Creating the Monastic Past in Medieval Flanders

2005 History

Author : Karine Ugé
Release : 2005
Genre : History
Kind : eBook
Book Rating : 166/5 ( reviews)

Book Synopsis Creating the Monastic Past in Medieval Flanders by : Karine Ugé

Download or read book Creating the Monastic Past in Medieval Flanders written by Karine Ugé. This book was released on 2005. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Examination of the self-produced histories of a number of religious communities, tracing out the complex reasons for their composition. The creation of a past for themselves was of pressing importance to religious communities, enabling them to increase their status and legitimise their existence. This book examines the process in a group of communities from the southern part of Flanders (the monks of Saint-Bertin at Saint-Omer, the community of Saint-Rictrude at Marchiennes and the canons of Saint-Amé at Douai) over a period running from the ninth to the end of the eleventh century. The central contention is that the communities produced their narratives (history, hagiography, charter materials) for a specific time and purpose, frequently as a response to or intended resolution of internal or external crises. The book also discusses how the circumstances which triggered narrative production had an impact not only on the content but also on the form of the texts.

Monastic Reform as Process

2017-11-15 History

Author : Steven Vanderputten
Release : 2017-11-15
Genre : History
Kind : eBook
Book Rating : 108/5 ( reviews)

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Book Synopsis Monastic Reform as Process by : Steven Vanderputten

Download or read book Monastic Reform as Process written by Steven Vanderputten. This book was released on 2017-11-15. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The history of monastic institutions in the Middle Ages may at first appear remarkably uniform and predictable. Medieval commentators and modern scholars have observed how monasteries of the tenth to early twelfth centuries experienced long periods of stasis alternating with bursts of rapid development known as reforms. Charismatic leaders by sheer force of will, and by assiduously recruiting the support of the ecclesiastical and lay elites, pushed monasticism forward toward reform, remediating the inevitable decline of discipline and government in these institutions. A lack of concrete information on what happened at individual monasteries is not regarded as a significant problem, as long as there is the possibility to reconstruct the reformers’ ‘‘program.’’ While this general picture makes for a compelling narrative, it doesn’t necessarily hold up when one looks closely at the history of specific institutions. In Monastic Reform as Process, Steven Vanderputten puts the history of monastic reform to the test by examining the evidence from seven monasteries in Flanders, one of the wealthiest principalities of northwestern Europe, between 900 and 1100. He finds that the reform of a monastery should be studied not as an "exogenous shock" but as an intentional blending of reformist ideals with existing structures and traditions. He also shows that reformist government was cumulative in nature, and many of the individual achievements and initiatives of reformist abbots were only possible because they built upon previous achievements. Rather than looking at reforms as "flashpoint events," we need to view them as processes worthy of study in their own right. Deeply researched and carefully argued, Monastic Reform as Process will be essential reading for scholars working on the history of monasteries more broadly as well as those studying the phenomenon of reform throughout history.

Reform, Conflict, and the Shaping of Corporate Identities

2013 History

Author : Steven Vanderputten
Release : 2013
Genre : History
Kind : eBook
Book Rating : 290/5 ( reviews)

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Book Synopsis Reform, Conflict, and the Shaping of Corporate Identities by : Steven Vanderputten

Download or read book Reform, Conflict, and the Shaping of Corporate Identities written by Steven Vanderputten. This book was released on 2013. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book contains ten previously published essays dealing with the development of Benedictine monasticism between c. 1050-1150. Relying on primary sources that originated in communities situated in the Southern Low Countries - one of the densest regions of Benedictine occupation and a crossroads of cultural and political influences - the essays are arranged in three thematic sections. The first looks at the societal background, methodologies, and intended outcomes of 'Cluniac' reform around 1100. The second section investigates reactions to reform, both within the monastic sphere and by outsiders. In the third section, the focus is on groups of monks, and how they, their supporters, and their enemies all developed strategies of self-representation and self-positioning in the face of growing competition over landed wealth, patronage, and positions of social privilege. (Series: Vita Regularis - Regulations and Interpretations of Religious Life in the Middle Ages. Treatises. / Ordnungen und Deutungen religiosen Lebens im Mittelalter. Abhandlungen - Vol. 54)

Emotional monasticism

2019-06-14 History

Author : Lauren Mancia
Release : 2019-06-14
Genre : History
Kind : eBook
Book Rating : 225/5 ( reviews)

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Book Synopsis Emotional monasticism by : Lauren Mancia

Download or read book Emotional monasticism written by Lauren Mancia. This book was released on 2019-06-14. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Medievalists have long taught that highly emotional Christian devotion, often called ‘affective piety’, appeared in Europe after the twelfth century and was primarily practiced by communities of mendicants, lay people and women. Emotional monasticism challenges this view. The first study of affective piety in an eleventh-century monastic context, it traces the early history of affective devotion through the life and works of the earliest known writer of emotional prayers, John of Fécamp, abbot of the Norman monastery of Fécamp from 1028–78. Exposing the early medieval monastic roots of later medieval affective piety, the book casts a new light on the devotional life of monks in Europe before the twelfth century and redefines how medievalists should teach the history of Christianity.

Imagining Religious Leadership in the Middle Ages

2015-09-22 History

Author : Steven Vanderputten
Release : 2015-09-22
Genre : History
Kind : eBook
Book Rating : 290/5 ( reviews)

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Book Synopsis Imagining Religious Leadership in the Middle Ages by : Steven Vanderputten

Download or read book Imagining Religious Leadership in the Middle Ages written by Steven Vanderputten. This book was released on 2015-09-22. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Around the turn of the first millennium AD, there emerged in the former Carolingian Empire a generation of abbots that came to be remembered as one of the most influential in the history of Western monasticism. In this book Steven Vanderputten reevaluates the historical significance of this generation of monastic leaders through an in-depth study of one of its most prominent figures, Richard of Saint-Vanne. During his lifetime, Richard (d. 1046) served as abbot of numerous monasteries, which gained him a reputation as a highly successful administrator and reformer of monastic discipline. As Vanderputten shows, however, a more complex view of Richard's career, spirituality, and motivations enables us to better evaluate his achievements as church leader and reformer.Vanderputten analyzes various accounts of Richard’s life, contemporary sources that are revealing of his worldview and self-conception, and the evidence relating to his actions as a monastic reformer and as a promoter of conversion. Richard himself conceived of his life as an evolving commentary on a wide range of issues relating to individual spirituality, monastic discipline, and religious leadership. This commentary, which combined highly conservative and revolutionary elements, reached far beyond the walls of the monastery and concerned many of the issues that would divide the church and its subjects in the later eleventh century.

Popular eBooks

Creating the Monastic Past in Medieval Flanders

Monastic Reform as Process

Reform, Conflict, and the Shaping of Corporate Identities

Emotional monasticism

Imagining Religious Leadership in the Middle Ages

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