num_pages: 320
description: 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 Ã  l’Angleterre et Ã  Bède et Anselme de Cantorbéry. Benedicta Ward Ã  pour propos constant de trouver une approche rendent tout son sens Ã  la litterature chrétienne et notamment Ã  la littérature hagiographique, miracles et autres. Bien que valable Ã  ces deux niveaux, ceci ne devrait pas Ãªtre perÃ§u, 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 Ã  une mécompréhension fondamentale de ces textes.
language: English
title: Signs and Wonders: Saints, Miracles and Prayer from the 4th Century to the 14th
titlecomplete: Signs and Wonders: Saints, Miracles and Prayer from the 4th Century to the 14th (Variorum Collected Studies)
ratings_count: 1
publisher: Routledge