CONGRESS CANCELED The Heart of Cistercian Spirituality
Description
This panel will provide a focused examination of the role of the Song in works by Cistercian authors, identifying patterns and emphases that helped to shape Cistercian spirituality of the twelfth century and beyond. Twelfth-century Cistercian authors of what is known as the Golden Age wrote prolifically for members of their rapidly growing communities and for clerics and students who might be drawn to join the Order. Perhaps writing with awareness of a need to appeal to adults with some sexual experience, they repeatedly wrote treatises and sermons on the most erotic of the biblical books, the Canticle of Canticles or Song of Songs. William of Saint-Thierry wrote three treatises on the Song, Geoffrey of Auxerre wrote a one-volume commentary on it, three other authors (Bernard, Gilbert, and John) wrote 253 sermons commenting on it verse by verse, and other Cistercian authors such as Haimo of Auxerre and Aelred of Rievaulx incorporated passages of the Song into their treatises and sermons. Marsha L. Dutton
CONGRESS CANCELED The Heart of Cistercian Spirituality
Fetzer 1040
This panel will provide a focused examination of the role of the Song in works by Cistercian authors, identifying patterns and emphases that helped to shape Cistercian spirituality of the twelfth century and beyond. Twelfth-century Cistercian authors of what is known as the Golden Age wrote prolifically for members of their rapidly growing communities and for clerics and students who might be drawn to join the Order. Perhaps writing with awareness of a need to appeal to adults with some sexual experience, they repeatedly wrote treatises and sermons on the most erotic of the biblical books, the Canticle of Canticles or Song of Songs. William of Saint-Thierry wrote three treatises on the Song, Geoffrey of Auxerre wrote a one-volume commentary on it, three other authors (Bernard, Gilbert, and John) wrote 253 sermons commenting on it verse by verse, and other Cistercian authors such as Haimo of Auxerre and Aelred of Rievaulx incorporated passages of the Song into their treatises and sermons. Marsha L. Dutton