Prayer and Thought in Monastic Tradition

Essays in Honour of Benedicta Ward SLG

Santha Bhattacharji, Dominic Mattos, Rowan Williams, Santha Bhattacharji, Dominic Mattos, Rowan Williams

• Publisher: T&T Clark
• Year: 2014
• Print ISBN: 9780567665713
• eBook ISBN: 9780567060259
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Theology & Religion
• Subtopic: Christian Theology

Prayer and Thought in Monastic Tradition presents a chronological picture of the development of monastic thought and prayer from the early English Church (Bede, Adomnan) through to the 17th Century and William Law's religious community at King's Cliffe. Essays interact with different facets of monastic life, assessing the development and contribution of figures such as Boniface, the Venerable Bede, Anselm of Canterbury and Bernard of Clairvaux. The varying modes and outputs of the monastic life of prayer are considered, with focus on the use of different literary techniques in the creation of monastic documents, the interaction between monks and the laity, the creation of prayers and the purpose and structure of prayer in different contexts. The volume also discusses the nature of translation of classic monastic works, and the difficulties the translator faces. The highly distinguished contributors include; G.R. Evans, Sarah Foot, Henry Mayr-Harting, Brian McGuire, Henry Wansbrough and Rowan Williams.

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half-title
• Title
• Copyright
• Contents
• List of Illustrations
• Notes on Contributors
• Introduction
• 1 Rethinking the History of Monasticism East and West: A Modest tour d’horizon
• 2 Not by Bread Alone: St Brendan Meets Paul, the Irish Spiritual Hermit (Navigatio Sancti Brendani, Chapter xxvi)
• 3 Theology and the Paschal Controversy: Bede’s Case Against the British Church
• 4 Bede’s View of the Place of the Eucharist in Anglo-Saxon Life: The Evidence of the Historia Ecclesiastica gentis Anglorum
• 5 Women, Prayer and Preaching in the Early English Church
• 6 Praying the Psalter in Carolingian Times: What Was Supposed to Be Going on in the Minds of Monks?
• 7 ‘The Brother Who May Wish to Pray by Himself’: Sense of Self in Carolingian Prayers of Private Devotion
• 8 St Boniface, Monk and Missioner
• 9 Turning the World Upside-Down: St Peter Damian’s Theology of the Spiritual Life
• 10 John of Fécamp and Anselm of Bec: A New Language of Prayer
• 11 ‘Minds Wandering’ and ‘Monastic Stability’ in the Early Monastic Letters of Anselm of Bec
• 12 ‘Between Dialectic and the Sacred Scripture: Anselm of Canterbury and the Bible’
• 13 Miracles and the Crusading Mind: Monastic Meditations on Jerusalem’s Conquest
• 14 Reading Saints Lives, in the Light of Miracle Stories in John of Forde’s Life of Wulfric of Haselbury
• 15 The Eye of Reason – The Eye of Love: ‘Divine Learning and Affective Prayer’ in the Thought of William of Saint Thierry
• 16 Concerning Academic Translation and the Latin of Conrad of Eberbach
• 17 ‘Desire for the Eternal Country’ : The Laity and the Wider World of Monastic Prayer in Medieval England
• 18 Universities: Friend or Foe?
• 19 Late Medieval Mysticism: Visionary Writing as a Mode of Thought
• 20 John Wesley and William Law: The Founding of Two Contrasting Religious Communities in the Eighteenth Century
• 21 The Beloved: The Messianic Figure of the Song of Songs
• 22 Benedicta Ward, SLG, in a Few Words: Nun, Scholar, Teacher
• Select Bibliography of Works by Sr Benedicta Ward, SLG, MA, DPhil
• Index of Modern Authors
• General Index