In the history of Christian thought, St Bonaventure stands out as the pre-eminent Franciscan philosopher of the 13th century and as a key figure in the development of the spiritual theology of the Church. The four studies which constitute this volume present detailed investigations into some of the principal sources from which Bonaventure drew his inspiration, from Antiquity through to St Bernard in the century before his own. Proceeding from a careful analysis of the quotations he makes from these sources, the studies make clear the precise extent and nature of their importance in Bonaventure's own thought, and the manner in which he selected ideas and used them to serve his own purposes. The first two pieces focus on the influence exerted by the Pseudo-Dionysius, in particular as concerns his notion of hierarchy; this became a central and fertile theme in the work of the Franciscan. Father Bougerol shows how Bonaventure interpreted and developed it, in the process transforming it into a meditation on the relationship between man and God. This emphasis also emerges in the third study, on his attitude towards Aristotle, which demonstrates Bonaventure's deliberate progress towards the elaboration of his spiritual theology.

Since the apostolic age, Christian churches have seen a constant dialectic between inspiration and institution: how the ungoverned spontaneity of Spirit-led religion negotiates its way through laws, structures and communities. If institutional frameworks are absent or insufficient, new, creative and dynamic expressions of Christianity can disappear or collapse into disorder almost as quickly as they have flared up. If those frameworks are excessively rigid or punitive, they can often quench the spirit of any new movements. This volume explores the interplay between inspirational movements and institutional structures throughout Christianity's history, examining how the paradox of inspiration and institution has been negotiated from the ancient world to the modern era, tracing how different Christian movements have striven to hold these two vital aspects of their faith together, often finding creative or unexpected ways to institutionalize inspiration or to breathe new life into their institutions.

The friars represented a remarkable innovation in medieval religious life. Founded in the early 13th century, the Franciscans and Dominicans seemed a perfect solution to the Church's troubles in confronting rapid changes in society. They attracted considerable enthusiastic support, especially from the papacy, to which they answered directly. In their first two hundred years, membership grew at an astonishing rate, and they became counsellors to princes and kings, they receiving an almost endless stream of donations and gifts. Yet there were those who were not so enamored of them, who believed the adulation was misguided or even dangerous, and who saw in the friars' actions only hypocrisy, deceit, greed, and even, signs of the end of the world. In the mid-13th century, writings appeared denouncing and mocking the friars, and calling for their abolition. Their French and English opponents were among the most vocal, leaving a vivid record of condemnation. From harsh theological criticism and outrage at the Inquisition, to vulgar stories and bathroom humor, these are their stories.

In Monasteries and the Care of Souls in Late Antique Christianity, Paul C. Dilley explores the personal practices and group rituals through which the thoughts of monastic disciples were monitored and trained to purify the mind and help them achieve salvation. Dilley draws widely on the interdisciplinary field of cognitive studies, especially anthropology, in his analysis of key monastic 'cognitive disciplines', such as meditation on scripture, the fear of God, and prayer. In addition, various rituals distinctive to communal monasticism, including entrance procedures, the commemoration of founders, and collective repentance, are given their first extended analysis. Participants engaged in 'heart-work' on their thoughts and emotions, which were understood to reflect the community's spiritual state. This book will be of interest to scholars of early Christianity and the ancient world more generally for its detailed description of communal monastic culture and its innovative methodology.

Monasticism was the dominant form of religious life both in the medieval West and in the Byzantine world. Latin and Greek Monasticism in the Crusader States explores the parallel histories of monasticism in western and Byzantine traditions in the Near East in the period c.1050-1300. Bernard Hamilton and Andrew Jotischky follow the parallel histories of new Latin foundations alongside the survival and revival of Greek Orthodox monastic life under Crusader rule. Examining the involvement of monasteries in the newly founded Crusader States, the institutional organization of monasteries, the role of monastic life in shaping expressions of piety, and the literary and cultural products of monasteries, this meticulously researched survey will facilitate a new understanding of indigenous religious institutions and culture in the Crusader states.

Mar da de San Jos 9 Salazar (1548-1603) took the veil as a Discalced ("barefoot") Carmelite nun in 1571, becoming one of Teresa of Avila's most important collaborators in religious reform and serving as prioress of the Seville and Lisbon convents. Within the parameters of the strict Catholic Reformation in Spain, Mar da fiercely defended women's rights to define their own spiritual experience and to teach, inspire, and lead other women in reforming their church.
Mar da wrote this book as a defense of the Discalced practice of setting aside two hours each day for conversation, music, and staging of religious plays. Casting the book in the form of a dialogue, Mar da demonstrates through fictional conversations among a group of nuns during their hours of recreation how women could serve as very effective spiritual teachers for each other. The book includes one of the first biographical portraits of Teresa and Maria's personal account of the troubled founding of the Discalced convent at Seville, as well as her tribulations as an Inquisitional suspect. Rich in allusions to women's affective relationships in the early modern convent, "Book for the Hour of Recreation also serves as an example of how a woman might write when relatively free of clerical censorship and expectations.
A detailed introduction and notes by Alison Weber provide historical and biographical context for Amanda Powell's fluid translation.

The Sanctuary Movement began in 1981 as a collection of mostly church-related people deciding to help the wave of Central Americans migrating to the United States, and was transformed in the following years into a highly volatile church-state confrontation. The movement established an underground railroad to help Central Americans enter the US and then provided sanctuary within churches, where the US government was legally forbidden entry. In "God and Caesar at the Rio Grande", Hilary Cunningham offers an account of the history and growth of the Sanctuary Movement in the US, as she demonstrates how religion shapes and is shaped by political culture. Focusing on the Sanctuary located in Tucson, Arizona, Cunningham explores the movement primarily through the experiences of everyday participants, including interviews with Sanctuary workers and reproduction of letters from her stays in Arizona, Mexico, and Guatemala. She discusses and illustrates such diverse subjects as US church-state relations, the social construction of power, and international refugee policy. One of the few books to document the culture of the religious Left in the US, "God and Caesar at the Rio Grande" illustrates how a particular group of people used religious beliefs and practices to interpret and respond to State authority. This book should be of interest to individuals wishing to explore the relationship of religion to power and social change.

During the Protestant Reformation, Martin Luther took the biblical maxim "be fruitful and multiply" and used it within the realm of marriage as the cornerstone of his new Christian community. By denying the spiritual superiority of celibacy and introducing new tenets regarding gender, marriage, chastity, and religious life, Luther challenged one of the key expressions of Catholicism--monastic life. Yet many religious living in cloistered communities, particularly women, refused to accept these new terms and successfully opposed the new Protestant culture.
Focusing primarily on a group of Dominican nuns in Strasbourg, Germany, Amy Leonard's "Nails in the Wall" outlines the century-long battle between these nuns and the Protestant city council. Using their charm, wealth, and political and social connections, the nuns were able to sustain their Catholic practices. Leonard's in-depth archival research uncovers letters about and records of the nuns' struggle to maintain their religious beliefs and way of life in the face of Protestant reforms. She tells the story of how they worked privately to keep Catholicism alive--continuing to pray in Latin, smuggling in priests to celebrate Mass, and secretly professing scores of novices to ensure the survival of their convents. This fascinating and heartening study shows that, far from passively allowing the Protestants to dismantle their belief system, the women of the Strasbourg convents were active participants in the battle over their vocation and independence.

The monastic experience demystifiedan essential guide to what its like to spend a week inside a Catholic monastery.

A life of quiet, work and prayer, monasticism has been a part of the Christian spiritual tradition for over 1,700 years, and it remains very much alive today. This book offers you a personal encounter with daily life inside the Trappist Abbey of Gethsemani, Kentucky, as you might encounter it on a one-week retreat. Including a detailed guide to the monastic places in North America that receive visitors, as well as a detailed glossary, Making a Heart for God is an excellent introduction for anyone interested in learning about monastic spiritualityand it is also the perfect preparation for your first retreat experience.

Whether youre simply curious about whats behind the mystery, or interested in experiencing it firsthand, this is the ideal handbook.

Also included are a helpful glossary of terms and a listing of monasteries throughout North America that receive visitors.

The second volume of Thomas Merton's "gusty, passionate journals" (Thomas Moore) chronicles Merton's advancements to priesthood and emergence as a bestselling author with the surprise success of his autobiography, The Seven Storey Mountain. Spanning an eleven-year period, Entering the Silence reflects Merton's struggle to balance his vocation to solitude with the budding literary career that would soon established him as one of the most important spiritual writers of our century.

Essays provide evidence for the vigour and involvement of religious orders in the years immediately prior to the reformation. It continues to be assumed in some quarters that England's monasteries and mendicant convents fell into a headlong decline - pursuing high living and low morals - long before Henry VIII set out to destroy them at the Dissolution.The essays in this book add to the growing body of scholarly enquiry which challenges this view. Drawing on some of the most recent research by British and American scholars, they offer a wide-ranging reassessment of the religiousorders on the eve of the Reformation. They consider not only the condition of their communities and the character of life within them, but also their wider contribution - spiritual, intellectual and economic - to English societyat large. What emerges is the impression that the years leading up to the Dissolution were neither as dark nor as difficult for the regular religious as many earlier histories have led us to believe. It was a period of institutional and religious reform, and, for the Benedictines at least, a period of marked intellectual revival. Many religious houses also continued to enjoy close relations with the lay communities living beyond their precinct walls. Whiletheir role in the devotions of many ordinary lay folk may have diminished, they still had a significant part to play in the local economy, in education and in a wide range of social and cultural activities. Contributors:JEREMY CATTO, JAMES G. CLARK, GLYN COPPACK, CLAIRE CROSS, PETER CUNICH, VINCENT GILLESPIE, JOAN GREATEX, BARBARA HARVEY, F. DONALD LOGAN, MARILYN OLIVA, MICHAEL ROBSON, R.N. SWANSON, BENJAMIN THOMPSON.

The Tales and Sayings of the Desert Fathers (Apophthegmata Patrum) are a key source of evidence for the practice and theory respectively of eremitic monasticism, a significant phenomenon within the early history of Christianity. The publication of this book finally ensures the availability of all three major collections which constitute the work, edited and translated into English. Richer in Tales than the 'Alphabetic' collection to which this is an appendix (both to be dated c.AD 500), the 'Anonymous' collection presented in this volume furnishes almost as much material for the study of the late antique world from which the monk sought to escape as it does for the monastic endeavour itself. More material continued to be added well into the seventh century, and so the spread and gradual evolution of monasticism are illustrated here over a period of about two and a half centuries.

In Monasteries and the Care of Souls in Late Antique Christianity, Paul C. Dilley explores the personal practices and group rituals through which the thoughts of monastic disciples were monitored and trained to purify the mind and help them achieve salvation. Dilley draws widely on the interdisciplinary field of cognitive studies, especially anthropology, in his analysis of key monastic 'cognitive disciplines', such as meditation on scripture, the fear of God, and prayer. In addition, various rituals distinctive to communal monasticism, including entrance procedures, the commemoration of founders, and collective repentance, are given their first extended analysis. Participants engaged in 'heart-work' on their thoughts and emotions, which were understood to reflect the community's spiritual state. This book will be of interest to scholars of early Christianity and the ancient world more generally for its detailed description of communal monastic culture and its innovative methodology.

The Power of Religious Societies in Shaping Early Modern Society and Identities studies the value system of the French Catholic community the Filles de la Charite, or the Daughters of Charity, in the first half of the seventeenth century. An analysis of the activities aimed at edifying morality in the different strata of society revealed a Christian anthropology with strong links to medieval traditions. The book argues that this was an important survival strategy for the Company with a disconcerting religious identity: the non-cloistered lifestyle of its members engaged in charity work had been made unlawful in the Council of Trent. Moreover, the directors Louise de Marillac and Vincent de Paul also had to find ways to curtail internal resistance as the sisters rebelled in quest of a more contemplative and enclosed vocation.

John Henderson examines the relationship between religion and society in late medieval Florence through the vehicle of the religious confraternity, one of the most ubiquitous and popular forms of lay association throughout Europe. This book provides a fascinating account of the development of confraternities in relation to other communal and ecclesiastical institutions in Florence. It is one of the most detailed analyses of charity in late medieval Europe.
"[A] long-awaited book. . . . [It is] the most complete survey of confraternities and charity, not only for Florence, but for any Italian city state to date. . . . This book recovers more vividly than other recent works what it meant to be a member of a confraternity in the late middle ages."--Samuel K. Cohn, Jr., "Economic History Review"
"Henderson offers new and fascinating information. . . . A stimulating and suggestive book that deserves a wide readership." --Gervase Rosser, "Times Higher Education Supplement"

Winner, Conference on the History of Women Religious (CHWR) Distinguished Book Award Winner, 2014 Catholic Book Award in History presented by the Catholic Press Association For many Americans, nuns and sisters are the face of the Catholic Church. Far more visible than priests, Catholic women religious teach at schools, found hospitals, offer food to the poor, and minister to those in need. Their work has shaped the American Catholic Church throughout its history. Yet despite their high profile, a concise history of American Catholic sisters and nuns has yet to be published. In Called to Serve, Margaret M. McGuinness provides the reader with an overview of the history of Catholic women religious in American life, from the colonial period to the present. The early years of religious life in the United States found women religious in immigrant communities and on the frontier, teaching, nursing, and caring for marginalized groups. In the second half of the twentieth century, however, the role of women religious began to change. They have fewer members than ever, and their population is aging rapidly. And the method of their ministry is changing as well: rather than merely feeding and clothing the poor, religious sisters are now working to address the social structures that contribute to poverty, fighting what one nun calls "social sin." In the face of a changing world and shifting priorities, women religious must also struggle to strike a balance between the responsibilities of their faith and the limitations imposed upon them by their church. Rigorously researched and engagingly written, Called to Serve offers a compelling portrait of Catholic women religious throughout American history.

The monastic community of Fulda was one of the most powerful institutions in early medieval Europe. This book traces the development of the community from its foundation in the 740s over one and a half centuries, a period richly documented by a variety of texts and archaeological remains. These sources reveal how Fulda's success forced the monks to rethink their goals and the ways in which they sought to achieve them. Its close connection to the Carolingian royal court also makes Fulda a fascinating case study of how local events influenced life in the palace and vice versa. The importance of Fulda and the rich array of sources associated with it have long been recognised, but this is the first full study, bringing together theology, architectural history and archaeology. The result is a vivid picture of life in this monastery and also in early medieval religious communities in general.

This book shows how the kingdom of God has advanced through the progression of distinct covenants, collectively serving as the foundation for God's promise to bring redemption to his people.

The New York Times bestselling author and senior fellow at the Discovery Institute blends science and religion in this thoughtful guide that teaches modern believes how to use the leading wellness trend today--intermittent fasting--as a means of spiritual awakening, adopting the traditions our Christians ancestors practiced for centuries into daily life. Wellness minded people today are increasingly turning to intermittent fasting to bolster their health. But we aren't the first people to abstain from eating for a purpose. This routine was a common part of our spiritual ancestors' lives for 1,500 years. Jay Richards argues that Christians should recover the fasting lifestyle, not only to improve our bodies, but to bolster our spiritual health as well. In Eat, Fast, Feast, he combines forgotten spiritual wisdom on fasting and feasting with the burgeoning literature on ketogenic diets and fasting for improved physical and mental health. Based on his popular series "Fasting, Body and Soul" in The Stream, Eat, Fast, Feast explores what it means to substitute our hunger for God for our hunger for food, and what both modern science and the ancient monastics can teach us about this practice. Richards argues that our modern diet--heavy in sugar and refined carbohydrates--locks us into a metabolic trap that makes fasting unfruitful and our feasts devoid of meaning. The good news, he reveals, is that we are beginning to resist the tyranny of processed foods, with millions of people pursuing low carb, ketogenic, paleo, and primal diets. This growing body of experts argue that eating natural fat and fasting is not only safe, but far better than how we eat today. Richards provides a 40-day plan which combines a long-term "nutritional ketosis" with spiritual disciplines. The plan can be used any time of the year or be adapted to a penitential season on the Christian calendar, such as Advent or Lent. Synthesizing recent science with ancient wisdom, Eat, Fast, Feast brings together the physical, mental, and spiritual benefits of intermittent fasting to help Christians improve their lives and their health, and bring them closer to God.

Originally published in 1926, this book analyses the role of the Abbey of St Gall in the development of German arts in the Middle Ages. Clark examines the various influences on the abbey from other European traditions and the importance of its manuscript collection for medieval learning. This book will be of value to anyone with an interest in medieval Europe and the role of the Church in the transmission of learning.

Originally published in 1937, this book was based upon the author's Hulsean Prize winning essay for 1934. The text presents a series of studies regarding the history of the Dominican Order during the thirteenth century, with analysis of its key figures, structural elements, theological approach and relationship with the broader context of the period. Appendices and detailed notes are also included. This book will be of value to anyone with an interest in the Dominican Order and the history of Christianity.

This is the first book to focus on Latin epic verse saints' lives in their medieval historical contexts. Anna Taylor examines how these works promoted bonds of friendship and expressed rivalries among writers, monasteries, saints, earthly patrons, teachers and students in Western Europe in the central Middle Ages. Using philological, codicological and microhistorical approaches, Professor Taylor reveals new insights that will reshape our understanding of monasticism, patronage and education. These texts give historians an unprecedented glimpse inside the early medieval classroom, provide a nuanced view of the complicated synthesis of the Christian and Classical heritages, and show the cultural importance and varied functions of poetic composition in the ninth, tenth and eleventh centuries.

Originally published in 1913, this book presents a detailed history of the Lerins Islands, from the foundation of the monastery of the Lerins around the year 410 up until the time of publication. The text followed upon a 1903 text by the author on the life of Caesarius of Arles, who trained as a monk on the Lerins. Numerous illustrative figures, an appendix section and bibliography are also included. This book will be of value to anyone with an interest in the Lerins and their history.

Originally published in 1913, this book presents a detailed study of St Basil the Great and his monasticism. The main focus of the text is on Basil's ascetic writings, but information is provided on the surrounding historical context and the framework of early monasticism. Preceding the publication of this volume, there had been no detailed account of the ascetic writings and their significance for the development of early Christianity. The appendix section includes a table of dates and bibliography. This book will be of value to anyone with an interest in St Basil, monasticism and asceticism.