Schools of Asceticism: Ideology and Organisation in Medieval Religious Communities.

Schools of Asceticism: Ideology and Organisation in Medieval Religious Communities. LUTZ KAELBER. viii+278 pages. 1998. Pennsylvania (PA): PennsylvaniaState University Pennsylvania State University,main campus at University Park, State College; land-grant and state supported; coeducational; chartered 1855, opened 1859 as Farmers' High School. Press; 0-271-01754-6 hardback $55; 0-271-01755-4paperback $19.95. Profound methodological issues are raised by the approach of thisstudy to questions which are, arguably, theological rather than'ideological'. There must always be broadly two ways ofapproaching the task of explaining a phenomenon which has marked socialfeatures but also a governing set of motivating ideas or principles. Ifwe are looking at the work of an individual writer of the past we aredoing 'intellectual history', and even there there must be anawareness of context, or we shall be in danger of writinganachronistically and reading back into the mind of another agepresumptions of our own. If we are looking at the outward manifestationsof view held by a large group, many of them illiterate, none the authorof a surviving account of his or their thinking, we may be engaged in anexercise closer to the histoire des mentalitds. Then understanding thecontext becomes even more important. And it becomes more crucial stillto avoid imposing upon the evidence a framework of questions andassumptions which belong in a later age. That is the danger this study skirts, not always successfully. The difference between theology and ideology is that embedded inthe Christian system are otherwordly considerations which are notreducible to the terms of reference Terms of reference allude to a mutual agreement under which a command, element, or unit exercises authority or undertakes specific missions or tasks relative to another command, element, or unit. Also called TORs. of a mere theory with a message,which is what I take ideology to amount to. It is also the case that thehistory of Christian thought by the period with which this book wasconcerned had become intricately enmeshed with the history of philosophywhile it had little or nothing to say about social ideas (beyond the'diaconal' instructions to look after the poor and widows andthe higher duty to love one's neighbour). The core theme is asceticism asceticism(əsĕt`ĭsĭzəm), rejection of bodily pleasures through sustained self-denial and self-mortification, with the objective of strengthening spiritual life. . But to understand what mediaeval me��di��ae��val?adj.Variant of medieval.mediaevalAdjectivesame as medievalAdj. 1. ascetical movements understood to be the purpose of self-denial requiresa study at least of Porphyry and Augustine, or the hermetic hermetic/her��met��ic/ (her-met��ik) impervious to air. her��met��icor her��met��i��caladj.Completely sealed, especially against the escape or entry of air. tradition,and all the intellectual baggage on this subject which late antiquephilosophy carried about with it. It also demands a knowledge of theparameters of the tradition of patristic pa��tris��tic? also pa��tris��ti��caladj.Of or relating to the fathers of the early Christian church or their writings.pa��tris and mediaeval exegesis exegesisScholarly interpretation of religious texts, using linguistic, historical, and other methods. In Judaism and Christianity, it has been used extensively in the study of the Bible. Textual criticism tries to establish the accuracy of biblical texts. ofScripture against which the nascent heretical school-traditions of the12th century measured themselves. It is, in short, more necessary to gobackwards than to go forwards, for we are dealing here with the directinfluence such earlier mental attitudes had upon the thinking of an agewhich had a high respect for authority in the form of the texts of auctores. It is tantalizing tan��ta��lize?tr.v. tan��ta��lized, tan��ta��liz��ing, tan��ta��liz��esTo excite (another) by exposing something desirable while keeping it out of reach. that much of what we know about the ideas ofthe Cathars and the Waldensians (who were not really both heretical, butheretical and schismatic schis��mat��ic?adj.Of, relating to, or engaging in schism.n.One who promotes or engages in schism.schis��mat respectively) comes from academic treatiseswritten against them. We need to hear about that, and there is nothingin this study about Alan of Lille, for example. When I read of 'mercatile protocapitalist ideology' or'self-empowerment', I do not find it easy to locate theseconcepts in the world I am reading about. If we do not begin by askingwhat the people we are describing thought they were doing it is not easyto be sure we are talking about them at all, and not about someconstruct of our own. Bernard of Clairvaux appears briefly, but we donot hear from him. Yet he wrote copiously, with passion and clarity,about what he understood to be the purpose and usefulness of thereligious life. There was no more 'rational ascetic', nor onemore lushly sensuous in his imagery, more abandoned in his pursuit ofthe divine, of the 12th century. Why not ask him what he thought? So Iam suspicious of a study which begins with 'Weber, Troeltsch andBeyond' and not with the 'asceticism in lay religiousmovements in the Middle Ages' which we come to in Part II. The kindof lapse this may encourage is the assumption that the Waldensiansthemselves would have drawn the distinction between lay and'professional (professed) religious' quite where the authordoes. The anti-establishment character of their thinking made theminclined to deem the whole people of God the laos, and to be reluctantto see themselves as forming a distinct class. Another reason for being suspicious of this approach is that Weberand Troeltsch wrote in the early years of this century, at a date whenmediaeval studies, particularly of this sort, were at an early stage andthe understandings we now have not always securely in frame. And Weber,in particular, was looking backwards from the preoccupations of theGerman Reformation, for precursors. If they are to occupy so much of thecentre stage of this study it would be sensible to discuss alongsidethem the findings of important recent studies such as Anne Hudson'sThe premature Reformation and Eamon Duffy's The stripping of thealtars. It may be that a reviewer is unjust to bring another set ofpreferences to such a study. There is much in it that is illuminatingand some sensible and clear accounts of the status quaestionis on someof the issues. Perhaps sociology and intellectual history must always beat war in their readings of the driving forces in things. G.R. EVANS Faculty of History, University of Cambridge References DUFFY, E. 1992. The stripping of the altars. London: YaleUniversity Press. HUDSON, A. 1988. The premature Reformation. Oxford: ClarendonPress.