Benedicta Ward - Böcker

The Desert Fathers were the first Christian monks, living in solitude in the deserts of Egypt, Palestine, and Syria. In contrast to the formalised and official theology of the "founding fathers" of the church, the Desert Fathers were ordinary Christians who chose to renounce the world and live lives of celibacy, fasting, vigil, prayer and poverty in direct and simple response to the gospel. Their sayings were first recorded in the 4th century and consist of spiritual advice, anecdotes and parables. The Desert Fathers' teachings and lives have inspired poetry, opera and art, as well as providing spiritual nourishment and a template for monastic life.

This book is concerned with the concepts of Christian holiness and spirituality, from Late Antiquity through to the Middle Ages. The first group of articles focuses on the Desert Fathers, the following ones examine key figures in the monastic history of the medieval West, dealing above all with England and with Bede and Anselm of Canterbury. Throughout, Benedicta Ward's aim has been to find an approach that makes full sense of Christian writings, notably the hagiography, miracles and all. This should not be seen, she argues, simply as biography, nor as a quarry for information on social history, valuable though it may be for those purposes. The primary object of these Lives - as of the people about whom they were written - was religious; to neglect this meaning is to risk fundamentally misunderstanding these texts. Ce volume traite des concepts de la sainteté et de la spiritualité chrétiennes, de l’Antiquité tardive jusqu’au Moyen Age. Le premier groupe d’études se concentre sur les Pères du Désert, les suivants font l’examen de personnages-clefs dans l’histoire monastique de l’Occident médiéval, s’attachant avant tout à l’Angleterre et à Bède et Anselme de Cantorbéry. Benedicta Ward à pour propos constant de trouver une approche rendent tout son sens à la litterature chrétienne et notamment à la littérature hagiographique, miracles et autres. Bien que valable à ces deux niveaux, ceci ne devrait pas être perçu, souligne-t’elle, en tant que simple biographie, ni en tant que source d’information sur l’histoire sociale. L’objet premier de ces Vies est d’ordre religieux; toute négligence de ce sens peut mener à une mécompréhension fondamentale de ces textes.

From the rich tradition of the Anglo-Saxon Church of the sixth, seventh, and eighth centuries, Benedicta Ward has selected prayers and passages for meditation from both Latin and Anglo-Saxon sources. The mixture of Latin and Celtic Christian cultures, distilled and appropriated by the Germanic Anglo-Saxons, produced a distinctive English spiritual tradition which embraced kings and princesses, abbesses and monks, cowherds and poets, soldiers and beggars, and birds and animals. `It is possible through these passages to walk with these men and women as friends and see how their lives became filled with the life of Christ, in pain and desolation as well as in wonder, love, and praise. 'Benedicta Ward is Reader in Spirituality at Harris Mansfield College Oxford, and a member of the Community of the Sisters of the Love of God. Among her many books are The Venerable Bede, andHigh King of Heaven, Aspects of Early English Spirituality.