Despite being published some fifty years ago, C. S. Lewis' "The Discarded Image" remains a valuab... more Despite being published some fifty years ago, C. S. Lewis' "The Discarded Image" remains a valuable contribution to thought on medieval literature. Lewis' elevation of cosmology as the the necessary foundation for reading medieval texts implicitly foreshadows current preoccupations with space and spatiality in literary scholarship. Read in this connection, "The Discarded Image" becomes more than an introduction that illuminates otherwise obscure medieval allusions to the composition of the universe. It furnishes the reader with a framework for approaching the spatial dimensions of texts concerned with the relationship between God and the soul. I will illustrate this persisting usefulness of Lewis' work with reference to the thirteenth century English "Ancrene Wisse." Recent studies of anchoritism and the "Ancrene Wisse" focus on textual constructions of space and subjectivity, yet often lack reference to the holistic and integrated cosmology that Lewis argues permeated medieval thought. It is precisely this kind of reference that Lewis provides.
Master's Thesis.
This thesis addresses the nature and role of contemplation in the early-thirteen... more Master's Thesis. This thesis addresses the nature and role of contemplation in the early-thirteenth-century English Ancrene Wisse (AW). Previous scholarship on the text has debated whether or not it ought to be described as ‘mystical,’ and has generally focused on language and imagery that the AW shares with more conventionally recognised mystical literature. This thesis takes a different approach by focusing on the role of the conscience within the text. The AW prescribes a rule of life that governs the heart. The AW author defines a pure heart as a clean conscience. An attempt to understand the contemplative life in the AW must first establish what the author means by the conscience; applications of modern and medieval scholastic understandings of the conscience to the AW are anachronistic. This thesis examines the AW author’s handling of conscience within the context of twelfth-century monastic thought, as expressed in three treatises on conscience which have hitherto received minimal scholarly attention: Peter of Celle’s De Conscientia, and the pseudo-Bernardine Tractatus de Conscientia and De Interiori Domo. In these texts, conscience is neither a moral guide nor a record of personal conduct. Their authors synthesise a new understanding of the conscience from different elements within classical, biblical, and patristic thought. This thesis argues that this distinctive approach to conscience gave rise to a different form of contemplative thought and practice that lies outside the mainstream development of medieval mysticism. Rather than utilising tripartite schemas of spiritual ascent based on the stages of purgation, illumination, and union, the conscience texts base their view of union with God on the model of moral reasoning. This thesis argues that the AW participates in this school of thought on conscience and contemplation, rather than more conventionally recognised traditions of medieval mystical literature.
Despite being published some fifty years ago, C. S. Lewis' "The Discarded Image" remains a valuab... more Despite being published some fifty years ago, C. S. Lewis' "The Discarded Image" remains a valuable contribution to thought on medieval literature. Lewis' elevation of cosmology as the the necessary foundation for reading medieval texts implicitly foreshadows current preoccupations with space and spatiality in literary scholarship. Read in this connection, "The Discarded Image" becomes more than an introduction that illuminates otherwise obscure medieval allusions to the composition of the universe. It furnishes the reader with a framework for approaching the spatial dimensions of texts concerned with the relationship between God and the soul. I will illustrate this persisting usefulness of Lewis' work with reference to the thirteenth century English "Ancrene Wisse." Recent studies of anchoritism and the "Ancrene Wisse" focus on textual constructions of space and subjectivity, yet often lack reference to the holistic and integrated cosmology that Lewis argues permeated medieval thought. It is precisely this kind of reference that Lewis provides.
Master's Thesis.
This thesis addresses the nature and role of contemplation in the early-thirteen... more Master's Thesis. This thesis addresses the nature and role of contemplation in the early-thirteenth-century English Ancrene Wisse (AW). Previous scholarship on the text has debated whether or not it ought to be described as ‘mystical,’ and has generally focused on language and imagery that the AW shares with more conventionally recognised mystical literature. This thesis takes a different approach by focusing on the role of the conscience within the text. The AW prescribes a rule of life that governs the heart. The AW author defines a pure heart as a clean conscience. An attempt to understand the contemplative life in the AW must first establish what the author means by the conscience; applications of modern and medieval scholastic understandings of the conscience to the AW are anachronistic. This thesis examines the AW author’s handling of conscience within the context of twelfth-century monastic thought, as expressed in three treatises on conscience which have hitherto received minimal scholarly attention: Peter of Celle’s De Conscientia, and the pseudo-Bernardine Tractatus de Conscientia and De Interiori Domo. In these texts, conscience is neither a moral guide nor a record of personal conduct. Their authors synthesise a new understanding of the conscience from different elements within classical, biblical, and patristic thought. This thesis argues that this distinctive approach to conscience gave rise to a different form of contemplative thought and practice that lies outside the mainstream development of medieval mysticism. Rather than utilising tripartite schemas of spiritual ascent based on the stages of purgation, illumination, and union, the conscience texts base their view of union with God on the model of moral reasoning. This thesis argues that the AW participates in this school of thought on conscience and contemplation, rather than more conventionally recognised traditions of medieval mystical literature.
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This thesis addresses the nature and role of contemplation in the early-thirteenth-century
English Ancrene Wisse (AW). Previous scholarship on the text has debated whether or not it
ought to be described as ‘mystical,’ and has generally focused on language and imagery that
the AW shares with more conventionally recognised mystical literature. This thesis takes a
different approach by focusing on the role of the conscience within the text. The AW
prescribes a rule of life that governs the heart. The AW author defines a pure heart as a clean
conscience. An attempt to understand the contemplative life in the AW must first establish
what the author means by the conscience; applications of modern and medieval scholastic
understandings of the conscience to the AW are anachronistic. This thesis examines the AW
author’s handling of conscience within the context of twelfth-century monastic thought, as
expressed in three treatises on conscience which have hitherto received minimal scholarly
attention: Peter of Celle’s De Conscientia, and the pseudo-Bernardine Tractatus de
Conscientia and De Interiori Domo. In these texts, conscience is neither a moral guide nor a
record of personal conduct. Their authors synthesise a new understanding of the conscience
from different elements within classical, biblical, and patristic thought. This thesis argues that
this distinctive approach to conscience gave rise to a different form of contemplative thought
and practice that lies outside the mainstream development of medieval mysticism. Rather
than utilising tripartite schemas of spiritual ascent based on the stages of purgation,
illumination, and union, the conscience texts base their view of union with God on the model
of moral reasoning. This thesis argues that the AW participates in this school of thought on
conscience and contemplation, rather than more conventionally recognised traditions of
medieval mystical literature.
This thesis addresses the nature and role of contemplation in the early-thirteenth-century
English Ancrene Wisse (AW). Previous scholarship on the text has debated whether or not it
ought to be described as ‘mystical,’ and has generally focused on language and imagery that
the AW shares with more conventionally recognised mystical literature. This thesis takes a
different approach by focusing on the role of the conscience within the text. The AW
prescribes a rule of life that governs the heart. The AW author defines a pure heart as a clean
conscience. An attempt to understand the contemplative life in the AW must first establish
what the author means by the conscience; applications of modern and medieval scholastic
understandings of the conscience to the AW are anachronistic. This thesis examines the AW
author’s handling of conscience within the context of twelfth-century monastic thought, as
expressed in three treatises on conscience which have hitherto received minimal scholarly
attention: Peter of Celle’s De Conscientia, and the pseudo-Bernardine Tractatus de
Conscientia and De Interiori Domo. In these texts, conscience is neither a moral guide nor a
record of personal conduct. Their authors synthesise a new understanding of the conscience
from different elements within classical, biblical, and patristic thought. This thesis argues that
this distinctive approach to conscience gave rise to a different form of contemplative thought
and practice that lies outside the mainstream development of medieval mysticism. Rather
than utilising tripartite schemas of spiritual ascent based on the stages of purgation,
illumination, and union, the conscience texts base their view of union with God on the model
of moral reasoning. This thesis argues that the AW participates in this school of thought on
conscience and contemplation, rather than more conventionally recognised traditions of
medieval mystical literature.