Thousands and Thousands of Lovers: Sense of Community among the Nuns of Helfta b

Description: Thousands and Thousands of Lovers by Anna Harrison "Thousands and Thousands of Lovers examines the spiritual significance of community to the Cistercian nuns of Helfta"-- FORMAT Paperback LANGUAGE English CONDITION Brand New Publisher Description 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 monasterys 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. Author Biography 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 Clairvauxs On Loving God and its Influence. Table of Contents 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 Kings 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 Review "This book offers an astonishingly rich reconstruction of the visionary, communal, personal, and literary lives of the nuns of Helfta. It rests on a rich knowledge of their teachings and writings but understands these as born as much from communal experience and insight as the visions or writings of unusually graced individuals. Amidst a larger interpretive literature, much of it not in English, this book follows upon Caroline Walker Bynums pioneering introduction of these materials to English-speaking readers a generation ago. It is an attractive and compelling general reflection on the lives and writings of these women, yet thoughtfully focused. Readers will find themselves immersed in its narrative flow as well as its host of illuming and learned notes."John H. Van Engen, Andrew V. Tackes Professor of Medieval History, Emeritus, University of Notre Dame "In Thousands and Thousands of Lovers, Anna Harrison hones in on the most engaging aspect of Helftas spirituality: the nuns powerful sense of community. In a period of just fifteen years, these nuns produced a treasure trove of Latin mystical literature, creating a utopian vision of their monastic life as an icon of the kingdom of heaven. Exploring the sisters loving relationships with one another, with clergy and laity, with the dead in purgatory and the saints in heaven, Harrison shows that mysticism is not just a pursuit for the lonely soul in its solitude. It can be—and at Helfta it is—the most profoundly social of all human activities."Barbara Newman, Northwestern University "The nuns of medieval Helfta occupy a special place in the history of spirituality, both as individuals and as members of their community. Anna Harrison has given us a much-needed book on the writings associated with Mechtild of Hackeborn and Gertrude the Great. She shows how these nuns flourished in their monastic community. Her work is deeply grounded in scholarship, thoughtful, gracefully formulated, and accessible. It will be read for many years to come as a landmark in the study of spirituality."Richard Kieckhefer, Emeritus Professor of Religious Studies and History, Northwestern University "In this thoughtful study of the writings of the thirteenth-century nuns at Helfta, Anna Harrison highlights the fundamental importance of community. For the medieval nuns at Helfta, community united both individual and group. Community included the known authors Gertrude of Helfta and Mechtild of Hackeborn, just as it included the anonymous nuns who collaborated in the creation of the Helfta writings and who also read them, and just as it included saints, laity, clergy, and more. And community also meant the reader and Christ reading together, as if they were one. Alive with vivid and well-chosen examples drawn from Harrisons deep familiarity with the large textual oeuvre, Thousands and Thousands of Lovers will inspire its readers–whether already familiar with the Helfta writings, or encountering them for the first time–to appreciate the fervent optimism of the women of Helfta as well as the interconnectedness of self and other."Elizabeth Freeman, Senior Lecturer in Medieval European History, University of Tasmania "In Thousands and Thousands of Lovers, Anna Harrison offers a rich and engaging account of womens religious community during the thirteenth century, focusing on the German monastery at Helfta—the periods most important and prolific center of womens religious writing. Considering the Helfta women as part of a community animated by a daily sense of Christs presence and by the rhythm of the liturgy, but also by quotidian preoccupations—the presence of illness and death, friendships with each other, and relations beyond the cloister—Professor Harrison places the womens writings alongside their shared monastic and spiritual experience, bringing vividly to life their communal commitments, concerns, and sometimes annoyances. Brimming with fascinating observations about life at Helfta—from the nun who was excessively pleased with her golden bedspread, to the Christ-given power of Gertrude to hear confession, absolve, and assign penance—Thousands and Thousands of Lovers is a learned and delightful book that will be warmly welcomed by scholars and students concerned with questions relating to monastic community, spirituality, authorship, and gender."Fiona Griffiths, Stanford University"Thousands and Thousands of Lovers is an ambitious and wide-ranging study. Anna Harrison focuses on the sense of community among the Helfta nuns and with others, including priests, lay brothers and laity. She draws freely on all the relevant texts, some of which, being in Latin, have been neglected until recently. Anyone interested in medieval womens monasticism will find much to ponder here."Alexandra Barratt, Professor Emeritus, University of Waikato"Anna Harrison has made a significant contribution to Helfta studies in her examination of the nuns lives through the lens of "Benedictine community."Magistra"Anna Harrisons impressive and evocative Thousands and Thousands of Lovers is a deeply researched history of the attitudes toward community among the nuns of Helfta. It is a brilliant book and readers interested in womens spirituality, medieval mysticism, and monastic history will benefit from this innovative study of a timely topic."Magistra"Anna Harrisons Thousands and Thousands of Lovers offers a kaleidoscopic study of the thirteenth-century writings produced by the famed womens community at Helfta. Additionally, scholars of the history of spirituality will find this project useful for contextualizing this important and understudied religious community."Cistercian Studies Quarterly"Harrisons excellent book is a key contribution to the expansion in Helfta research and will also give anyone interested in medieval Western Christian monastic life much to savor. Readers will be in Harrisons debt for the profound expertise so generously shared in this book."Elizabeth Freeman, Sehepunkte"It is a rare gift to engage with a scholarly work that thoroughly immerses the reader in the life of a medieval monastic community-its sights, sounds, smells, and tastes; its hopes, joys, doubts, and struggles; its daily administration, intellectual fervor, liturgical creativity, and spiritual aspiration. Such is the gift that Anna Harrison gives her reader in Thousands and Thousands of Lovers."Medieval Review"Harrisons book is an invaluable resource for Helfta scholars, scholars of medieval womens writing, and scholars interested in religious communities of the thirteenth century and beyond."Speculum Long Description 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 monasterys 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. Review Quote "Thousand and Thousands of Lovers is an ambitious and wide-ranging study. Anna Harrison focuses on the sense of community among the Helfta nuns and with others, including priests, lay brothers and laity. She draws freely on all the relevant texts, some of which, being in Latin, have been neglected until recently. Anyone interested in medieval womens monasticism will find much to ponder here." Alexandra Barratt, Professor Emeritus, University of Waikato Details ISBN087907289X Author Anna Harrison Short Title Thousands and Thousands of Lovers Language English Year 2022 ISBN-10 087907289X ISBN-13 9780879072896 Format Paperback Country of Publication United States Pages 536 Publisher Liturgical Press Publication Date 2022-09-05 Imprint Liturgical Press AU Release Date 2022-09-05 NZ Release Date 2022-09-05 US Release Date 2022-09-05 UK Release Date 2022-09-05 Series Cistercian Studies Series Subtitle Sense of Community among the Nuns of Helfta Place of Publication Collegeville, MN Alternative 9780879071899 DEWEY 271.97 Audience Tertiary & Higher Education We've got this At The Nile, if you're looking for it, we've got it. With fast shipping, low prices, friendly service and well over a million items - you're bound to find what you want, at a price you'll love! TheNile_Item_ID:137211154;

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