To Govern Is to Serve

An Essay on Medieval Democracy

Jacques Dalarun (Autor)

Buch | Hardcover

258 Seiten

2023
Cornell University Press (Verlag)
978-1-5017-6785-2 (ISBN)

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To Govern Is to Serve explores the practices of collective governance in medieval religious orders that turned the precepts of the Gospels—most notably that "the first will be last, the last will be first"—into practices of communal deliberation and the election of superiors. Jacques Dalarun argues that these democratic forms have profoundly influenced modern experiences of democracy, in particular the idea of government not as domination but as service.

Dalarun undertakes meticulous textual analysis and historical research into twelfth and thirteenth-century religious movements—from Fontevraud and the Paraclete of Abelard and Heloise through St. Dominic and St. Francis—that sought their superiors from among the less exalted members of their communities to chart how these experiments prefigured certain aspects of modern democracies, those allowing individuals to find their way forward as part of a collective. Wide ranging and deeply original,To Govern Is to Serve highlights the history of the reciprocal bonds of service and humility that underpin increasingly fragile democracies in the twenty-first century.

Jacques Dalarun is Member of the Académie des Inscriptions et Belles-Lettres and a Corresponding Fellow of the Medieval Academy of America. Among his books are The Misadventure of Francis of Assisi and Robert of Arbrissel. Sean L. Field is Professor of History at the University of Vermont, a Fellow of the Medieval Academy of America, and the author of several books, including Courting Sanctity.

Preface

Part One: The Servant Served

1. A Shocking Story

2. Sisters

3. Assisi

4. Ritual

5. Body

6. Inversions

7. Paradox

Part Two: Unworthiness in Power

1. Benedictine Beginnings

2. Frontevraud

3. The Paraclete

4. Grandmont I: Facts

5. Grandmont II: Conjectures

6. Preachers

7. Lesser Brothers I: Writings by and about Francis

8. Lesser Brothers II: Chronicles

9. Lesser Brothers III: About Face

10. Experiments

Part Three: Maternal Government

1. Treasure Trove

2. Pastorate

3. A Note

4. Mother

5. Word by Word

6. Resumption

7. Bonds

Afterword

Erscheinungsdatum	10.01.2023
Reihe/Serie	Medieval Societies, Religions, and Cultures
Übersetzer	Sean L. Field
Vorwort	M. Cecilia Gaposchkin, Anne E. Lester
Zusatzinfo	3 Halftones, black and white
Verlagsort	Ithaca
Sprache	englisch
Maße	152 x 229 mm
Gewicht	907 g
Themenwelt	Geschichte ► Allgemeine Geschichte ► Mittelalter
	Geisteswissenschaften ► Geschichte ► Regional- / Ländergeschichte
	Religion / Theologie ► Christentum ► Kirchengeschichte
ISBN-10	1-5017-6785-2 / 1501767852
ISBN-13	978-1-5017-6785-2 / 9781501767852
Zustand	Neuware