Reading Medieval Anchoritism

This interdisciplinary study of medieval English anchoritism from 1080-1450, explodes the myth of the anchorhold as solitary death-cell, reveals it instead as the site of potential intellectual exchange, and demonstrates an anchoritic spirituality in synch with the wider medieval world.

This interdisciplinary study of medieval English anchoritism from 1080-1450, explodes the myth of the anchorhold as solitary death-cell, reveals it instead as the site of potential intellectual exchange, and demonstrates an anchoritic spirituality in synch with the wider medieval world.

Introduction The Origins of Anchoritism Introduction to Medieval Anchoritism Introduction to the Anchoritic Guidance Writing Genre PART ONE: ANCHORITIC SPIRITUALITY IN ISOLATION: THE ENGLISH ANCHORITIC GUIDES Chapter One: Introducing the Guides The Earlier-Medieval Guides The Later-Medieval Guides Chapter Two: Anchoritic Enclosure Permanent Fixity of Place The Purpose of Anchoritic Enclosure Anchoritic Enclosure and Living Death The Invisible Anchorhold Safeguarding Anchoritic Enclosure Chapter Three: Anchoritic Solitude and Sociability The Idealisation of Solitude Qualifying Solitude: Acceptable Anchoritic Interaction Safeguarding Solitude: Demonising Anchoritic Sociability Anchoritic Sociability and Chastity PART TWO: ANCHORITIC SPIRITUALITY IN CONTEXT: ENGLISH ANCHORITISM AND THE WIDER MEDIEVAL WORLD Chapter Four: Anchoritism and Asceticism The History of Asceticism Anchoritism and Earlier-Medieval Asceticism: Waging Ascetical War Anchoritism and Ascetical Discretion Anchoritism and Later-Medieval Asceticism: Sin-Hatred not Flesh-Hatred Purity without Pain: Ascetical Meditation Chapter Five: Anchoritism and Contemplative Experience The Vocabulary of Contemplation The Three Stages of Contemplation: Meditation, Vision, Fusion Anchoritic Contemplation and the Active/Contemplative Debate Anchoritic Contemplation and Contemplative Orthodoxy