
The Artificiality of Christianity
Essays on the Poetics of Monasticism
M. B. Pranger(Author)
Stanford University Press
Published on 17. October 2002
Book
Hardback
352 pages
978-0-8047-4524-6 (ISBN)
Description
The writings of Anselm of Canterbury (1033-1109) reveal how the monastic mind, oscillating between hope and despair, was absorbed in technical exercises rather than in religious emotions. Early on monasticism had developed procedures for "ruminating on" the Bible and the works of the Church Fathers. Applying the art of logic to this theme, Anselm offers a denser version of monastic meditation that constitutes a poetics of monastic literature.
Before engaging Anselm's works, this book addresses texts-by Gregory the Great, Bernard of Clairvaux, Rupert of Deutz, and Richard of St. Victor-based on the same principles. In them, the potentially violent nature of an existence in which time has almost come to a halt manifests itself in a vision of the act of reading as a struggle with the text and as violent, amorous passion. The book then traces the decline of the monastic poetical principle in the writings of John of the Cross, Pierre de Berulle, Calvin, and Ignatius of Loyola.
A concluding chapter on Ignatius and James Joyce shows how the poetics of monasticism both survives and is exiled in modernist literature.
Before engaging Anselm's works, this book addresses texts-by Gregory the Great, Bernard of Clairvaux, Rupert of Deutz, and Richard of St. Victor-based on the same principles. In them, the potentially violent nature of an existence in which time has almost come to a halt manifests itself in a vision of the act of reading as a struggle with the text and as violent, amorous passion. The book then traces the decline of the monastic poetical principle in the writings of John of the Cross, Pierre de Berulle, Calvin, and Ignatius of Loyola.
A concluding chapter on Ignatius and James Joyce shows how the poetics of monasticism both survives and is exiled in modernist literature.
More details
Series
Edition
New edition
Language
English
Place of publication
Palo Alto
United States
Target group
College/higher education
Professional and scholarly
Edition type
New edition
Product notice
Cloth
Dimensions
Height: 289 mm
Width: 175 mm
Thickness: 25 mm
Weight
603 gr
ISBN-13
978-0-8047-4524-6 (9780804745246)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Person
M. B. Pranger is Professor of the History of Christianity at the University of Amsterdam. His most recent book is Bernard of Clairvaux and the Shape of Monastic Thought.