About this product

Product Identifiers

PublisherCornell University Press

ISBN-10150171595X

ISBN-139781501715952

eBay Product ID (ePID)18038679975

Product Key Features

Book TitleDark Age Nunneries : the Ambiguous Identity of Female Monasticism, 800-1050

Number of Pages330 Pages

LanguageEnglish

TopicWomen, Monasticism, Christianity / History, Christian Church / History, General, Europe / Medieval, Religion / Christianity

Publication Year2018

IllustratorYes

GenreReligion, Juvenile Nonfiction, History

AuthorSteven Vanderputten

FormatTrade Paperback

Dimensions

Item Height0.9 in

Item Weight32.1 Oz

Item Length9 in

Item Width6 in

Additional Product Features

Intended AudienceTrade

LCCN2017-038573

ReviewsAn impressive volume [that] will be useful to all scholars of monasticism, particularly in its nuanced analysis of communities' interaction with normative texts., Dark Age Nunneries is a thought-provoking and paradigm-changing book. By reimagining the very 'ambiguity' of female monastic communities as a strength, Steven Vanderputten's book allows us to look at the scant sources for female monasticism in this period with new clarity and insight and, in doing so, changes the way that we think about religious practice in the central Middle Ages., The book illuminates the little-explored landscape of female monasticism. Vanderputten demonstrates that the current narratives remain oversimplified, and opens up possibilities for its revision., Previous generations of modern historians describe Lotharingian female monasticism as inadequate, lax, and unobservant. In Dark Age Nunneries , Steven Vanderputten puts us right by offering a compelling alternative analysis., Dark Age Nunneries is top-of-the-line work by one of the world's greatest experts on medieval monasticism. I have no doubt that it will be received as fundamental in the field of women's monasticism in the central Middle Ages and become the go-to book on the subject for scholars of all linguistic or national backgrounds in the United States, Europe, and elsewhere.

Dewey Edition23

Grade FromCollege Graduate Student

Dewey Decimal271/.90009021

Table Of ContentIntroduction 1. Setting the Boundaries for Legitimate Experimentation 2. Holy Vessels, Brides of Christ: Ambiguous Ninth-Century Realities 3. Transitions, Continuities, and the Struggle for Monastic Lordship 4. Reforms, Semi-reforms, and the Silencing of Women Religious in the Tenth Century 5. New Beginnings 6. Monastic Ambiguities in the New Millennium Conclusion

SynopsisIn Dark Age Nunneries , Steven Vanderputten dismantles the common view of women religious between 800 and 1050 as disempowered or even disinterested witnesses to their own lives. It is based on a study of primary sources from forty female monastic communities in Lotharingia--a politically and culturally diverse region that boasted an extraordinarily high number of such institutions. Vanderputten highlights the attempts by women religious and their leaders, as well as the clerics and the laymen and -women sympathetic to their cause, to construct localized narratives of self, preserve or expand their agency as religious communities, and remain involved in shaping the attitudes and behaviors of the laity amid changing contexts and expectations on the part of the Church and secular authorities. Rather than a "dark age" in which female monasticism withered under such factors as the assertion of male religious authority, the secularization of its institutions, and the precipitous decline of their intellectual and spiritual life, Vanderputten finds that the post-Carolingian period witnessed a remarkable adaptability among these women. Through texts, objects, archaeological remains, and iconography, Dark Age Nunneries offers scholars of religion, medieval history, and gender studies new ways to understand the experience of women of faith within the Church and across society during this era., In Dark Age Nunneries, Steven Vanderputten dismantles the common view of women religious between 800 and 1050 as disempowered or even disinterested witnesses to their own lives. It is based on a study of primary sources from forty female monastic communities in Lotharingia--a politically and culturally diverse region that boasted an...

LC Classification NumberBX4220.E85V36 2018