Thousands and Thousands of Lovers
Sense of Community among the Nuns of Helfta
1st Edition
Published on 5. September 2022
536 pages
978-0-87907-189-9 (ISBN)
Description
Thousands and Thousands of Lovers examines the spiritual significance of community to the Cistercian nuns of Helftaa concern that lies at the heart of the monastery's literature. Focusing on a woefully understudied resource and the largest body of female-authored writings in the thirteenth century, this book offers insight into the religious preoccupations of a theologically expert and intellectually vibrant cloister to reveal a subtle interplay between communal practice and private piety, other-directed attention, and inward-religious impulse. It considers the nuns' attitudes toward community among themselves and with their household members as well as with souls in purgatory and the saints.
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Book
09/2022
Liturgical Press
€52.90
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Person
Anna Harrison is professor of theological studies at Loyola Marymount University, where she teaches courses in the history of Christian late antiquity and the Middle Ages. She is currently at work on a monograph titled Paradox: Bernard of Clairvaux's On Loving God and its Influence.
Content
- Intro
- Title Page
- Copyright
- Dedication
- Contents
- Abbreviations
- Acknowledgments
- Preface
- Introduction
- PART ONE The Nuns
- Chapter 1 "Oh! What Treasure Is in This Book?": Writing, Reading, and Community
- Chapter 2 "A Queen Is Magnanimous at Her King's Banquet": Relationships among the Nuns
- Chapter 3 "Tears and Sighs": Community in Illness, Death, and Grief
- Chapter 4 "I Am Wholly Your Own": Liturgy and Community
- PART TWO Within and Beyond the Cloister
- Chapter 5 "A Husband Enjoys His Wife More Freely in Private": The Nuns and the Clergy
- Chapter 6 "The People Are Also My Members": Community Within and Beyond the Monastery
- PART THREE The Living and the Dead
- Chapter 7 "Give Her All That Is Yours": Community and the Population of Purgatory
- Chapter 8 "Unite Yourself with His Family": Community with Mary and the Saints
- Epilogue
- Bibliography
- Index
