Monasticism

Submitted here is my introduction to my annotated translation of the Henryków Book, titled Local Society in Transition, whose reference matter appears in the Books section of this website. This introduction contextualizes the Book and its authors in the genres of historical writing of which it is an example, and in the monastic, political, economic, and seigneurial world of medieval Silesia, and Piast Poland in general. It is designed to offer an entrée into the history of those two polities, as well as of the text and the monastery. (My most recent book, The Text and the World, also represented in the Books section, takes these aims in several further directions.) I am most grateful to Fred Unwalla of the Pontifical Institute for Mediaeval Studies, for permission to place the entire text on this website.

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Just as no one saw the dissolution of the monasteries coming in 1535, so no one saw the dissolution of the universities coming in 2035.
This précis forms the nucleus of a work I hope to launch in the coming year. Your comments are most welcome

The period 550 to 750 was one in which monastic culture became more firmly entrenched in Western Europe. The role of monasteries and their relationship to the social world around them was transformed during this period as monastic institutions became more integrated in social and political power networks. This collected volume of essays focuses on one of the central figures in this process, the Irish ascetic exile and monastic founder, Columbanus (c. 550-615), his travels on the Continent, and the monastic network he and his Frankish disciples established in Merovingian Gaul and Lombard Italy.

The post-Roman kingdoms through which Columbanus travelled and established his monastic foundations were made up of many different communities of peoples. As an outsider and immigrant, how did Columbanus and his communities interact with these peoples? How did they negotiate differences and what emerged from these encounters? How societies interact with outsiders can reveal the inner workings and social norms of that culture. This volume aims to explore further the strands of this vibrant contact and to consider all of the geographical spheres in which Columbanus and his monastic communities operated (Ireland, Merovingian Gaul, Alamannia, Lombard Italy) and the varieties of communities he and his successors came in contact with — whether they were royal, ecclesiastic, aristocratic, or grass-roots.

Table of Contents

Preface
List of Abbreviations
Maps
Contributors
Foreword Walter Pohl
Part I: Columbanus in Context
Chapter 1: Introduction: Columbanus and Europe Alexander O'Hara
Chapter 2: Columbanus and the Language of Concord Damian Bracken
Part II: The Insular Background
Chapter 3: The Political Background to Columbanus's Irish Career Dáibhí Ó Cróinín
Chapter 4: Movers and Shakers? How Women Shaped the Career of Columbanus Elva Johnston
Chapter 5: Columbanus's Ulster Education Alex Woolf
Part III: The Frankish World
Chapter 6: Columbanus in Brittany Ian Wood
Chapter 7: Columbanus and Shunning: The Irish peregrinus between Gildas, Gaul, and Gregory Clare Stancliffe
Chapter 8: Orthodoxy and Authority: Jonas, Eustasius, and the Agrestius Affair Andreas Fischer
Chapter 9: Columbanus and the Mission to the Bavarians and the Slavs in the Seventh Century Herwig Wolfram
Part IV: On the Fringe: Columbanus and Gallus in Alamannia
Chapter 10: Between the Devil and the deep Lake Constance: Jonas of Bobbio, interpretatio Christiana, and the Pagan Religion of the Alamanni Bernhard Maier
Chapter 11: Drinking with Woden: A Re-Examination of Jonas's Vita Columbani I. 27 Francesco Borri
Chapter 12: Between Metz and Überlingen: Columbanus and Gallus in Alamannia Yaniv Fox
Chapter 13: Quicumque sunt rebelles, foras exeant! Columbanus's Rebellious Disciple Gallus Philipp Dörler
Part V: Lombard Italy and Columbanus's Legacy
Chapter 14: Columbanus, Bobbio, and the Lombards Stefano Gasparri
Chapter 15: Disputing Columbanus's Heritage: The Regula cuiusdam patris (with a translation of the Rule) Albrecht Diem

This book’s six essays pertain to the “piercing of the clouds,” or the experience of heavenly mysteries, which characterizes lectio divina practiced well. Moreover, these peer-reviewed essays give special attention to the practice of lectio divina during preparation for ministry, especially the ministry of Catholic priests. That being said, any current or prospective Bible-reader may profit from this book; most of its content applies to Catholic seminarians and literate Christians alike.
    Here follow brief descriptions of each chapter. Laurence Kriegshauser, OSB, begins the book with a chapter on the Western monastic tradition of lectio divina and seminary formation, including an historical survey of lectio divina, a description of its characteristics, and reflections on its practice in seminaries. Michael Magee reflects upon the implications of exegetical method for lectio divina, with a comparison and critique of three commentaries’ treatments of John 6. Konrad Schaefer, OSB, advocates for fostering growth and formation through lectio divina, beginning his chapter with a description of its theological underpinnings and then taking up some practical considerations for students. Marcin Kowalski focuses on meditatio of lectio divina following upon exegesis-informed lectio, with an examination of Romans 7:7–25 as a test case. Daniel Keating examines oratio and contemplatio (and actio) of lectio divina, giving attention to theologians from twelfth-century Carthusian Prior Guigo II to Pope Benedict XVI. Anthony Giambrone, OP, contributes the final essay, on searching the Scriptures and the mystery of preaching. For him, exquisitio (intellectual engagement) leads to supplicatio (prayerful supplication), which culminates in praedicatio (preaching).

Taft R. F. The Great Entrance. A History of the Transfer of Gifts and other Preanaphoral Rites of the Liturgy of St. John Chrysostom. [A History of the Liturgy of St. John Chrysostom, vol. II]. Roma, 1975. (Orientalia Christiana Analecta; 200).

Often simply called the Holy Mountain, Mount Athos was the most famous center of Byzantine monasticism and remains the spiritual heart of the Orthodox Church today. This volume presents the Lives of Euthymios the Younger, Athanasios of Athos, Maximos the Hutburner, Niphon of Athos, and Philotheos. These five holy men lived on Mount Athos at different times from its early years as a monastic locale in the ninth century to the last decades of the Byzantine period in the early fifteenth century. All five were celebrated for asceticism, clairvoyance, and, in most cases, the ability to perform miracles; Euthymios and Athanasios were also famed as founders of monasteries.

Holy Men of Mount Athos illuminates both the history and the varieties of monastic practice on Athos, individually by hermits as well as communally in large monasteries. The Lives also demonstrate the diversity of hagiographic composition and provide important glimpses of Byzantine social and political history.

All the Lives in this volume are presented for the first time in English translation, together with authoritative editions of their Greek texts.

Contens
Table des matières, Inhalt, Table of Contents, pp. 8–10
Preface, pp. 18–20
SYNTHESIS TESTS
I.1.General problems
Bert Demyttenaere, The Claustralization of the World, s. 23–41
Marek Derwich, pp. 43–54, Résumé: La place du monachisme à la société médiévale et moderne, p. 53
Małgorzata Borkowska, pp. 55–63; Summary: Nuns as trouble shooters: Demands made to convents in XVII–XVIIIth century Poland, pp. 62–63
I.2.  Silesia and Poland
Jerzy Rajman, pp. 67–73; Summary: Medieval monasteries in Upper Silesia. The problem of environment and the range of social effect, pp. 72–73
Przemysław Wiszewski, pp. 75–90; Summary: The female benedictine abbey of the Holy Corps in Legnica in the Silesian society (1348–1538), p. 90
Aleksander Andrzejewski, Leszek Kajzer, Janusz Pietrzak,  pp. 91–103; Zusammenfassung: Das Konvers-haus in Rudy, pp. 100–101
Gabriela Wąs, pp. 105–126; Zusammenfassung: Franziskaner in der Gesellschaft Schlesiens im Mittelalter und Neuzeit, pp. 125–126
Zbigniew Zyglewski, pp. 127–142; Zusammenfassung: Klösterfoundation der Kronmachthaber in der Jagiellonnenzeit. Problemübersicht, pp. 141–142
Małgorzata Maciszewska, pp. 143–153; Résumé: La place des couvents de franciscains de l’observance à la société Polonaise, pp. 152–153
II. MEANS AND METHODS OF COMMUNICATION BETWEEN THE MONASTERY AND SOCIETY
II.1.  Liturgy and cult
Henryk Fros,, pp. 157–167, Résumé: Les moines-hagiographes et la première période de la christianisation de la Pologne (jusqu’à 1034), p. 167
Marian Kanior, pp. 169–180; Summary: The shrine of God's mother of consolation in Górka Duchowna (17th–19th centuries), pp. 179–180
Roman Stelmach,  pp. 181–189; Zusammenfassung: Die schlesischen Ablassurkunden bis Ende des XV. Jahrhunderts, p. 189
Jarosław Wenta, pp. 191–198; Zusammenfassung: Zisterzienserhistoriographie und Memoire am Beispiel Heinrichau, Leubus und Oliva, p. 198
Rościsław Żerelik, pp. 199–210; Zusammenfassung: Die Verstobenegemeinschaft im Licht der ältesten Eintraugungen im Nekrolog aus Heinrichau, p. 209–210
Maria Starnawska, pp. 211–219; Zusammenfassung: Das Nekrologum des schlesichen Kreuzherren mit dem Rotten Stern (die Handschrift der Universitätbibliothek in Breslau IV.Q.19A) als Quelle zur Erforschung des Milieus und der Kontakten des Ordens, p. 219
II.2. Cultural
Wojciech Mrozowicz, pp. 223–232; Zusammenfassung: Die Benediktinischen Bücher und Bibliotheken in der polnischen Gesellschaft in Mittelalter und Neuzeit. Beispiel Kleinpolens, p. 232
Ewa Zielińska, pp. 233–239; Résumé: Relations du monastère des chanoines réguliers de Kraśnik avec son entourage social dans la deuxième moitié du XVe et au cours du XVIe siècles, vues à travers sa bibliothèque, p. 239
Ivan Hlaváček, pp. 241–246; Zusammenfassung: Klöster und ihr Schwulwesen im Vorhussitischen Böhmen, p. 246
Anna Jaroszewska, pp. 247–256; Zusammenfassung: Die Förderung der Kunst der Breslauer Prämonstratenser im 16. und 17. Jahrhundert, pp. 255–256
3. Wizualne / Visual
Pavel R. Pokorný, pp. 259–264; Zusammenfassung: Die Klosterwappen in den böhmischen Ländern, pp. 263–264
Piotr Dymmel, pp. 265–290; Résumé: Le décor héraldique du XVe siècle dans la galerie du monastère de Łysa Góra. Reconstitution, genèse et programme héraldique, p. 282
Walentyna Węgrzyn-Klisowska, pp. 291–294; Zusammenfassung: Schauspiele und Passionenspiele in mittelalterischen schlesichen Klöstern, pp. 293–294
Zygmunt Świechowski, pp. 295–310; Résumé: La Genèse du dècor architectural dans l' architecture cistercienne de la Petite-Pologne, pp. 301–302
Krystyna Białoskórska, pp. 311–343; Résumé: Les monastères et le problème du développement des traditions et des milieux artistiques Polonais au XIIIe siècle, p. 332
III.  IN THE COUNTRY
Magdalena Żurek, pp. 347–354; Résumé: Le patronage de la famille de Mieszko III le Vieux sur l’abbaye bénédictine à Lubiń, p. 354
Wojciech Iwańczak,  pp. 355–362, Summary: Hroznata – noble, crusader, monastic founder, p. 362
Marie Bláhová, pp. 363–368; Zusammenfassung: Die Zisterzienser im Dienste der böhmischen Politik unter den letzten Přemysliden und bei der Thronbesteigung der Luxemburger, p. 368
Jerzy Augustyniak, pp. 369–387; Summary: Defensive functions of monasteries as exemplified by the cistercian abbey at Sulejów, p. 382
Antoni Barciak,  pp. 389–393, Zusammenfassung: Die Fürsten von Oberschlesien und das Zisterzienserkloster in Rudy (Rauden), p. 393
Stanisław A. Sroka, pp. 395–397; Zusammenfassung: Die Gönnerschaft der Teschiner Hedwig von Piast († 1521) über die Kartause zu Lapis Refugii im Spisz, p. 397
Jan Harasimowicz,  pp. 399–416; Zusammenfassung: Die Aufhebung der Klöster in der Neumark im 16. Jh., p. 406
IV. IN LOCAL COMMUNITY
IV.1.  Rural
Petr Sommer,  pp. 419–424; Zusammenfassung: Die benediktische Abtei in Sázava und ihr Laienhinterland, pp. 422–423
Krzysztof Kaczmarek, pp. 425–432; Zusammenfassung: Sind die Mönche aus dem Kloster Wieluń im Jahre 1309 wirklich von den Einwohnern von Mochy getötet worden?, pp. 431–432
Anna Pobóg-Lenartowicz, pp. 433–444; Zusammenfassung: Gesselschaftverhältnisse im Güter der Regulierten Chorherren (Augustiner) Abtei zur heilige Maria auf dem Sand in Breslau bis Ende des XV. Jhrs, p. 444
Marek Słoń,  pp. 445–450; Zusammenfassung: Die Leute von Rechnungsbüchern. Das Hospital zum Hl. Geist in Breslau im Spätmittelalter, pp. 449–450
IV.2.  City
Jan Pařez, pp. 453–461; Summary: Prague monasteries between middle and early modern ages their position and specificity in a town organism (Illustrated on Exemples of Premonstratensian Strahov and Augustinian-Hermit St. Catherine), p. 461
Krzysztof Guzikowski, pp. 463–470; Zusammenfassung: Die Stadt – ein Mitbewerber oder ein Verbündete der Zisterzienser? Am Beispiel der Abtei von Kolbatz (Kołbacz), p. 469
Krzysztof Bracha, pp. 471–481; Zusammenfassung: Errores des Augustiners-Eremiten Werners von Freidenberg im Lichte der Heidelberger Inquisition aus dem Jahre 1405, pp. 480–481
Jan Łosowski, pp. 483–493; Résumé: Les autorités et la chancellerie jésuites dans une petite ville au XVIIIe siècle. Exemple de Michów, pp. 492–493
V. VARIA
Andrzej Radzimiński, pp. 497–509; Zusammenfassung: Die Bemerkungen über die Beziehungen der Mönchklöster und Klöster der Regularkanoniker mit dein Domkapiteln in mittelalterischen Polen, pp. 508–509
Dariusz Karczewski, pp. 511–518; Zusammenfassung: Anstrengungen von den Präposituren aus Trzemeszno um den Abttitel, p. 518
Krzysztof Skupieński, pp. 519–526; Résumé: Les couvents, influencèrent-ils le développement du notariat public en Pologne avant le début du XVe siècle?, p. 526
Maurycy Lucjan Niedziela, pp. 527–538; Summary: The superiors of the dominican priory in Borek Stary; Their background, education, mentality, and social influence in 1668-1821, p. 538
Beata Kwiatkowska-Kopka, Waldemar Gliński, Janusz Firlet, pp., 539–545; Zusammenfassung: Die neuesten archäologischen Forschungen in der Zisterzienser-Abtei Jędrzejów, p. 541
SESSION CONCLUSION
Ivan Hlaváček, Krótkie zakończenie [Short ending], pp. 549–551
Spis uczestników [List of participants], pp. 553–556

The Christian Church originated in the east and through the roads and seaways of the Roman Empire found its way westward. The furthest point in the western parts of the Empire reached beyond the borders and imagination of many at the time, and the island of Hibernia remained insulated in its laws and religion. A Christian missionary named Patricius brought the Faith from the monasteries of Gaul, and it took root and flourished as a monastic Church inspired by the original Eastern Orthodox scriptural exegesis, systems of monasticism, wisdom of the Monastic Fathers, art, liturgics and reaching Ireland in the Latin language. The cultural transformation of Christianity, the alphabet and language of Latin and the ascetic disciplines of the monastic life would transform Ireland into a center of study unmatched in the decaying Empire of Western Rome, and those Irish Orthodox would eventually bring the light back to the western lands in darkness.

Attributed to Master Heinrich of Constance, a sculpture of the Visitation from the convent of St. Katharinenthal in the Lower Rhine Valley (ca. 1310­20) portrays Mary and her cousin Elizabeth with two quartz cabochons inserted into their torsos, rock crystal representations of their wombs, which nurture the fetal Christ and John the Baptist. These crystals make the ​Visitation a strikingly unique devotional object in the eyes of the modern viewer, but when considered in the context of the fourteenth­century German Dominican convent, they also provide insight into the devotional practices of their users, cloistered nuns. In this thesis, I explore the nature and function of this unique object of devotion in the context of the Katharinenthal convent specifically in addition to the wider Middle High German spiritual milieu, particularly Rhenish Mysticism. ​I take a multidisciplinary approach to the study of this medieval artwork by making use of a wide range of sources: works from this same period found at Katharinenthal and other convents around the Rhine valley, theological treatises concerning the Incarnation (and, therefore, the Marian womb) the visionary accounts of Henry Suso and other Rhineland mystics, and the work of such medieval art historians as Jeffrey Hamburger, Caroline Walker Bynum, and Jacqueline Jung. Jung in particular describes the bodies of Mary and Elizabeth in the ​Visitation as “exuberant,” “thrusting the evidence of [their] virtues outward toward beholders and rendering them visible through the body’s materiality rather than through any internal motifs.” (“Crystalline Wombs and Pregnant Hearts,” p. 234). In this thesis, I use Jung’s analysis of the sculpture as a starting point to propose a new, though not mutually exclusive, model for interpreting the function of these crystal wombs.
In the first main section of the thesis, I examine the convent of Katharinenthal itself, a highly enclosed and communal female monastic environment, together with many of the surviving devotional objects from the convent around 1300 that formed Katharinenthal’s visual and material culture. The following section examines in closer detail the crystal wombs of the Visitation, considering both their theological connotations and their significance to medieval perception of the female body. The final section addresses the devotional function of Mary and Elizabeth’s crystal wombs by placing the ​Visitation within the context of both late medieval Euc​haristic theology and Rhenish mysticism. I conclude that the ​Visitation’s crystal wombs functioned as meditational foci, serving as “windows” into the visionary experience. These wombs, with their emphasis on transparency and interiority in their enclosed, conventual context, ultimately serve as a catalyst for mystical union with the divine.

The narrative cycle of Saints Peter and Paul sculpted on the archivolts of the grand west portal of Santa Maria de Ripoll places a conspicuous emphasis on tonsure, which has not previously been explored. In this paper, I argue that the image of the monastic tonsure in the Peter and Paul archivolt brings to the fore how the monks and abbots of Ripoll displayed their apostolic identity through a kaleidoscope of biblical typologies, using the tonsure to symbolize changes both bodily and spiritual that were reenacted on specific days in the liturgical year. I examine how tonsure is creatively presented, suggesting that the portal’s fabricators drew from a range of textual and pictorial sources to display tonsure as an integral facet of the monastery’s twelfth-century identity. The emphasis on the renewal of the senses in the archivolt is exegetically linked to bodily revivification and incorruptibility, paralleled in the nearby Jonah and Daniel cycles, serving to
cement the funerary and commemorative functions of this liminal space (Español 2011; Castiñeiras 2013).

Lectures CM407 - Christian Monasticism
Lecturer: Rev. Prof. Ugo-Maria Er. Dio
Blackfriars
The history of monasticism is one of the strangest problems in the history of the world.  For monasticism ranks among the most powerful influences which have shaped the destinies of Christendom and of civilisation; and the attempt to analyse it is more than usually difficult, because the good and the evil in it, are blended together almost inextricably.  To those who contemplate it from a distance, wrapped in a romantic haze of glory, it may appear a sublime and heroic effort after superhuman excellence.  To others, approaching it more closely and examining it more dispassionately, it seems essentially faulty in principle, though accidentally productive of good results at certain times and under certain conditions.  They regard the blemishes, which from the first marred the beauty of its heavenward aspirations, as well as the more glaring vices of its later phases, as inseparable from its very being.  To them it is not so much a thing excellent in itself, though sometimes perverted, as a radical mistake from the first, though provoked into existence by circumstances; not an aiming too high, but an aiming in the wrong direction.  By declaring “war against nature,” to use the phrase of one of its panegyrists, it is, in their eyes, virtually “fighting against God.”  In their judgment it degrades man into a machine.  In their estimation the monk shunning the conflict with the world is not simply deserting his post, but courting temptations of another kind quite as perilous to his well-being.  In brief, far from being an integral and essential part of Christianity, it is in their estimation a morbid excrescence. What proportion of truth is in each of these conflicting theories, a careful study of the facts, so far as they can be ascertained from history, may help to determine.

review of: Die Antoniter, die Chorherren vom Heiligen Grab in Jerusalem und die Hospitaler vom Heiligen Geist in der Schweiz, Redigirt von Elsanne Gilomen-Schenkel (Helvetia Sacra IV/4), Basel und Frankfurt am Mann, Helbing & Lichtenhahn, 1996, pp. 333

Traducere din limba greacă de Ierom. Agapie Corbu, Ed. Sf. Nectarie, Arad, 2016

Această carte transcrie rezumativ predarea prin viu grai a vieţii monahale trăite de autor alături de Gheron Iosif Isihastul. Învăţătura orală a acestuia a fost esenţializată de Gheronda Iosif Vatopedinul în densele capitole care alcătuiesc volumul de faţă. În acest sens, aici găsim liniile principale ale învăţăturii Bătrânului Mănăstirii Vatopedului, testamentul său duhovnicesc, chintesenţa unei gândiri filocalice contemporane, formate din experienţă şi adăpate la izvoarele primenitoare ale marilor Părinţi duhovniceşti din toate vremurile. Toate atributele care pot fi acordate acestei scrieri se sintetizează într-o singură expresie: cuget patristic.

Leone il Grande fu abate del monastero da lui fondato per alcuni anni, non oltre il novembre 991. Gli archivi benedettini del X e XI secolo non menzionano il proprio cenobio sul Monte Athos. Tuttavia essi ci offrono precise, pur se indirette, informazioni sul periodo iniziale e preziosi indizi sul complesso rapporto che intercorse fra Benevento e Montecassino attraverso Apothikon. In particolare, veniamo informati che il trentesimo abate dell'abbazia laziale era stato in precedenza uno dei primi monaci di Apothikon, dove arrivò a causa di uno scandalo. Sappiamo infatti dalla Chronica monasterii Casinensis che, mentre il monastero benedettino athonita era governato dall'abate Giovanni, un altro Giovanni - Giovanni il Beneventano (Joannes Beneventanus) - vi trovò rifugio. La sua permanenza si protrasse dal 993-994 al 996. Giovanni il Beneventano era fuggito da Montecassino, in una data fra il 14 novembre 985 e l'8 maggio 986, non appena Mansone fu nominato ventottesimo abate con un atto di nepotismo.

Parmi les sept péchés capitaux au Moyen Âge, l’acédie est considérée
traditionnellement comme l’ancêtre de la paresse, de la mélancolie ou de la dépression. Elle se signale par un manque de ferveur qui plonge le religieux dans un état spirituel de tristesse et de torpeur. La théologie morale du Moyen Âge a dressé un tableau clinique de l’acédie, sans toujours détailler les moyens concrets de lutter contre cette pathologie spirituelle. Le texte édité et présenté ici – l’Inflammatorium poenitentiæ – constitue à cet égard une notable exception. Cet exercice spirituel enrôle l’imagination pour concevoir un monde parfait, rutilant et plaisant propre à enflammer un désir vacillant de paradis. Comment situer cet usage spirituel de la fiction au sein de traditions théologiques et littéraires qui le rendent plus intelligibles ?

The eremitical rule of the Carthusian Order, which was founded by Bruno of Cologne in 1084, is reflected on the architectural system and on the structures of Carthusian monasteries. The cell, placed around the cloister, allows the monk to contemplate the divine in solitude and silence, by alternating and associating the private dimension of the hermitage to the community and coenobitic one of the monastery.
The aim of the research, which included the use of digital technology to document the state of conservation of the Florence Charterhouse monk’s cells, is the definition of a diagnostic framework and an abacus of constructive and decorative elements of the complex, which is functional to the understanding of these places. The cells, located in the north-east and south-east sides of the main cloister, have been carefully documented through laser scanning and photogrammetric survey campaigns, close range and at high altitude, flanked by the census work. For each cell, 2D and 3D drawings have been realized, generating an inedited documental system, through which it is possible to explore the important architectonic complex. One of the goals of the research is to provide, through a digital multidimensional and implementable in time database, a valid support for the comparison between the Florence Charterhouse implantation and other Italian Carthusian monasteries, including the Pavia Charterhouse.

"Enlightened Monks investigates the social, cultural, philosophical, and theological challenges the German Benedictines had to face between 1740 and 1803, and how the Enlightenment process influenced the self-understanding and lifestyle of these religious communities. It had an impact on their forms of communication, their transfer of knowledge, their relationships to worldly authorities and to the academic world, and also their theology and philosophy. The multifacetedachievements of enlightened monks, which included a strong belief in individual freedom, tolerance, human rights, and non-violence, show that monasticism was on the way to becoming fully integrated into the Enlightenment. Ulrich L. Lehner refutes the widespread assumption that monks were reactionary enemies ofEnlightenment ideas. On the contrary, he demonstrates that many Benedictines implemented the new ideas of the time into their own systems of thought. This revisionist account contributes to a better understanding not only of monastic culture in Central Europe, but also of Catholic religious culture in general.

Reviews:
 
"Lehner is nothing if not a thorough and industrious scholar, and the wealth of information he has amassed alone makes this book a valuable resource. But he is also a fluid writer, with an eye for piquant details and arresting stories, ensuring that the narrative is enlivened along the way by a great number of vivid and sensitive portraits of individuals."
Darrin McMahon, The Catholic Historical Review

"This book is of the same calibre as Derek Beale's magisterial work about monasticism during the Ancien Régime."
Rainald Becker, Francia Recensio

"No scholar interested in early modern monasticism or Catholicism, the Catholic or German enlightenments, or religion and the Enlightenment can afford to overlook this book ... This book deeply contextualizes intellectual and religious history. One of its great virtues is the way it combines monastic responses to new historical, legal, philosophical, and theological ideas with concrete attention to monastic material culture, social practices and institutional innovations."
Brad S. Gregory, Theological Studies

"Beautifully written and cogently argued, Lehner’s book makes a thoroughly convincing case for – what those clinging to a Voltairean Enlightenment will hardly believe – enlightened monks."
James Lees, Eighteenth Century Studies

"This fascinating book … might stimulate monastic communities today to ask whether they too could learn from the Enlightened Monks."
James Leachmann, Benedictine Culture

"This book is highly entertaining."
Johannes Reich, Erbe und Auftrag

"A stimulating book that will leave no one indifferent!"
Daniel Misonne, Revue Benedictine

"Many of the ideas and reforms of these eighteenth century Benedictines are in many ways strikingly similar to the radical changes in monasticism after the Second Vatican Council. … It is the great merit of this book to have saved these enlightened Benedictines from oblivion and to have unearthed a monastic culture that was characterized by its openness to modernity."
Klaus Schatz, Theologie und Philosophie


"Engagingly written, deeply researched, and seriously engaged with current research, Lehner’s work demonstrates that the Enlightenment was far more than a secular movement pitted against an obscurantist religious outlook. It was, rather, a multi-faceted trend to reconcile science and reason with matters of faith. Enlightened Monks illustrates how, paradoxically, an institution known most as a relic of the medieval past actually stood on the front lines of this endeavor."
from the Gilmary Shea Prize Committee

"This little summary doesn’t do justice to the book’s range and depth of research. Lehner offers, among other things, an excellent description of mo- nastic prisons, as well as deftly drawn portraits of various savants, rogues, and dreamers in and out of the mon- asteries. Enlightened Monks also pro- vides important context for the later German revival of theology centered in nineteenth-century Tübingen. Despite its somewhat recherché title, this is one the most interesting books I’ve read this year."
Lawrence S. Cunningham, Commonweal

"This very learned and highly original book, based on little-known and often obscure sources, reveals the existence of a remarkable subculture of Enlightened, even revolutionary, monks who had personal as well as literary and philosophical connexions with the non-monastic world."
Journal Ecclesiastical History, Derek Beales, Cambridge

Lehner's work marks a significant step in original research. His extensive citation of archival sources offers a new perspective on European religious culture... The book's content appeals to a wide range of scholars and is not reserved for the narrow musings of the specialist. The sociologist and historian will be intrigued as will the philosopher and the theologian.
Journal of Church and State

"Far from idle malingerers or enemies of Enlightenment, Lehner recounts how these monks interacted with and contributed to the Enlightenment. Lehner's monks voraciously consumed Enlightenment-era scholarship, supported reforms that would relax monastic duties in favor of a life of knowledge, invoked the language of natural rights to call for freedom of conscience and privacy from their abbots, corresponded with other luminaries, gave public lectures, produced original research on sacred and secular topics, and thus fully participated in the Republic of Letters. As such, Lehner has proffered a convincing argument that the German Benedictines might be counted not only as constituents of the Catholic Aufklärung, but as figures who existed squarely within the Enlightenment itself."
Religious Studies Reviews

"As a model of contemporary historiography and engaging scholarship, Enlightened Monks is about as good as it gets." J. Yegge, catholicbooksreview.org

"Die zunaechst als Praemisse begruendete besondere Affinitaet des Benediktinerordens zur Aufklaerung wird ueberzeugend nachgewiesen, katholische Aufklaerung erhaelt ein weiteres Profil."
S. Benz, Historische Zeitschrift"

Статья посвящена различным аспектам чтения и его роли в монастырской жизни. Самым важным аспектом является техника чтения (вслух и про себя). Долгое время существовало мнение, что техника чтения про себя появилась сравнительно поздно, а потому античность и средневековье знали преимущественно чтение вслух. Однако, как показывается в статье, сейчас в науке подобное противопоставление признано неуместным. Чтение священных текстов как важная часть монастырской повседневности фигурирует уже в таких ранних памятниках монашеской жизни как сочинения Иоанна Кассиана, Устав св. Бенедикта, Устав св. Пахомия и т.д. Чтение как часть монастырской повседневности получило свое отражение в цистерцианской нормативной (Liber Usuum) и визионерской литературе. В данной статье рассматриваются топосы, связанные с чтением, из «Книги видений» Рихальма из Шенталя, цистерцианского памятника XII века.

Drawing on textual and ethnographic research conducted over the last five years, this article analyses an important genre of judicial practice in South and Southeast Asia that has been almost entirely ignored by socio-legal scholars: Buddhist systems of judging. Using the judicial system of one monastic group in contemporary Sri Lanka as a case study, it argues that Buddhist judging requires more than just the internalisation of moral principles, as is often assumed. According to Buddhist (monastic) principles of judging, legal procedures—similar to those used in state-legal settings—are equally essential. These procedures govern everything from making legal complaints, to the structuring of trials, to determining jurisdiction and many other topics. By examining Buddhist judicial systems, this article not only casts new light on the pluri-legal landscape of Asia, it also offers new reflections on the intersection of religion-based and state-based systems of law in the contemporary world.

This paper argues for the essential historical reliability of the account of the community of goods amongst the early believers in Jesus in Jerusalem given in the Acts of the Apostles (2:42–27, 4:32–5:17 and 6:1–6). It summarises some of the exegetical and historical research of the author's doctoral dissertation (PANTA KOINA: Early Christian Community of Goods in its ancient Jewish and hellenistic contexts, PhD, Cambridge University, 1986). It argues that, while Utopian stylising is evident in Acts 2:44 and 4:32/34, there is clear evidence on an early tradition which used the vocabulary of the Essene yachadh community form known from the Rule of the Community from Qumran Cave 1. The paper also argues that the phased entrance procedure to the yachadh community form was employed in the earliest Jerusalem community of believers in Jesus. It is especially argued that Peter's words in Acts 5:4, 'Is it not the case that while it remained, it remained yours, and sold/handed over it remained in your power' reflect the 'blocked account' of 1QS VI:20. It is further argued that the probable presence of an Essene community near both the 'Gate of the Essenes' on the south west hill of Jerusalem and the traditional site of the 'upper room' (the 'Cenacle' of Christian tradition, part of the fourth century church of Hagia Sion), location of the events of Pentecost and the community of property amongst Jesus' post-Easter followers, explains the passage into the community of Essene language and legal forms relating to the community of goods, and with other evidence suggests the probable presence amongst the many converts to the Jesus movement at this time of Essenes who were already participating in community of goods arrangements and of others from the Essene movement who were intending to enter upon this form of religious social life.

This chapter argues that historical, cultural, and religious constraints imposed onto nuns, as reflected in the lack of full ordination (and in many cases even novice ordination and insufficient institutional support, have forced nuns to rely on a transnational network of Buddhist institutions (mostly in India and Nepal), as well as in local non-governmental organizations such as the Bhutan Nuns Foundation, in order to improve their situation, as well as to think beyond the traditional framework of the status and the monastic education afforded to them in Bhutan.

Christian monasteries and convents, built throughout Europe for the best part of 1,500 years, are now at a crossroads. This study attempts to understand the sacred architecture of monasteries as a process of the tangible and symbolic organisation of space and time for religious communities. Despite the weight of seemingly immutable monastic tradition, architecture has contributed to developing specific religious identities and played a fundamental part in the reformation of different forms of religious life according to the changing needs of society. The cloister is the focal point of this book because it is both architecture, a physically built reality, and a metaphor for the religious life that takes place within it. Life Inside the Cloister also addresses the afterlife and heritagisation of monastic architecture in secularised Western society.

John Cassian has been rightly characterized by several modern writers as a theologian rather than a historian. However, if one thinks of theology in the modern sense of the word, which cover numerous “theological” disciplines, this characterization may be something of an anachronism. On the other hand, if taken in the ancient sense of the word theologia, the discourse about the nature of God, it may be very accurate. This paper will seek to explore Cassian's theologia, his understanding of the nature of God and how that affects his treatment of a number of key themes in his works including the interpretation of Scripture, the use of the concept of the “inner man” and the question of free will.
Cassian invokes the traditional notion that a correct interpretation of Scripture must be “worthy of God,” a criterion found already in Philo of Alexandria and many later patristic writers both Greek and Latin. He uses the notion of the “inner man” as the focus of God's real interest, which of course presumes some understanding of the nature of God. His treatment of the question of grace and free will presumes that God would not grant free will without also making possible its exercise. This too reflects  a certain understanding about the nature of God and was a direct criticism of the position taken by Augustine in his work De correptione et gratia, which allowed for a different understanding of the divine nature.

From a secular perspective, certain religious techniques of self-transformation, such as the complete subordination of an individual to a spiritual leader, appear to violate fundamental human rights and are hence unacceptable. Conversely, religious traditions offer a different view of the subject and their welfare and the means by which this welfare can be achieved. Nowadays, however, the secular environment in which they operate affects religious groups. As a result, some techniques of self-transformation reflect a mixture of secular and religious worldviews. This article examines techniques of self-transformation in contemporary Russian Orthodox convents. It explores how the notion of spiritual growth is influenced by a paradox in the Russian Orthodox concept of sainthood involving a proportional relationship between the profound perception of one’s sinfulness and the increase of one’s virtues. The secular understanding of time that prevails in contemporary monasteries highlights this contradiction and calls into question the possibility for spiritual growth. By focusing on the diachronic dimension of self-transformation techniques, this article challenges current understandings of secular and non-secular agency.

In 1932, when Maria Skobtsova made her monastic profession, she was in a very different place than most monastics. She was alone, in Paris, surrounded by Russian immigrants who had fled the upheaval in Russia and were facing starvation and poverty. She found herself 'not behind strong monastic walls … but on all the roads and crossroads of the world.'1 It was this experience that would shape her vision of what she called 'engaged monasticism.'