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De la sainteté et des devoirs de la vie monastiqueby the Abbé Armand-Jean de Rancé was originally published in Paris by Francois Muguet in 1683. In 1830 it was translated and titled On the Sanctity and the Duties of the Monastic State by Abbot Vincent Ryan, founding abbot of Mount Melleray in Capoquinn, Ireland and published in Dublin by Richard Grace. This derivative edition has been re-typeset, re-titled, edited, updated, heavily annotated, and its many citations both substantially corrected and expanded. Moreover, it has been supplied with a contemporary introduction, with 44 illustrations as well as an Image Index and an Index of Scriptural Citations. Although Abbé de Rancé, the founder of the Trappists, originally wrote for his monks, many laity of 17th c. France gladly embraced much of his spirituality, and to wonderful effect. With asceticism re-appearing now as a corrective to our self-indulgence and softness, his wonderful book is a badly needed, albeit bracing corrective for the Christians of our time. If appropriated in our day, Back to Asceticism: The Trappist Option will likely accomplish spontaneously all that The Benedict Option by Rod Dreher envisioned, and far more. On the Sanctity and Duties of the Monastic State was the soul of Trappist spirituality until very recently, and the very implosion of the Trappists suggests that survival of the order depends on an about-face, a return to the wisdom of its founder. In fact, the same may be said mutatis mutandi of the entire Church, which is badly in need of this ascetic wisdom which de Rancé has distilled from Saint Benedict, Saint Bernard and the Desert Fathers, from Saint Basil, Saint John Climachus, and others. Volume I contains the following fifteen chapters: 1 - The Obligations of Religious Life in General 2 - The Institution of the Monastic State 3 - Of the Origin of the Solitary Life 4 - Of the Different Forms of Life Which Were Established among the Ancient Solitaries 5 - Of the Essence and Perfection of the Cenobitical State 6 - Of the Principal Means by Which Religious Persons May Attain to the Perfection of Their State 7 - On the Love of God 8 - Of Loving the Superiors and Having Confidence in Them 9 - Of the Charity and Duty of Superiors 10 - Of the Charity that the Brethren Should Have for One Another11 - On Prayer 12 - On Penance, On Humiliations 13 - On the Meditation of Death 14 - On the Judgments of God 15 - On Compunction Volume II contains the additional eight chapters: 16 - On Retirement 17 - On Silence 18 - On Abstinence and Austere Food 19 - On Manual Labor 20 - On Night Watchings 21 - On Poverty 22 - On Patience under Sickness and Infirmities 23 - On Mitigations In all, the two volumes comprise 700 pages of monastic wisdom compiled and commented on by the immensely learned Abbé de Rancé in light of his own decades long experience as the re-founder, the very successful re-founder, of Our Lady of la Trappe monastery in France. That monastery under his rule was by all accounts a kind of Heaven on earth. If "By their fruits you will know them" is taken as our principle of discernment, the fact that his monastery is the mother of every Cistercian monastery of the Strict Observance in the world today, and that the order thrived under the influence of his spirituality, then the true worth of De la sainteté et des devoirs de la vie monastique and its present day iteration, "Back to Asceticism: The Trappist Option is clearly seen. With this work Abbé Armand-Jean de Rancé is striding into the moribund world of contemporary Catholicism and speaking once again with words of fire.
This volume is the first English language presentation of the innovative approaches developed in the aesthetics of religion. The chapters present diverse material and detailed analysis on descriptive, methodological and theoretical concepts that together explore the potential of an aesthetic approach for investigating religion as a sensory and mediated practice. In dialogue with, yet different from, other major movements in the field (material culture, anthropology of the senses, for instance), it is the specific intent of this approach to create a framework for understanding the interplay between sensory, cognitive and socio-cultural aspects of world-construction. The volume demonstrates that aesthetics, as a theory of sensory knowledge, offers an elaborate repertoire of concepts that can help to understand religious traditions. These approaches take into account contemporary developments in scientific theories of perception, neuro-aesthetics and cultural studies, highlighting the socio-cultural and political context informing how humans perceive themselves and the world around them. Developing since the 1990s, the aesthetic approach has responded to debates in the study of religion, in particular striving to overcome biased categories that confined religion either to texts and abstract beliefs, or to an indisputable sui generis mode of experience. This volume documents what has been achieved to date, its significance for the study of religion and for interdisciplinary scholarship.
The princes étrangers were an influential group of courtiers in early modern France, none more so than the princes from the Lorraine-Guise family. This book examines the Lorraine-Guise at the court of Louis XIV and their renewed power, wealth and influence after the turbulent Wars of Religion. It is a substantial contribution to scholarship in court studies and will add greatly to debates on the nature of crown-noble relations in the era of absolutism.
Modernity has historically defined itself by relation to classical antiquity on the one hand, and the medieval on the other. While early modernity’s relation to Antiquity has been amply documented, its relation to the medieval has been less studied. This volume seeks to address this omission by presenting some preliminary explorations of this field. In seventeen essays ranging from the Italian Renaissance to Enlightenment France, it focuses on three main themes: continuities and discontinuities between the medieval and early modern, early modern re-uses of medieval matter, and conceptualizations of the medieval. Collectively, the essays illustrate how early modern medievalisms differ in important respects from post-Romantic views of the medieval, ultimately calling for a re-definition of the concept of medievalism itself. Contributors include: Mette Bruun, Peter Damian-Grint, Anne-Marie De Gendt, Daphne Hoogenboezem, Tiphaine Karsenti, Joost Keizer, Waldemar Kowalski, Elena Lombardi, Coen Maas, Pieter Mannaerts, Christoph Pieper, Jacomien Prins, Adam Shear, Paul Smith, Martin Spies, Andrea Worm, and Aurélie Zygel-Basso.
Presents the Order's figureheads, practical life and spiritual horizon, and its contribution to medieval Europe's religious, cultural and political climate.
Even three hundred years ago, believers found it difficult to sustain for forty days the proper Lenten spirit. That's why even then, countless Christians turned to the writings of Bishop Jacques-Bénigne Bossuet (1627-1704), whose great piety and simple eloquence won him renown as one of the greatest preachers of his time. From Bishop Bossuet's sermons and spiritual writings, believers drew ever greater Lenten wisdom and strength. Now translator Christopher Blum has selected from Bishop Bossuet's voluminous works fifty brief but remarkably powerful meditations that complement the daily readings at Mass during the Lenten season, thus offering to us the perfect companion for a thoughtful and fruitful Lent. If you read and meditate briefly on just one of them each day in Lent, I guarantee that this good French bishop's eloquence will soon have you not merely remembering the events of Christ's journey to His Crucifixion; it will have you spiritually walking with Him on that journey . . . which is precisely what we are called to do in Lent! With Bossuet, this Lent you will find yourself saying, "O Jesus! I present myself to you to make my journey in your company. O my Savior, receive your traveler! Here I am ready, holding on to nothing. Let me go with You to the Father." That's the fire that should burn in the heart of all Christians. This Lent, let Bishop Bossuet enkindle it in yours. Among the Meditations: God Alone Suffices Pray to God in Secret The Truth and the Life Tempted in the Desert The Sign of Jonah Love Your Enemies This Is My Beloved Son And You Will Be Forgiven The Wicked Tenants In Spirit and in Truth The Silence of Christ Priest, Prophet, and King Our Life, a Journey to God The Great Commandment I Was Hungry and You Fed Me The Love of God for Repentant Sinners Up to Jerusalem God, the Life of the Soul The Witness of the Baptist The Raising of Lazarus Jesus Is Persecuted The True Messiah The Anointing The Betrayal The Eucharist The Passion The Brevity of Life Washed of Our Sins A Sign of Contradiction No Man Ever Spoke Like This Man The Entry of Our Lord into Jerusalem To Unite Ourselves with Christ
The life and mystical experiences of an intelligent and artistic thirteenth-century Flemish nun are described in this contemporary biography, drawn from a lost autobiography. Her own Seven Manieren van Minne is incorporated into the text and given in translation from two redactions: the Latin of her biographer and her own vernacular.
Exploiting the turbulence and strife of sixteenth-century France, the House of Guise arose from a provincial power base to establish themselves as dominant political players in France and indeed Europe, marrying within royal and princely circles and occupying the most important ecclesiastical and military positions. Propelled by ambitions derived from their position as cadets of a minor sovereign house, they represent a cadre of early modern elites who are difficult to categorise neatly: neither fully sovereign princes nor fully subject nobility. They might have spent most of their time in one state, France, but their interests were always ‘trans-national’; contested spaces far from the major centres of monarchical power – from the Ardennes to the Italian peninsula – were frequent theatres of activity for semi-sovereign border families such as the Lorraine-Guise. This nexus of activity, and the interplay between princely status and representation, is the subject of this book. The essays in this collection approach Guise aims, ambitions and self-fashioning using this ‘trans-national’ dimension as context: their desire for increased royal (rather than merely princely) power and prestige, and the use of representation (visual and literary) in order to achieve it. Guise claims to thrones and territories from Jerusalem to Naples are explored, alongside the Guise ‘dream of Italy’, with in-depth studies of Henry of Lorraine, fifth Duke of Guise, and his attempts in the mid-seventeenth century to gain a throne in Naples. The combination of the violence and drama of their lives at the centres of European power and their adroit use of publicity ensured that versions of their strongly delineated images were appropriated by chroniclers, playwrights and artists, in which they sometimes featured as they would have wished, as heroes and heroines, frequently as villains, and ultimately as characters in the narratives of national heritage.