The contemplative ideal of dying to the world
Laurence Lux-Sterritt
English Benedictine Nuns in Exile in the Seventeenth Century April 24, 2017 DOI: 10.7228/manchester/9781526110022.003.0002 (opens in new tab)
Study at a glance
AI-extracted from the abstract| Characteristics | Historical analysis Peer reviewed |
|---|---|
| Key points | Argues that the contemplative ideal at the core of monastic life was structured around a form of social death: postulants were expected to die to the world, to others, and to themselves in order to live only for Christ. Clerical prescriptive writings and nuns' personal notes indicate that absolute abandonment and self-denial were treated as prerequisites for any spiritual progress. |
Abstract
Through the textual analysis of clerical prescriptive writings and of the notes compiled by the nuns themselves, this chapter examines the contemplative ideal and the idea of social death at its very core. By dedicating themselves to the monastic life, encosed and in exile, postulants embraced a lifestyle that required great determination to die to the world, to others and to themselves, in order to exist for and in Christ only. The manuscripts of their spiritual guides, their superiors, and the few personal notes left by the nuns themselves show how these ideals form the infrastructure of religious life; spiritual progress appeared impossible without absolute abandonment and self-denial.