The rhetoric of religion: three late Middle English works of spiritual guidance
The article examines three late Middle English works of spiritual guidance, with particular references to the techniques they use to transmit their didactic message to the reader, i.e. to facilitate the reader's task in learning and remembering the lessons of the text. The "Absey of St. Bo...
| Main Author: | |
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| Format: | Print Article |
| Language: | English |
| Check availability: | HBZ Gateway |
| Journals Online & Print: | Drawer...
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| Fernleihe: | Fernleihe für die Fachinformationsdienste |
| Published: |
Peeters
2005
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| In: |
Studies in spirituality
Year: 2005, Volume: 15, Pages: 143-167 |
| Standardized Subjects / Keyword chains: | B
England
/ Spiritual direction
/ Devotional literature
/ History 1300-1500
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| IxTheo Classification: | CB Christian life; spirituality KAF Church history 1300-1500; late Middle Ages KBF British Isles |
| Summary: | The article examines three late Middle English works of spiritual guidance, with particular references to the techniques they use to transmit their didactic message to the reader, i.e. to facilitate the reader's task in learning and remembering the lessons of the text. The "Absey of St. Bonaventure", the shortest of the three (115 lines), chooses an alphabetical scheme to frame its lessons in twenty-three sections. The "Desert of Religion", a somewhat longer text (943 lines), is more subtle in its approach: it has an allegorical setting - its sections take the form of 'trees' accompanied by tree diagrams and illustrations of hermits. The "Manere of Good Lyvyng", the longest of the three (175 folios divided into seventy-three chapters), takes a more rhetorical approach, in that it uses repetitions of various kinds and images drawn almost exclusively from the Scriptures. All three texts brillantly achieve what they set out to do, which is to "teach, please, and move". |
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| Item Description: | Mit 2 Abbildungen |
| ISSN: | 0926-6453 |
| Contains: | In: Studies in spirituality
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