Thousands and Thousands of Lovers

Sense of Community among the Nuns of Helfta

Anna Harrison (Autor)

Buch | Softcover

536 Seiten

2022
Liturgical Press (Verlag)
978-0-87907-289-6 (ISBN)

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Thousands and Thousands of Lovers examines the spiritual significance of community to the Cistercian nuns of Helfta—a 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.

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.

Contents

Abbreviations ix
Acknowledgments xiii
Preface xv
Introduction xxvii

PART ONE
The Nuns

Chapter 1
“Oh! What Treasure Is in This Book?”:
Writing, Reading, and Community 3
Chapter 2
“A Queen Is Magnanimous at Her King’s Banquet”:
Relationships among the Nuns 57
Chapter 3
“Tears and Sighs”:
Community in Illness, Death, and Grief 116
Chapter 4
“I Am Wholly Your Own”:
Liturgy and Community 161

PART TWO
Within and Beyond the Cloister

Chapter 5
“A Husband Enjoys His Wife More Freely in Private”:
The Nuns and the Clergy 215
Chapter 6
“The People Are Also My Members”:
Community Within and Beyond the Monastery 257

PART THREE
The Living and the Dead

Chapter 7
“Give Her All That Is Yours”:
Community and the Population of Purgatory 301
Chapter 8
“Unite Yourself with His Family”:
Community with Mary and the Saints 353

Epilogue 433
Bibliography 439
Index 479

Erscheinungsdatum	17.08.2022
Reihe/Serie	Cistercian Studies Series
Verlagsort	Collegeville, MN
Sprache	englisch
Maße	140 x 216 mm
Gewicht	635 g
Themenwelt	Geschichte ► Allgemeine Geschichte ► Mittelalter
	Geisteswissenschaften ► Geschichte ► Regional- / Ländergeschichte
	Religion / Theologie ► Christentum ► Kirchengeschichte
ISBN-10	0-87907-289-X / 087907289X
ISBN-13	978-0-87907-289-6 / 9780879072896
Zustand	Neuware