Image for Listen Daughter

Listen Daughter : The <I>Speculum Virginum </I>and the Formation of Religious Women in the Middle Ages

Mews, Constant J.(Edited by)
Part of the The new Middle Ages series
See all formats and editions

The words "Listen daughter" (Audi filia, from Psalm 44 in the Latin Vulgate) were frequently used in exhortations to religious women in the 12th century.

This was a period of dramatic growth in the involvement of women in various forms of religious life.

While Hildegard of Bingen (1098-1179) has become widely known in recent years as one of the most eloquent and original voices of the period, she is often seen as a figure in isolation from her context.

She lived at a time of much questioning of traditional models of religious life, by women as well as by men.

This volume introduces readers to a range of strategies provoked by the growth in women's participation in religious life in one form or another, as well as to male responses to this development.

In particular, it looks at the "Mirror for Virgins" (Speculum Virginum), an illustrated dialogue between a nun and her spiritual mentor written by a monk not long before Hildegard started to record her visions.

While this treatise engages in dialogue with a fictional virgin, other writings present women (not just Hildegard) as teaching both women and men. An appendix provides the first English translation of significant excerpts from the Speculum, as well as from other little known texts about religious women from the age of Hildegard.

The underlying concern of this volume is to examine new ways in which religious life for women was conceived by men as well as interpreted in practice by women within a society firmly patriarchal in character.

Read More
Special order line: only available to educational & business accounts. Sign In
£40.49 Save 10.00%
RRP £44.99
Product Details
Palgrave Macmillan
0312240082 / 9780312240080
Hardback
08/02/2002
United States
English
320p.
22 cm
postgraduate /research & professional /undergraduate Learn More
CONSTANT J. MEWS teaches in the Department of History at Monash University in Australia, where he is also Director of the Centre for Studies in Religion and Theology.
CONSTANT J. MEWS teaches in the Department of History at Monash University in Australia, where he is also Director of the Centre for Studies in Religion and Theology. 1D Europe, 3H c 1000 CE to c 1500, HBJD European history, HBLC Early history: c 500 to c 1450/1500, HRCC2 Church history, JFSJ1 Gender studies: women