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Books > Religion & Spirituality > Christianity > Christian institutions & organizations > Christian communities & monasticism
As a subculture, cloistered monastic nuns live hidden from public
view by choice. Once a woman joins the cloister and makes final
vows, she is almost never seen and her voice is not heard; her
story is essentially nonexistent in the historical record and
collective, public history. From interviews conducted over six
years, Abbie Reese tells the stories of the Poor Clare Colettine
Order, a cloistered contemplative order at the Corpus Christi
Monastery in Rockford, Illinois. Seldom leaving their
25,000-square-foot gated enclosure, members of this community
embrace an extreme version of poverty and anonymity-a separation
that enables them to withdraw from the world to devote their lives
to prayer. This removal, they contend, allows them to have a
greater impact on humanity than if they maintained direct contact
with loved ones and strangers. Dedicated to God explores individual
and cultural identity through oral history interviews with several
generations of nuns, focusing on the origins and life stories of
the women who have chosen to become members of one of the strictest
religious orders. But the narrative is also one of a collective
memory and struggle against extinction and modernity, a
determination to create community within the framework of ancient
rules. The author's stunning photographs of their dual worlds,
religious and quotidian, add texture to the narrative. This
artistic and ethnographic work highlights the countercultural
values and dedication of individuals who, at incredible personal
cost, live for love of God and humanity, out of faith in what
cannot be seen, and with the belief that they will be rewarded in
the afterlife.
Orthodox Christians today have no lack of resources on monastic
spirituality. And yet startlingly little has been done to
critically engage the monastic tradition and adapt its ancient
wisdom for the Orthodox faithful living in today's complex society.
A Layman in the Desert aims to bridge this crucial gap. Working
with the Conferences of St John Cassian, Opperwall constructs a
kind of relationship handbook that shows us how the desert saints
of old can help us build healthy, Christ-centered relationships
with our spouses, children, friends, and coworkers.
One day in 1917, while cooking dinner at home in Manhattan,
Margaret Reilly (1884-1937) felt a sharp pain over her heart and
claimed to see a crucifix emerging in blood on her skin. Four years
later, Reilly entered the convent of the Sisters of the Good
Shepherd in Peekskill, New York, where, known as Sister Mary of the
Crown of Thorns, she spent most of her life gravely ill and
possibly exhibiting Christ's wounds. In this portrait of Sister
Thorn, Paula M. Kane scrutinizes the responses to this American
stigmatic's experiences and illustrates the surprising presence of
mystical phenomena in twentieth-century American Catholicism.
Drawing on accounts by clerical authorities, ordinary Catholics,
doctors, and journalists - as well as on medicine, anthropology,
and gender studies - Kane explores American Catholic mysticism,
setting it in the context of life after World War I and showing the
war's impact on American Christianity. Sister Thorn's life, she
reveals, marks the beginning of a transition among Catholics from a
devotional, Old World piety to a newly confident role in American
society.
This new history of the Sisters of Saint Joseph of Chestnut Hill,
Philadelphia, focuses on the growth and evolution of the
Congregation through the years 1944-1999. This book attempts to
look at the Congregation, an ecclesial group of Catholic women
religious, from the particular perspectives of spirituality,
ministry, and governance. This history provides a view of the
experience of women religious within a particular time and place.
The Catholic in the pew and researchers alike will gain insight
into the life of the Philadelphia Sisters of Saint Joseph in this
important era of their transformation.
Severus of Antioch is by far the most prolific and well known
theologian of the non-Chalcedonian churches. Although his life and
writings came to our knowledge in Syriac, gaining him the title
"Crown of the Syriac Literature," many texts relating to his life
and works survived in the Coptic and Copto-Arabic tradition, as
well as a number of other texts that were traditionally attributed
to him. This book provides an analysis of these texts as well as a
discussion of the veneration of Severus of Antioch in the Coptic
Church.
Today, as increasing numbers of people try to make sense of their
lives in the face of unexpected or unlooked for change, this direct
and compelling memoir by someone who has voluntarily embraced a
life of radical simplicity and solitude is a real message for our
times. What makes a young, Cambridge educated woman first join a
religious order and then, if that were not demanding enough, seek a
hermit vocation, literally on the edge of the world with only a
simple hut as protection against Atlantic winds and storms? Here
the author tells her story. For more than forty years Sr Verena
lived a solitary life at the tip of the Lleyn Peninsula, looking
out across the sea to Bardsey, Wales' island of saints, and has
only recently - with increasing age - moved nearer human habitation
in the parish where R S Thomas was priest. For her, this narrow
straitened place became a mirror of the whole of creation and the
material poverty of her life became a means to 'having nothing yet
possessing all things' in the words of St Paul. Over the decades,
countless people have beaten a path to her door seeking spiritual
counsel and direction for their own busy lives and her account
speaks directly to those who may be facing an enforced simplicity
leading them into something profoundly positive and life giving.
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.
Marie de l'Incarnation (1599 - 1672), renowned French mystic and
founder of the Ursulines in Canada, abandoned her son, Claude
Martin, when he was a mere eleven years old to dedicate herself
completely to a consecrated religious life.
In 1639, Marie migrated to the struggling French colony at Quebec
to found the first Ursuline convent in the New World. Over the
course of the next thirty-one years, the relationship between Marie
and Claude would take shape by means of a trans-Atlantic
correspondence in which mother and son shared advice and counsel,
concerns and anxieties, and joys and frustrations.
From Mother to Son presents annotated translations of forty-one of
the eighty-one extant full-length letters exchanged by Marie and
her son between 1640 and 1671. These letters reveal much about the
early history of New France and the spiritual itinerary of one of
the most celebrated mystics of the seventeenth century. Uniting the
letters into a coherent whole is the distinctive relationship
between an absent mother and her abandoned son, a relationship
reconfigured from flesh and blood to the written word exchanged
between professed religious united in Jesus Christ as members of
the same spiritual family.
In providing a contemporary translation of Marie's letters to
Claude, Mary Dunn renders accessible to an English-speaking
readership a rich source for the history of colonial North America,
providing a counterpoint to a narrative weighted in favor of
Plymouth Rock and the Puritans and a history of New France
dominated by the perspectives of men both religious and secular.
Dunn expertly contextualizes the correspondence within the broader
cultural, historical, intellectual, and theological currents of the
seventeenth century as well as within modern scholarship on Marie
de l'Incarnation.
From Mother to Son offers a fascinating portrait of the nature and
evolution of Marie's relationship with her son. By highlighting the
great range of their conversation, Dunn provides a window onto one
of the more intriguing and complicated stories of maternal and
filial affection in the modern Christian West.
This book is the first publication of a very early collection of
Christian monastic rules from Roman Egypt. Designed for the
so-called White Monastery Federation, a community of monks and nuns
who banded together about 360 CE, the rules are quoted by the great
monastic leader Shenoute of Atripe in his writings of the fourth
and fifth century. These rules provide new and intimate access to
the earliest phases of Christian communal (cenobitic) monasticism.
In this volume, Bentley Layton presents for the first time the
Coptic text of the rules, amounting to five hundred and ninety-five
entries, accompanied by a clear and exact English translation. Four
preliminary chapters discuss the character of the rules in their
historical and social context, and present new evidence for the
founding of the monastic federation. From passing remarks in the
rules, Layton paints a brilliant picture of monastic daily life and
ascetic practice, organized around six general topics: the
monastery as a physical plant, the human makeup of the community,
the pattern of ascetic observances, the hierarchy of authority, the
daily liturgy, and monastic economic life . The Canons of Our
Fathers will be a fundamental resource for readers interested in
Christian life in late antiquity, ascetic practices, and the
history of monasticism in all its forms.
This book offers a comprehensive examination of the generations of
women who entered religious life in the United States after 1965.
It provides up-to-date demographics for women's religious
institutes; a summary of canon law locating religious life within
the various forms of life in the Church; an analysis of Church
documents on religious life; and data on the views of post-Vatican
II entrants regarding ministry, identity, prayer, spirituality, the
vows, and community. Beginning each chapter with an engaging
narrative, the authors explore how different generations of
Catholic women first became attracted to vowed religious life and
what kinds of religious institutes they were seeking. By analyzing
the results of extensive national surveys, the authors
systematically examine how the new generations of Sisters differ
from previous ones, and what those changes suggest about the
future. The book concludes with recommendations for further
understanding of generations within religious life and within the
Church and society. Because of its breadth and depth, this book
will be regarded by scholars, the media, and practitioners as an
essential resource for the sociological study of religious life for
women in the United States.
Durham Cathedral was built as the Shrine of St Cuthbert. Without
Cuthbert, this great Norman edifice would not exist, and neither
would the castle or, indeed, the city of Durham. Construction was
begun by Bishop William of St-Calais in 1093 and was brought to
near-completion by Bishop Ranulf Flambard. Both men had important
royal duties, seldom spending time at Durham. Continuity was
provided by Prior Turgot. This is the story of Turgot-a man who,
after many adventures in his youth, was shipwrecked while returning
from Norway and transported to the realms of St Cuthbert-an unsung
enabler who oversaw the construction of this great architectural
masterpiece. Turgot was also close to the Scottish royal family,
and wrote an account of the life of St Margaret, the Scottish
queen. In 1104 he supervised the opening of the tomb of St
Cuthbert, and arranged the transfer of the remains to a splendid
shrine within the new cathedral. Through reading Prior Turgot's
story, a great deal can be learnt about the building of Durham
Cathedral, the story of St Cuthbert, his journey to Durham, and the
earliest pre-Norman settlements which grew into an iconic city and
World Heritage Site. Contained Within * Foreword by David Rollason,
Professor of History at Durham University * The story of St
Cuthbert, Prior Turgot, and the construction of Durham Cathedral *
Illustrations, maps, and diagrams * Short essays on related topics
* Turgot's Life of St Margaret * Extensive references, bibliography
and index About the Author Lionel Green grew up in Merton in
Surrey, and was a founder member, and ultimately president, of
Merton Historical Society. He researched Merton Priory for over 50
years, culminating in his book A Priory Revealed using material
relating to Merton Priory, published in 2005. His research into
medieval monasteries introduced him to the story of Turgot. Lionel
Green died in 2010, leaving his script to be edited by friends.
Ressourcement: A Movement for Renewal in Twentieth-Century Catholic
Theology provides both a historical and a theological analysis of
the achievements of the renowned generation of theologians whose
influence pervaded French theology and society in the period 1930
to 1960, and beyond. It considers how the principal exponents of
ressourcement, leading Dominicans and Jesuits of the faculties of
Le Saulchoir (Paris) and Lyon-Fourviere, inspired a renaissance in
twentieth-century Catholic theology and initiated a movement for
renewal that contributed to the reforms of the Second Vatican
Council. The book assesses the origins and historical development
of the biblical, liturgical, and patristic ressourcement in France,
Germany, and Belgium, and offers fresh insights into the thought of
the movement's leading scholars. It analyses the fierce
controversies that erupted within the Jesuit and Dominican orders
and between leading ressourcement theologians and the Vatican. The
volume also contributes to the elucidation of the complex question
of terminology, the interpretation of which still engenders
controversy in discussions of ressourcement and nouvelle theologie.
It concludes with reflections on how the most important movement in
twentieth-century Roman Catholic theology continues to impact on
contemporary society and on Catholic and Protestant theological
enquiry in the new millennium.
Feminism, Absolutism, and Jansenism chronicles seventy years of
Jansenist conflict and its complex intersection with power
struggles between gallican bishops, Parlementaires, the Crown and
the Pope. Daniella Kostroun focuses on the nuns of
Port-Royal-des-Champs, whose community was disbanded by Louis XIV
in 1709 as a threat to the state. Paradoxically, it was the nuns'
adherence to their strict religious rule and the ideal of pious,
innocent and politically disinterested behavior that allowed them
to challenge absolutism effectively. Adopting methods from cultural
studies, feminism and the Cambridge School of political thought,
Kostroun examines how these nuns placed gender at the heart of the
Jansenist challenge to the patriarchal and religious foundations of
absolutism; they responded to royal persecution with a feminist
defense of women's spiritual and rational equality and of the
autonomy of the individual subject, thereby offering a bold
challenge to the patriarchal and religious foundations of
absolutism.
As a subculture, cloistered monastic nuns live hidden from public
view by choice. Once a woman joins the cloister and makes final
vows, she is almost never seen and her voice is not heard; her
story is essentially nonexistent in the historical record and
collective, public history.
From interviews conducted over six years, Abbie Reese tells the
stories of the Poor Clare Colettine Order, a cloistered
contemplative order at the Corpus Christi Monastery in Rockford,
Illinois. Seldom leaving their 25,000-square-foot gated enclosure,
members of this community embrace an extreme version of poverty and
anonymity - a separation that enables them to withdraw from the
world to devote their lives to prayer. This removal, they contend,
allows them to have a greater impact on humanity than if they
maintained direct contact with loved ones and strangers.
Dedicated to God explores individual and cultural identity through
oral history interviews with several generations of nuns, focusing
on the origins and life stories of the women who have chosen to
become members of one of the strictest religious orders. But the
narrative is also one of a collective memory and struggle against
extinction and modernity, a determination to create community
within the framework of ancient rules.
The author's stunning photographs of their dual worlds, religious
and quotidian, add texture to the narrative.
This artistic and ethnographic work highlights the countercultural
values and dedication of individuals who, at incredible personal
cost, live for love of God and humanity, out of faith in what
cannot be seen, and with the belief that they will be rewarded in
the afterlife.
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.
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