Fictions of the inner life
Subtitle: religious literature and formation of the self in the eleventh and twelfth centuries
By: by Ineke van't Spijker.
Series: Disputatio -- 4
Publisher: Brepols
Published: 2004
Place of publication: Turnhout
Language: eng
Number of pages: 264
Subjects: Self -- Religious aspects -- Christianity -- History of doctrines.
Description: "This book explores the notion of interiority via four influential authors of the eleventh and twelfth centuries, and the way in which notions about interiority function in their pedagogy. The concepts governing how the homo interior is fashioned are developed within age-old monastic and theological traditions. Medieval ideas about man as imago Dei, monastic reading culture and biblical exegesis are only a few of the elements of these traditions. The choice of authors has been guided by the wish to encompass and highlight various aspects of the eleventh- and twelfth-century notions of inner life: monastic and eremitical tradition in Peter Damian, theological anthropological concepts in Hugh of Saint-Victor, the importance of exegetical procedures in Richard of Saint-Victor, and the role of experience in William of Saint-Thierry. These authors illustrate what was then conceptually possible when it came to thinking about the inner life. Their notions of the inner self are an intriguing part of a continuing history of conceptions of the self and how it may be fashioned."--Jacket.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references (p. 243-258) and index.