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Bernard of Clairvaux on the Life of the Mind
A study of the many-faceted, complex, yet consistent thought of the most influential thinker of the first half of the twelfth century whose thought influenced all medieval thinkers, including Luther and Calvin.
Abbot Vitalis of Savigny, Abbot Godfrey of Savigny, Peter of Avranches, and Blessed Hamo
This volume offers translations of the twelfth-century Latin vitae of four monks of the Monastery of Savigny: Abbot Vitalis, Abbot Godfrey, Peter of Avranches, and Blessed Hamo. Founded in 1113 by Vitalis of Mortain, an influential hermit-preacher, Savigny expanded to a congregation of thirty monasteries under his successor Godfrey (1122-1138). In 1147, the entire congregation joined the Cistercian Order. Around 1172, two monks of Savigny, Peter of Avranches and Hamo, friends but very different personalities, died. Their stories were told in two further vitae. The vitae of these four men exemplify the variety of people and movements found in the monastic ferment of the twelfth century.
Bernard of Clairvaux on the Spirituality of Relationship
"This study argues that Bernard impacted Europe politically, ecclesiastically, and spiritually because his own life embodied so many of the ideals and values of his age - some of which had not crystallized until his coming." "Bernard saw the Church as the sum of all those pursuing, however feebly, the path to perfection. For him, Noah, Daniel, and Job signified the three orders of church and society: prelates, monks, and laypeople. His enthusiasm for church and society was matched by his confidence that people throughout Europe could respond positively to God's invitation to perfection and thus could reach the goal of happiness, no matter the social order to which they belonged or the pilgrim's path they followed."--BOOK JACKET.Title Summary field provided by Blackwell North America, Inc. All Rights Reserved
The Capture of Constantinople
The armies of the Fourth Crusade that left Western Europe at the beginning of the thirteenth century never reached the Holy Land to fight the Infidel; they stopped instead at Byzantium and sacked that capital of eastern Christendom. Much of what we know today of those events comes from contemporary accounts by secular writers; their perspective is balanced by a document written from a monastic point of view and now available for the first time in English. The Hystoria Constantinopolitana relates the adventures of Martin of Pairis, an abbot of the Cistercian Order who participated in the plunder of the city, as recorded by his monk Gunther. Written to justify the abbot's pious pilferage of sc...
Meditation as Spiritual Therapy
Christian persons today might seek spiritual development and ponder the benefit of mindfulness exercises but also maintain concerns if they perceive such exercises to originate from other religious traditions. Such persons may not be aware of a long tradition of meditation practice in Christianity that promotes personal growth. This spiritual tradition receives a careful formulation by Christian monastic authors in the twelfth century. One such teaching on meditation is found in the treatise De consideratione written by St. Bernard of Clairvaux (d. 1153) to Pope Eugene III (d. 1153). In textual passages where St. Bernard exhibits a clear concern for the mental health of the Pope (due to nume...
Trade, Travel, and Exploration in the Middle Ages
Trade, Travel, and Exploration: An Encyclopedia is a reference book that covers the peoples, places, technologies, and intellectual concepts that contributed to trade, travel and exploration during the Middle Ages, from the years A.D. 525 to 1492.
Aelred of Rievaulx
For the medieval Cistercian abbot Aelred of Rievaulx, human beings are capable of happiness because human nature is good-but the self-defeating choices of humans have led to their misery. A loving God leads humans to happiness by nudging their free wills toward choosing the good and then, if they respond positively, giving them the power to realize that good. The power, or virtue, which perfects the human intellect is humility, which is not meekness but self-knowledge, gained through introspection and meditation on and through nature and Scripture. The will is perfected through love, without which no human act is good. Love for oneself, for others, and for God are complementary, not competing acts of the will. A special way of loving is firiendship, on which Aelred's teaching is perhaps the most complete and most sophisticated in the history of Christian thought. Perfection is, for Aelred, attainable in this life, since he sees perfection as a process, not a static condition. That condition will be attained in the total fulfillment of the afterlife.
Aelred of Rievaulx on Love and Order in the World and the Church
"The universe is a product of God's infinite love, according to the expansive thinking of Aelred of Rievaulx, a Cistercian abbot of the Middle Ages. Aelred sees human existence, order, and action as reflections of God's love. But Aelred knows that, although they have been created for happiness, humans are neither perfect nor happy. At the same time, however, he is sure that the flood of God's love can overwhelm people who do not reject this divine gift. Because Aelred knows that humans exist only in relationship, he searches out the social order necessary for happiness. So he explores the nature of the church as a community and the support that each social group or calling gives to the whole of existence." "This study examines how Aelred sees God informing the cosmos, and the humans who inhabit it, according to the divine order and principle of love. It follows Aelred's analysis of the disordering sources of human unhappiness, which happens when humans reject God's love, and then investigates Aelred's understanding of God's re-ordering of the human condition through the gifts and graces flowing from his greatest gift: his son, Jesus."--BOOK JACKET.
Beyond Measure
Bernard continually returns to the classical idea that the quality of desire shapes theological imagination. By attending to the multiple ways he develops and applies this insight, Beyond Measure uncovers a new depth of organic unity to the literary, philosophical, and theological strands densely interwoven through his writings. Bernard’s apparent iconoclasm with respect to art, affectivity, and the humanity of Jesus is revealed as an alternative mystical aesthetic, congruent with his program for monastic reform. The central movement of Cistercian spirituality from the carnal to the spiritual is shown not to elide but to recapitulate the carnal in higher spiritual expression. Further, this approach provides fresh understanding of the ways in which Bernard is at once "last of the fathers" and "first of the moderns." In particular, a careful reading of works by Julia Kristeva and Jean-Luc Marion on Bernard reveals both the enduring brightness and vitality of his writing and the relevance of his work for people today.
