Meditating death in medieval and early modern devotional writing : from Bonaventure to Luther /
"Meditating about death and the afterlife was one of the most important techniques that Christian societies in medieval and early modern Europe had at their disposal for developing a sense of individual selfhood. Believers who regularly and systematically reflected on the inevitability of death...
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| Format: | eBook |
| Language: | English |
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Oxford, United Kingdom ; New York, NY :
Oxford University Press,
2020.
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| Edition: | First edition. |
| Series: | Oxford studies in medieval literature and culture.
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| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | Connect to the full text of this electronic book |
| Summary: | "Meditating about death and the afterlife was one of the most important techniques that Christian societies in medieval and early modern Europe had at their disposal for developing a sense of individual selfhood. Believers who regularly and systematically reflected on the inevitability of death and the certainty of eternal punishment in hell or reward in heaven would acquire an understanding of themselves as unique persons defined by their moral actions; they would also learn to discipline themselves by feeling remorse for their sins, doing penance, and cultivating a permanent vigilance over their future thoughts and deeds. The book covers a crucial period in the formation and transformation of the technique of meditating on death: from the thirteenth century, when a practice that had mainly been the preserve of a monastic elite began to be more widely disseminated among all segments of Christian society, to the sixteenth, when the Protestant Reformation transformed the technique of spiritual exercise into a Bible-based mindfulness that avoided the stigma of works piety. The book discusses the textual instructions for meditation as well as the theories and beliefs and doctrines that lay behind them; the sources are Latin and vernacular and enjoyed widespread circulation in Roman Christian and Protestant Europe during the period under consideration"--Publisher's description. |
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| Physical Description: | 1 online resource (xiv, 299 pages) : illustrations |
| Bibliography: | Includes bibliographical references and index. |
| ISBN: | 9780192606563 0192606565 9780192606556 0192606557 9780191894787 0191894788 |