The Emergence of Monasticism: From the Desert Fathers to the Early Middle Ages

ISBN-13: 9781405106412 / Angielski / Miękka / 2003 / 292 str.

Marilyn Dunn

Opis

The Emergence of Monasticism offers a new approach to the subject, placing its development against the dynamic of both social and religious change.

• First study in any language to cover the formative period of medieval monasticism.
  
• Gives particular attention to the contribution of women to ascetic and monastic life.

Recenzje

An indispensable and valuable book. Times Literary Supplement <!––end––>

... the book succeeds admirably in making technical material accessible to the general reader. English Historical Review

The goal of this work, very successfully achieved, is a comprehensive view of monastic history ... throughout the book [Dunn] brings the reader quickly to understand a host of scholarly controversies without overburdening her text. Speculum

′... a thorough reading of the major secondary studies of the past generation ... The extensive notes, substantial biliography and detailed index will be of great use.′ Ecclesiastical History

"This deserves to be widely recommended... a fascinating and thorough book" Morwenna Ludlow, Mind

Spis treści

Preface.

List of Abbreviations.

1. The Emergence of Christian Eremiticism.

2. The Development of Communal Life.

3. Women in Early Monasticism.

4. The Meaning of Asceticism.

5. The Evolution of Monasticism in the West.

6. The Rule of St Benedicts and its Italian Setting.

7. Britain and Ireland.

8. Irish peregrini and European Monasticism.

9. Monasticism and Society in the Seventh Century.

Bibliography.

Index.

O autorze

Marilyn Dunn is a graduate of Edinburgh University and a Senior Lecturer in Medieval History at the University of Glasgow. She has published work on religious and Byzantine history.

Blurb

This is the first book to provide a comprehensive account of the emergence of monasticism from its roots in late antiquity and its transition to the early medieval West. Beginning with the search for individual perfection in the context of the religious and social climate of fourth–century Egypt, it traces the adoption and transformation of monastic ideas and practices first by the elites of the Western Roman Empire and later by the royalty and aristocracy of the so–called barbarian kingdoms, including the Franks and Anglo–Saxons. It tracks the development of monastic rules and includes sections on female asceticism and monasticism, on Irish monasticism and its influence, and the developing theology of afterlife and intercession. This unique work is based on a detailed consideration of the texts, their use and adaptation, and is the first treatment of the subject to draw together social and religious approaches. The book offers a number of original perspectives on major issues and controversies.