public works, culminating in the palace church at Aghtamar (915–921), proclaimed Vaspurakan's independence from Bagratid authority. Cowe uses this setting to read the theology, spirituality and poetics of Armenia's greatest mystical poet against the political and monastic culture that produced him.