Alastair Minnis sa zameriava na stredovekú literatúru a myslenie, pričom prepája literárnu kritiku s históriou ideí. Jeho práca často vychádza z hlbokého záujmu o stredovekú filozofiu a teológiu. Minnis skúma, ako sa v neskorom stredoveku vytvárali predstavy o raji, a analyzuje ich literárne a kultúrne prejavy. Jeho prístup je charakteristický spojením starostlivého čítania so širším historickým a filozofickým kontextom.
'Phantom limb pain' designates the sensations which emanate from limbs that in reality are missing. First coined in the American Civil War, Alastair Minnis traces the medieval parallels for this concept. Is a complete body necessary for personhood? These issues were as absorbing for medieval thinkers as they are for neuroscientists today.
In From Eden to Eternity, Alastair Minnis argues that Eden afforded an extraordinary amount of creative space to late medieval theologians, painters, and poets as they tried to understand the place that God had deemed worthy of the creature made in His image.
This unique volume offers for the first time a comprehensive introduction to the literary theory and criticism produced during the Middle Ages. The essays cover all the main traditions in Medieval Latin, Byzantine Greek, and the major European vernaculars, as well as the humanist debates on literature and its uses.