Journal articles on the topic 'Augustine, Spiritual life'

The article deals with the key ideas to understand S. Augustine’s Spirituality, setting in its context the figure of the postconstatinian saint, and discussing the topic of the degrees of sanctity in Saint Augustine. Later, it deals with the various spiritual phases in the writings of Saint Augustine, dividing the life of the doctor of Hippo in two moments, before and after his priestly ordination, pointing out in the second stage the role and function of the Holy Spirit as love and principle of holiness. The importance of spiritual man in the period of the anti-Pelagian struggle is also revealed. It also explains what is for Saint Augustine the spirituality of the heart.

This paper examines modern hermeneutic approaches and how patristic exegetes can complement interpretative methods. Modern hermeneutics apply different procedures depending on the genre. Kannengiesser’s Handbook of Patristic Exegesis is used to summarize patristic views by specific book and genre, while Russell’s Playing with Fire, Klein, Blomberg and Hubbard’s Introduction to Biblical Interpretation, and Kaiser and Silva’s, Introduction to Biblical Hermeneutics frame the range of modern hermeneutic approaches. Perspectives on spiritual formation are addressed per genre since it is important for biblical interrelation and application and was valued by patristic exegetes like Augustine. The paper shows how patristic exegetes focused on the spiritual and seeking the Bible’s deeper meaning. It demonstrates how Russell’s spiritual formation emphasis aligns with Augustine’s spiritual burning that transformed his life and how this emphasis aligns with the patristic exegetes’ desire to seek deeper spiritual meaning in scripture.

The whole human education includes: physical, spiritual, intellectual, sosial, moral and sexual aspects. Genrrally, the whole human education is seen as fostering physical and spiritual aspects. Gravissimum Educationis says that Christian education is also the whole human education in which the implementation is based on the spirit of gospel and Jesus Christ. Through Christian education, the students are provided various knowledges and preverences of life so that, they can participate to realize the public welfrare and the ultimate goal of salvation. The development of a more and instant time has led to various aspects of life, including the process of education.The succes meaning of an education that should be emphasize the process, has sifted in meaning. The shifting meaning is evident from the efforts of the school or students who persue only academic values in a report of learning outcomes. In this regard, SMAK St. Augustinus Kediri, is one of Catholic educational institutions that must provide the whole and Christian human education. The issues that arise are: How is student's understanding on the wholeand Christian human education?How is the whole and Christian human education carried at SMAK St. Augustine Kediri? Based on the problems, the aim of this study is to describe students' understanding on the whole and Christian human at SMAK St. Augustinus Kediri and describe the implementation of thewhole and Christian human educationat SMAK St. Augustine Kediri. Through qualitative research, interviews were conducted to 10 respondents of grade XII SMAK St. Augustine Kediri. The conclusion of the study are: first, students understand the meaning of the whole human education. Second, students understand the meaning of Christian education. Third, wholeand Christian human education has almost been implemented at SMAK St. Augustinus Kediri, but there are still some things that need to be improved.

Gregory the Great depicts himself as a contemplative who, as bishop of Rome, was compelled to become an administrator and pastor. His theological response to this existential tension illuminates the vexed questions of his relationships to predecessors and of his legacy. Gregory develops Augustine’s thought in such a way as to satisfy John Cassian’s position that contemplative vision is grounded in the soul’s likeness to the unity of Father and Son. For Augustine, “mercy” lovingly lifts the neighbor toward life in God. Imitating God’s own love for humankind, this mercy likens the Christian to God’s essential goodness and, by this likeness, prepares him or her for the vision of God, which Augustine expects not now but only in the next life. For Augustine, the exercise of mercy can—when useful—involve a shared affection or understanding. Gregory makes this shared affection essential to the neighborly love that he calls “compassion.” In this affective fellowship, Gregory finds a human translation of the passionless unity of Father and Son—so that, for Gregory, compassion becomes the immediate basis for and consequence of seeing God—even in this life. Compassion does not degrade; rather, it retrenches the perfection of contemplation. Reconciling compassionate activity and contemplative vision, this creative renegotiation of Augustine and Cassian both answered Gregory’s own aspirations and gave to the tumultuous post-Imperial West a needed account of worldly affairs as spiritual affairs.

This article studies Augustine’s Eucharistic Spirituality as it emerges primarily from his preaching, in his catechesis during the Easter Season. It investigates how the bishop of Hippo explains to the neophytes the transformation that makes bread and wine into the Body and Blood of Christ in order to ignite their awareness about what it is that they receive at the Altar. It further considers what Augustine indicates as the spiritual disposition necessary for the reception of the sacrament and its effects in the life of those who worthily share in it. Finally, the article explores the link Augustine establishes between the Eucharist and the Church to demonstrate the importance of Unity among those who approach the Altar of the Lord and the need to continuously become what we receive even today as we perpetuate the memorial of the Lord in our Eucharistic celebrations.

St. Augustine, beside his typically autobiographical work – Confessiones, left a number of statements about himself in his many writings, among which the outstanding place is taken by his Enarrationes in Psalmos. By reflecting on the person of St. Augustine, through the prism of his statements in Enarrationes in Psalmos, one can reveal and realize the great richness of what regards his moral and spiritual life. Augustine, being a priest, then a bishop, and fulfilling the office of preacher, refers to his life from before his conversion, recalls his baptism, and analyzes his commitment to the new way of life. His conversion and baptism are of particular importance by driving him from one stage of life to the other. This second phase of his biography, however, does not cancel out some struggles with worldly temptations and various adversities in pastoral ministry. The leading of „perfect” life is embodied in the work of God’s mercy. Confessiones efficiently assist to discover Augustine of Enarrationes in Psalmos, who reveals his heart and his person for the benefit of people entrusted to his pastoral care.

Augustine set the goal of human life as knowing, loving, and enjoying God forever. He also set the practical task of theology as knowledge of God seeking the wisdom of God. Theology is to enable wisdom. The fourfold curriculum now focuses primarily on mastering information and technical ministerial skills. If Augustine is correct, however, the various theological subdisciplines, now generally divided into guilds, share a sacred calling that transcends their various subject matters and methods. If teaching, scholarship, and learning aim at wisdom, then teachers, scholars, and students pursue a common goal. Theological students want to become wise in God, and their teachers are there to help them. Informing students about history, literary tropes, various construals of doctrines, and the skills of preaching and counseling is a necessary but preliminary step in helping students grow spiritually.

This article studies Augustine’s Eucharistic Spirituality as it emerges from primarily from his preaching, in his catechesis during the Easter Season. It investigates how the bishop of Hippo explains the transformation that makes bread and wine into the Body and Blood of Christ to the neophytes. It further considers the spiritual disposition necessary for the reception of the sacrament and its effects in the life of those who worthily share in the Sacred Banquet. Finally, the article explores the link Augustine establishes between the Eucharist and the Church to demonstrate the importance of Unity among those who approach the altar of the Lord.

In the writings of St. Augustine, the Latin word cor occurs more than 8,000 times, being one of the most important, though ambiguous, terms of his anthropology and spirituality. As a synonym for the inner man (homo interior) it encompasses the whole affective, intellectual, moral and religious life. In this sense, it is the privileged place for a personal encounter with God. The analysis of Augustine’s writings reveals a link between the concept of the Trinity and indications concerning the spiritual life of man. Reflections on the “heart” can be put into a kind of triptych: creation “in the image of God,” illumination by Christ, and dilatation by the Holy Spirit. The impact of God on the human heart should find its completion in a voluntarily adopted attitude of adoration, humility and love.

In his De civitate Dei, Augustine stated that anyone who wants to lead a good and Christian life must necessarily have lived in sin in his life up to then. It is quite conceivable that Augustine had his own course of life in mind when writing these words; he never made a secret of his own sinful youth, as is clear from the Confessiones. None the less, his statement is expressed in the form of a general rule.Many medieval saints’ lives seem to accord with Augustine’s statement. The saint repents after a life of sin and henceforth leads a model Christian life until the day of his death. Thus the eventual victory of Christianity over the forces of evil was demonstrated.However, there are also many vitae that follow a different pattern. The saint is sometimes supposed to have been perfect in every respect from childhood onward. He was born a saint rather than becoming one through a process of ‘spiritual maturation’. Stories about such precocious saints have not escaped notice in modern scholarship. Following E. R. Curtius, the phrase puer senex is sometimes used to denote the topos; in hagiography, expressions such as as quasi senex and cor gerens senile are used.

This article deals with manual labour in the life of monks as taught by St. Augustine in his treatise De opere monachorum. It describes the social context of the theme with particular reference to the situation in monastic communities of Carthage. Many monks in St. Augustine’s time were against manual labour. The article presents the structure of the Saint’s argumentation. St. Augustine clearly was in favour of the manual work of monks -and indirectly also of that of all Christians. The article analyses his exegesis of two Biblical texts (Mt 6:25-34 and 2Thess 3:10) that explain the need and beauty of work for daily spiritual growth. This is shown primarily on the basis of the teaching and example of the Apostle St. Paul, who was employed in various ways. Then the position of St. Augustine is discussed, according to whom the working monk gains the means of his support, cooperates with the Creator and continues His creative achievement. Work that allows the monk to attain some profit in temporal life and maintains the neces­sary equilibrium between the needs of the body and soul is shown above all to be a means for the attaining of the reward of eternal life. The monk, however, may be dispensed of manual labour, in part or even totally, in view of pastoral ministry, which plays a primary role in his vocation and mission.

The article presents, in the first part, some socio-political phenomena from Saint Augustine’s time, which caused migrations, to discuss which was the reaction of the Bishop of Hippo to these events. The topic of migrations and refugees are dealt taking as point of departure the Favencio’s dossier (epp. 113-116), as well as the case of Fascio, as it is described in Saint Augustine’s ep. 268. As an example of economic migrants, the case of the family of Antonino of Fusala is analyzed, as described in ep. 20*. Starting from the migratory movements of Saint Augustine’s time, as well as the decline of the great institutions and the internal corruption of the Roman Empire itself, the article presents Saint Augustine’s spiritual idea of peregrinus and peregrinatio, highlighting the characteristics of this essential augustinian spiritual anthropological condition, making a diachronic research in the Works of the Bishop of Hippo to identify the presence and meaning of the word peregrinus. Finally, the article presents some practical conclusions to face the reality of migration in our days, taking inspiration from the ideas and the life of Saint Augustine.

In the writings of St. Augustine, the Latin word cor occurs more than8,000 times, being one of the most important, though ambiguous, terms ofhis anthropology and spirituality. As a synonym for the inner man (homointerior) it encompasses the whole life: affective, intellectual, moral andreligious. In this sense, it is the privileged place for a personal encounterwith God.Analysis of Augustine’s writings reveals a link between the concept ofthe Trinity and indications concerning the spiritual life of man. Reflectionson the “heart” can be put into a kind of triptych: creation “in the imageof God”, enlightenment by Christ, and expansion by the Holy Spirit. Theimpact of God on the human heart should find their completion in a voluntarilyadopted attitude of adoration, humility and love.

Notes of St. Augustine on joy (gaudium) are based on both the philosophical tradition and the Bible. Bishop distinguishes the true joy from the false one. These two types of joy differ in the subject of happiness and its quality. True joy is pu­rely spiritual (gaudium spiritale), aimed to eternal life, while the false joy turns to the worldly possessions. In this life is possible the joy that comes from hope (gaudium de spe), a real joy (gaudium de re) meet only in the future life. Everyday joy, which is consistent with reason and truth, leads to the eternal joy. The true joy arises when one attains the highest goal. It meets in God and is permanent.

This paper explores Augustine’s ideal of just society, as developed in books XII, XIV and XIX of the City of God, and its rehabilitation of the notion of civitas peregrina. Bringing to maturity the classical notion of community (according to Aristotle and Cicero’s definitions), Augustine investigates how, in the Christian view, the different kinds of societies, which arise on earth, are dependent on the acceptance or refusal of the relation between man and his transcendental origin. This connection between metaphysics and history allows for an alternative reading of the City of God, by which man’s spiritual life and its public and social dimensions escape dichotomist views and the confinement to a purely philosophical or religious discourse.

Augustine's philosophy of being, the subject of my lecture, might be approached in two ways. In traditional terms, we might consider the question quid est esse, or alternatively the question quaenam sunt. This latter question is easily explained; it means, roughly speaking, what does the real universe contain or comprise, in a large and general sense. Material objects, of course, we can all accept; but what should be said about minds and spirits and the things with which they are concerned? The other question is more difficult to explain in simple terms. Suppose we translate it ‘What is being?’, we may seem to be asking a question about the word ‘being’; what is the sense which Augustine gives to this word? But in fact we shall discover a whole spectrum of senses. ‘Being’, for Augustine, sometimes appears to express the purely minimal notion of mere existence; but he also uses it as a powerful symbol to formulate his deepest reflections on the spiritual life and the nature of God.

Abstract The Book of Ben Sira was popular in the early Christian church and influenced the Church Father Augustine (354–430). He adopts the person of Wisdom as a divine mother and adapts her within the context of the early Christian church. He links to Mother Wisdom a wisdom theology, in which Jesus is her envoy. Augustine describes Mother Wisdom as an eternal nourishing divine mother. She has a permanent revelatory status by continuously giving life-giving power, which she mediates through Jesus of Nazareth. He presents her grace which she has prepared for the competentes (the candidates for Baptism), who are working towards initiation into Christian Faith. Mother Wisdom serves as hostess in biblical Wisdom literature. For Augustine, Jesus Christ has taken this place. Mother Wisdom serves instead the angels and the spiritual persons as a representative of divine nourishment.

The article approaches the fiuure of the Augustinian monk taking as point of departure some of the Works of Saint Augustine, particularly the Regula ad servos Dei and sermons 354, 355 and 356, to show how Augustine from the initial anthropological category of homo interior-homo exterior –typical from the Latin Christian tradition–, he shifts, already in the Regula ad seruos Dei (probably around 400), to the category of homo spiritalis, in relationship to a spirituality of freedom under the grace of God. From this anthropological perspective, famulus/a seruus/a Dei (= the monk, the virgin) is considered not as “he who tames the flesh”, but rather as “he who loves spiritual beauty”, he who is born of Holy Spirit. The article points out how for Augustine, the monastery must be a place with an atmosphere of freedom and grace that gives life, “not as servants under the law”, but “as free men under grace” (reg. 3 8, 1).

By way of statutes on the façade of L’Hôtel du Parlement de Québec (especially Marie de l’Incarnation, Jean-Jacques Olier, and François de Laval), we explore the Augustinian and Pseudo-Dionysian foundations of the spirituality of New France. By way of records of the life there, and the textbooks used in them, we investigate the kinds of Augustinianism taught and inculcated at the Séminaire de Québec and the Grand Séminaire de Montréal ; particularly, we observe the passage from Gallican to Ultramontane ecclesiology. Olier’s surprising presence on the façade leads us to the Sulpicians and the political theology of the Cardinal de Bérulle. The Copernican revolution effected by this Dionysian hierarch brings a new interpretation of the sacrifice of Christ and the centrality of the priest. The institutional and ascetical implications of this new orientation in Christianity were worked out in New France far more completely than in the Hexagon. We conclude with a consideration of the character and role of the Catholic Church formed in this way in Post Conquest Québec and the consequences this had for the definitions of provincial and federal powers in the Canadian constitution. The Québec Church showed not only the enormous success modern clericalist and centralised Catholicism, with the seminary as its instrument, could achieve but also its limits.

Interpreting the pericope about the resurrection of Lazarus, Augustine began his commentary with a reflection about three resurrection miracles described in the Gospels. Namely the raising to life Jairus’ daughter, young man of Nain and Lazarus. The latter seems to be the richest in theological meaning. Augustine compared these three dead with three types of sin (in the heart, in deed and out of habit). Those dead were raised to life by Jesus. He is the one who has the pow­er to do so. The forgiveness of sins is here presented as a spiritual resurrection. However in the most serious situation is Lazarus. It is a picture of the sinner, who not only commits sin, but is subjected to a habit. The forgiveness of sins is done by the power of Christ, but there is also the need for confession of sin, repentance, and the interference of Mother Church, which releases us from the bondage of sin.

Our investigation aims to propose a brief reflection on Book VI of De musica(387-391) by Agostinho de Hipona. In the light of philosophy, it is intendedto submit the main lines of arguments on the unfolding of the soul in its itinerary to God, in analogy to the rhythms and harmonies of musical art. Evidently, the meeting betweenHellenistic philosophy and Christianity in the early days of Patristics took place through many resources, but with some acquiescence on the part of Latin Patrology. In this context, the thought of Augustine of Hippo mustbe considered a reference for thesynthesis of Hellenistic philosophy in the Latin tradition. There is no doubt that the Neoplatonic reference was singularly present in Augustine's philosophy, not only as an ingredient of his intellectual and spiritual evolution, culminating in his conversion, but it was also the instrument by which, and exclusively through it, his thought has formed. In fact, it is clear that Augustine's thought is a synthesis of Hellenistic culture incorporated in Latin times, although this characteristic is not duly explicit in some of his works and in the course of his history, requiring a closer and more accurate examination of our interpretations. In the course of reading book VI of De musicawe can identify three important aspects: i) At first, Augustine proposes theunfolding of the soul based on the sensations. The path of reflection runs through the education of the senses in order to achieve the perceptual-sensorial transcendentalization,so that, Augustine intends to demonstrate that the movements and rhythms of music are in analogy to the rhythms of the soul driven by a natural desire to contemplate God; ii) In order to carry out this path of soul ascension, Augustine identifies in Neoplatonism the notion of spiritualization as an essential activity of the soul'sintimate life, in such a way that the dialogue is impregnated with the Plotinian speculation about the concept of unity, order and being, always related to the notion of God as ineffable; iii) The Augustinian assumption in discovering bodily harmonies in the soul through sensations, sounds and words in analogy to eternal harmony, supports, in a way, his notion of invisible perfection of God as the one who reveals himself to us in created things.

Author of this paper juxtaposes several issues which are fundamental for mo­nastic concepts of St. Augustine and John Cassian, two figures that had the great­est impact on the development of the western pre-Benedictine monasticism. The difference in intellectual inspirations, personal monastic experiences, addressees of their monastic works and positions held by them in the institutional Church in­fluenced very deeply their teaching. Thus they interpret in a different manner an ac­count on the Jerusalem community (Acts 4:31-35) that – in their common opinion – began the history of monasticism. Cassian sees in it just the historical outset for this phenomenon while Augustine perceives it as a still valid model of behavior for his monks. They look differently at the relation of monastic communities towards the community of the Church but also at inner rules governing the life of monks in monasteries. Unlike Augustine, Cassian sees possibility of spiritual growth gained by monks through ascetical practices and decisions made on their free will. This anthropological optimism had played the key-role for the statement that Cassian made in the face of radical views of Augustine on the Grace and free will, formu­lated by him during the Pelagian controversy but also in other controversial issue, namely of possible legitimacy of lying under particular circumstances.

The purpose of this text is to approach Saint Augustine (354-430) and Etty Hillesum (1914-1943), with regard to the mystical experience. At first glance,it may seem that there is an abysmal distance between one author and another. Right. Augustine lived between the 4th and 5th centuries and witnessed the decline of the Roman Empire. In turn, young Etty Hillesum lived in the 20th century -a brief life -but enough to witness the horrors of Auschwitz. The link between these two authors, therefore, is supratemporaland occurs through the search for the mystical path, which both sought. Etty, a reader of Augustine, declares in herDiary, repeatedly, that what is important is the path of interiorization, the path of seeking oneself, in the depths of oneself. It is what matters in dark and obscure times, perhaps to endure them with more dignity and lucidity. Augustine, who had lived many centuries before, also saw violence and iniquity, and restlessness has always been his source. Indoor fountain to which to return. This is not self-centeredness,an upside-down narcissism, but a spiritual, mystical exercise, looking for inner territory, mystical corners whose source is restlessness and, at the same time, strengthening oneself.

In light of the distinction Saint Augustine makes between a committed evil, understood as the result of a mistake in choosing (culpa), and a suffered evil, des­cribed as the effect of a just divine judgment (poena) – a distinction he makes in several texts dealing with the origin of evil – I analyze Augustine’s reflections in the Confessions on his relationship with the unnamed women. He calls the rela­tionship a pactum libidinosi amoris, that is, one aimed at satisfying the passions. The negative moral judgment he passes on this stage of his life is expressed with particular poignancy by the word libido/libidinosus, indicating the passions to which man submits at times. Looking back at his affair with the unnamed woman, he considers the evil committed a culpa; hence one has the impression that he wanted to place the moral responsibility of the evil committed upon himself, thus giving greater witness to the goodness of the merciful God who revealed to him gradually the truth concerning the various phases of his spiritual journey and the pain experienced along the way.

Late medieval monastic households shared many features in common with the large secular households of the gentry and aristocracy Indeed, the language used in describing monastic households had always echoed that of the extended secular family with ‘brothers’ and ‘sisters’ living together under the authority of a superior representing Christ but exercising control of the religious community as a ‘father’ or ‘mother’ figure. While the common life of the monastery was very different in many of its details to the lifestyle of a lay family, monastic legislators used the family relationship to describe the modus operandi of the monastic community St Augustine enjoined his monks to ‘obey your superior as you would a father’, and reminded an errant community of nuns that their superior had been ‘the mother not of your body but of your mind’. St Benedict wrote as ‘a father who loves you’, reminding his followers that God is ‘a loving father’ and urging them to show each other ‘the pure love of brothers’ while accepting the abbot as both the ‘father of the household’ and a ‘spiritual father’ who would provide for all their worldly and spiritual needs. David Rnowles therefore considered the medieval monastic conventus to be a ‘family’ in which a ‘simple family life’ was led by monks under the care of an ever-present superior who acted as a loving paterfamilias in governing the monastery; the monastery was ‘the home of a spiritual family whose life and work begin and end in the family circle’.

ABSTRACT: Fraternal correction is an endeavor that will never end in life. In the diversity of the society, fraternal correction needs to be a pillar to achieve lifes goal of living together as expected through the idea of Augustine. With the reality of plurality, fraternal correction is expected to be one of the strongest foundations in spite of challenges such as differences in interpretation, communication and corrective aversion. It is difficult but necessary to be actualized because it is useful in building togetherness and bringing repentance. Fraternal correction is an admonition given to our neighbor to help them along the path to holiness. It is a means of spiritual progress to help us to know our defects, since these may often be hidden from us by our limitations, disguised by our self-love. It is a necessary precondition to enable us to tackle those defects with Gods help, and so improve our living. KEYWORDS: fraternal correction,

The biblical story of creation, and subsequently the sin of Eve, was frequently analized by many Church Fathers. These analysis conclusions were ones of the crucial elements which shaped the vision of woman in the Early Christian times. St. Augustine was within this trend. He analized and referred to the Genesis’ texts related to Eve in the numerous of his works. He read this story either literally or alegorically. From the biblical texts which were interpreted literally, he derived his view about human sexuality and its purposefulness. He also eagerly empha­sized the issue of woman’s nature. Indeed, he acknowledged that Eve was equal to Adam as human, as well as woman was equal to male at all. Nevertheless, he was sure of woman’s nature weakness and affirmed her dependence on male in the social life. St. Augustine used the alegorical interpretation conclusions to explain the relationship between the body and spirit within a man. In this perspective, the woman’s position is especially weak because, as a representant of body, she should be totally dependent on male who symbolizes the spiritual sphere within a man. The article only fragmentalically presents the St. Augusine’s view on the woman question because it is limited only to the conclusions of one biblical text exegesis.

Cardinal Wyszyński continues teaching about the Holy Spirit as love and as a gift, which comes from the Bible and patristic tradition (eg St. Augustine). The basic text of his reflections on the God of Love are the words from the First Letter of St. John: “God is love” (1 Jn 4: 8, 16). He reads these words, or the shortest definition of God, from the perspective of the Christian and his life experience. In the Holy Spirit, God communicates as love. To be gifted and loved by God means for man to elevate him to the supernatural order. The Holy Spirit, who in the interior life of God is the Love of the Father and the Son, in his self-giving to the world (ad extra), pours God’s love into human hearts (Rom 5: 5), enlivens and dynamises human life. Love as a proprium of the Holy Spirit is also the criterion of Christian identity and of the Church. Important threads of the discussed issue are also the spiritual motherhood of Mary and the establishment of her as the Temple and Bride of the Holy Spirit.

The patristic writers variously enumerated the ages of human life. Some counted ten, some seven, six, five or four. They took number symbolism or the opinions of ancient authors as their starting point, but in their formulation the ages of human life concern not just the physical, intellectual or moral development of man but, often, also his spiritual development. They defined stages in the development of faith or love that can be described in terms analogous to those used for defining man’s age. Moreover, the patristic authors did not usually conclude their enumeration with old age. Human life passes ultimately into the age of rest (the seventh age) or into eternity (the eighth age), which has no end. Irenaeus of Lyon used the concept of the ages of life in proving that Jesus lived about fifty years. There were, in his opinion, theological arguments for such a mature age. Christ became one of us in order to accomplish the redemption and He therefore had to know all the ages of normal human life: not just birth, childhood and youth, but also maturity and old age. But the chronological and exegetical arguments Irenaeus gives are rather stretched. The most profound description of the ages of man was given by Augustine. He makes an original parallel with the seven days of creation and the seven ages of the history of the chosen people.

It is a great pleasure and honor to offer this address at the end of my term as president of the College Theology Society. I wish to begin by paying tribute to Sister Vera Chester, a member of the Congregation of the Sisters of St. Joseph, a graduate of Marquette University, who served as the first woman president of the College Theology Society between 1980–1982. She died on April 22, 2012. I had the good for tune of having Vera Chester as one of my professors when I was an undergraduate student at the College of St. Thomas shortly after the Second Vatican Council. Although I was a philosophy major, I took quite a few classes in theology. In many of those philosophy and theology classes I witnessed my professors working through and acting out the postconciliar debates between the heirs of Neoscholastic Thomism and transcendental Thomism, and I learned a great deal in the process. I experienced a different kind of approach to theology in a course on spiritual autobiographies taught by Vera Chester at The College of St. Catherine. We were introduced to the writings of Augustine, John Henry Newman, Thomas Merton, and (if my memory is correct) Teresa of Avila and Thérèse of Lisieux. What strikes me about this course now is not only Vera's contagious joyful interest in her subject matter and her students, but also her awareness of the importance of introducing students to theology through the use of narratives, specifically autobiographies that describe spiritual life journeys.

Augustine’s interpretation of the parable of the rich man and Lazarus from Lk 16 shows how much the parables of Jesus are open to a variety of interpretations and applications depending upon which part of the parable is emphasised. In Augustine’s writings the second part of the parable only is commented upon (the exception being ep. 157) to illustrate points about the afterlife and the fate of the soul. However, in his homilies we find him engaging with both sections of the parable (this life and the afterlife). We can note the dexterity with which Augustine handled diverse themes in the parable by selectively emphasising either the fate of the rich man in this life or the next or the fate of Lazarus in this life or the next. From these different perspectives Augustine could deal with questions of wealth and poverty either materially or spiritually. This research supports the notion that whatever Augustine had to say about almsgiving is to be understood within a soteriological context to urge his congregation to be rich in humility and poor in pride.

Europe was christened in the waters of Roman Christianity. Creeds, liturgies, hierarchies, saints, and ascetic practices favored in later imperial Rome washed over the European peoples in successive centuries and marked their Christianity indelibly. The splendor of that imperial era, rescued from facile notions of a declining Rome, has come to historical life in a distinct epoch called “late antiquity” (300–650). Its monuments testify to an ethos at once classical and spiritual. Late antique Christians instinctively took from Roman surroundings all that suited their new religious ends, from the architectural form given churches to the rhetoric and philosophy that mediated sermons and theologies. This Roman imprint passed to European Christians as a sacred legacy: the basilica as a church rather than a civic hall, the metropolitan as a clerical rather than a civic official, Rome as the city of Saint Peter rather than the emperor, the Empire as destined for Christ's birth as much as Augustus's triumphs. Medieval believers, seeking to re-create the church of first-century Jerusalem, fixed repeatedly upon exemplars from late antique Rome: the teachings of Augustine, the Bible of Jerome, the philosophical theology of Boethius, the laws of Leo, the Rule of Benedict, the prayers ascribed to Gregory. Even the story of Rome's religious transformation entered into the self-understanding of medieval and modern Europeans, the conversion narrative joined to biblical history with its outcome treated as providential and decisive.

Freedom and independence are among those phenomena, the study of which never loses its relevance. We believe that in modern conditions, clarifying the relationship of the corresponding categories can significantly help people in their spiritual growth, identifying ways to freedom and independence. It is these circumstances that determine the purpose of the work, which is to study the relationship between freedom and independence in Christianity and social rational philosophy. The extensive use of extrapolation, analysis, comparison, and synthesis methods was used to achieve this goal. An appeal to the spiritual heritage of Augustine the Blessed, Thomas Aquinas, Abbot Filaret, A. I. Osipova, I. A. Ilyina and others allowed the authors to once again make sure that Christianity, which has its origins in social relations, does not form imaginary values in a person, does not lead him into a world of illusions. The work shows that, according to Christian ideas, freedom is based on faith and the inner spiritual life of a person, which he must strengthen, constantly appealing to divine essences. It is pointed out that the essence of the Christian understanding of freedom lies in «the ability to spontaneously begin a state» and the independence of the will from compulsion by impulses of sensuality; this circumstance, referring to I. Kant, is noted by Osipov. Independence, being a derivative of freedom, is formed, like it, on the basis of Christian values and manifests itself in a person’s desire to protect himself from the devil, evil and everything else that destroys his spirit and flesh. Considering the peculiarities of ideas about freedom and independence in social rational philosophy, the authors turn first of all to the Marxist philosophical heritage, to the views of Kant, G. V. F. Hegel and D. V. Pivovarova. Emphasis is placed on the features characteristic of these approaches. The Marxist vision of the problem under discussion is revealed through the analysis of a critical attitude to religion, belief in the proletariat, communism and the future kingdom of freedom, characteristic of the creators and supporters of the corresponding teaching. When studying the Kantian approach, attention is focused on the ideas about the relationship between man and God, on the moral side of human life. In Hegel’s dialectical views, through the analysis of true and untrue alienation and assimilation, the key aspects of the relationship between freedom and independence are revealed. Pivovarov’s definition of freedom, which contains a statement about the unhindered manifestation of the nature of anything, traces the idea of independence, characteristic of all representatives of rationalism, as a necessary condition for freedom. The idea of independence as a necessary condition for freedom, characteristic all representatives of rationalism, is traced in Pivovarov’s definition of freedom. The results of the authors’ philosophical search made it possible to verify the multidimensionality of the categories under study and the high significance of their understanding in relation to the search for ways to freedom and independence. The idea that unites the considered versions of the vision of freedom and independence is the belief in the power of the human mind, rejection of arbitrariness, orientation to higher spiritual values. The content of the article also shows that the comprehended pair of categories works well for both philosophical and non-philosophical comprehension of the essences of various fragments of being.

The recommendation of escape during the persecution, given by Jesus in Matth 10:23, impelled the ancient commentators to deeper reflection. Apart from the realities of the Christian life threatened by persecution, the views of the mon­tanists rejecting the possibility of escape provoked discussion on this issue. The author of the paper has presented the thought of the Greek and Latin Fathers on this mentioned words of Jesus. The patristic reflection on Matth 10:23 points out, first of all, the reasons for fair act of fleeing. The sources allow us to enumerate the following reasons for fleeing a persecution: 1) a formal obedience to the rec­ommendation of Jesus; 2) the decree of Divine Providence dictating and allowing escape; 3) the attitude of Christ who himself has taken similar opportunity; 4) a respect for human weaknesses that can make someone for various reasons indis­posed to martyrdom; 5) a prudence ordering flee in expectation of higher losses than profits incurred by the remaining at home; 6) the trust in God providing a nat­ural way of rescue, without „forcing” Him to the extraordinary help; 7) an urgent missionary and pastoral ministry to perform; 8) to avoid provoking persecutor to evil by own presence; 9) a specific witness of renunciation and sacrifice by leav­ing own home and possession; 10) the escape understood in the spiritual sense is a secession from the evil and sin. Several authors stand out in the extent and the depth of reflexion about it: Origen, Tertullian, Jerome and Augustine. The authors of 4th Century and the later could be influenced by Cyprian of Carthage. Accused by his opponents, especially novatians, he justifies theologically the escape and validates it by the later attitude: as a carefull shepherd and fearless martyr.

The article analyzes the philosophy of history of N. A. Berdyaev. The starting point of the article is the thesis about the relationship between the problematics of time and historical science. It is noted that for Berdyaev, the philosophy of time is one of the main themes of his philosophy of history. Attention is drawn to the feeling of dissatisfaction experienced by Berdyaev with the fluidity and mobility of time. The perception of the philosopher of time as solicitude and, to a large extent, as an evil or a disease that must be overcome is explicated. The reality of the past and future times equal to the present is revealed. The author demonstrates the bliss inspired by actual experience and philosophy of time. Concept of psychological time of Augustine, which justifies the reality of the past, present and future. Teaching about the instantaneity of the present as a point of interaction between time (historical and cosmic) and eternity (celestial time) of Berdyaev is considered. The possibility of experiencing this kind of moment is considered by Berdyaev on the basis of the existential dimension of time that flows in the depths of the human spirit. The author notes the influence of the teaching about the moment by Danish philosopher Sшren Kierkegaard on Berdyaev. A parallel is drawn between teaching on the meaning of the moment by Berdyaev and the concept of "kairos" of German theologian Paul Tillich. The article analyzes eschatology of Berdyaev, which determines his belonging to the traditions of the Russian religious philosophy of history. Two possible ways to overcome time are revealed: in an instant, i.e. repeatedly during human life, and as a result of the total end of history, which, according to Berdyaev, is also to a large extent a phenomenon of the existential sphere of being. According to Berdyaev, this kind of exit from time gives the opportunity to learn the meaning of history, on the one hand, and to free oneself from the enslaving power of time, on the other. It is concluded that Berdyaev understood the end of history existentially as a special spiritual experience that allows us to overcome time and look at history in terms of eternity.

The article is devoted to the origin of the idea of freedom of conscience, which, according to the author, appeared in the era of classical antiquity. Earlier, in the primitive community and in the era of early antiquity, where mythological consciousness prevailed, humanity had not yet thought of freedom. At the same time, in ancient epochs of different ethnos, f.ex. the Bible and other historical sources, we find facts that demonstrate an insurmountable human desire for independence, freedom: manifestations of doubt, disobedience, free-thinking and actions that contradict traditions, established rules and norms, as well as a desire to be free from the influence of the past. Doubts, free thought, are a profound expression of the "freedom of spirit" that is, according to St. Augustine, "freedom itself." Already in the ancient epoch of human existence in the religious-mythological consciousness formed the idea that the human essence itself provides for the possibility of disobedience, social deviation, that the "obedience" of a free man is different from absolute and unconditional submission. In a certain period, the “axial time” period, almost simultaneously (in historical dimension), Zarathustra (VI BC), Buddha (564-483 BC), Confucius (551-479 BC) declared themselves; in the Middle East, in Palestine, the Jewish prophets preached, in Greece in those years appeared philosophers Thales, Parmenides, Socrates and Protagoras. The demythologization of consciousness violates the traditional connection of a person with the traditions of the tribe, race, with various prescriptions and norms of a religious nature. It is time for reflection: a person's understanding of his own actions, the specifics of his spiritual world. It is a transition from the ritual-mythological consciousness of the primitive man to self-reflective, abstract, speculative and analytical thinking. Man begins to become aware of his being and himself, sprouts and develops an individual consciousness, an important hypostasis of which is the desire of the individual for freedom. In ancient Greece, as early as this day, the individual “I” was taking the first steps to stand out from the community-generic “We”. Individual philosophers emerge who, contrary to tradition, preach new ethical and religious ideas, new knowledge, contribute to the transformation of human consciousness, demonstrating and affirming their desire for freedom, so far without conceptual understanding of it. The article reveals the stages of the unfolding of ideas of freedom and conscience, analyzes the thoughts of Greek philosophers, in particular Socrates and Aristotle, explains the origin of these ideas precisely during the heyday of the polis, which democratic principles of organizing community life formed a free man, citizen, freedom of thought, freedom of thought and speech. Antiquity laid the foundation for all Western consciousness of freedom - both the reality of freedom and its idea (Jaspers), in particular the idea of freedom of conscience, which found its further development in Christianity.

AbstractThe article is an analysis of Confessions 3.6.10 to 3.10.18 to support an argument that many strategies in Augustine's masterpiece are eminently suited to communicate with a Manichaean audience and designed to convince such an audience of the errors of Manichaeism. In Book 3 the narrative reaches the stage of Augustine's life where he joins the Manichees. The description of the encounter presented here, however, is much more than the communication of information on this crucial stage in his spiritual journey. The passage is generally described as strongly anti-Manichaean, but I argue that the argumentative and emotional tone of the passage combined with the amount of space spent on a few core aspects of Manichaeism make the passage an effective protreptic directed at a specific category of 'Manichaean' readers.

AbstractIn 1501 omas More, newly qualified as a barrister, delivered a series of lectures on St Augustine's De Civitate Dei to a select audience in the London church of St Lawrence Jewry. To Erasmus, looking back some years later, what was striking was the contrast between the youthful speaker and the established clergy, lawyers, and higher civil servants who came to hear him. In fact the lectures can be seen as the fulfilment of a native tradition of lay piety, that of the "medled" or mixed life which combined spiritual culture with civic responsibility. In More's case it provided a fertile ground for the reception of humanist ideals.

According to the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, Archbishop Sigeric of Canterbury went to Rome in 990, to fetch his pallium. Sigeric, formerly a monk of Glastonbury and then abbot of St Augustine's, Canterbury, had been consecrated bishop of Ramsbury in 985, and became archbishop of Canterbury at the end of 989 or at the beginning of 990, on the death of Archbishop Æthelgar. During the journey, or more likely, once he had returned to England, he committed to writing a diary covering his journey and his stay in Rome. This year, the 1000th anniversary of Sigeric's visit to the ‘city of St Peter’, as medieval travellers called Rome, seems a suitable time to undertake a new examination of the considerable devotional and artistic impact of the Roman pilgrimage on the cultural and spiritual life of the late Anglo-Saxon Church.

Aim/Thesis. Important for all the Christian confessions, spiritual autobiography has, unfortunately until now, been insufficiently investigated and highlighted by contemporary researchers. Concept/Methods. Therefore, using information from sources like Confessions of Saint Augustin, but also recent works like the one of Saint Silouan from Athos, Saint John of Kronstadt or Nicolas Berdiaev, using these representative sources for the Orthodox sphere and other volumes, studies and articles, we will try to analyse this genre, to emphasise its interdisciplinary valences, and to show which are landmarks in the Orthodox sphere. We will also try to present its particularities here, its common points with other confessional spheres (Catholic or Protestant), and its practical importance for the Christian life. The information provided by the aforementioned sources will be investigated using deductive, analytic, and inductive methods (and also, the narrative one when the situation will request it). Results and conclusion. The investigation will show to the reader why, despite of the fact that is a peripheral genre of Theological literature, spiritual autobiography is important for investigation and it helps to create bridges between different spiritualties and investigation domains, but also its potential practical use. Originality/Cognitive value. The analysis is also important because there we will show that, a long time before the rediscovering of subjectivism and subjectivity in literature (which happened in the 20th century, with Modernism), in the theological space this topic was not only known but also valorised in this genre. As methods, we will both use the deductive and the analytic, but we will also not neglect the narrative one.

The article deals with realization of the canonical spiritual autobiography genre in the novel by B. L. Pasternak Doctor Zhivago. For the first time the classical canon of spiritual autobiography is embodied in the Confession by St. Augustine. The following genre signs of spiritual autobiography are distinguished: the choice from the series of events only those moments that contributed to the spiritual growth of the hero; focusing not on the external course of events, but on the internal spiritual processes; the moment of insight, spiritual awakening as a plot-compositional pointe, the culmination of the narrative and, accordingly, the turning point of the hero's life. According to the establishment of eternal history that leads to the beginning in the human spirit with Christ`s sacrifice, the theme of the path is revealed in the new Gospel light in spiritual autobiography - as a person’s ascension from the carnal to the spiritual level of consciousness and achievement of “eternal life”. The main genre-forming principle, besides the listed ones, is the moment of insight, spiritual awakening as a plot-compositional pointe of a work that gets multi-level realization in the novel by B. L. Pasternak Doctor Zhivago: on an individual and biographical, historical, eternal, sacral levels. Such a multi-level realization of the moment of spiritual awakening determines the polyphonic and tiered hierarchical organization of the subject component of the story. The architectonic center of the subject component includes hero-author, hero-generation and hero-Christ paradigms. The interrelation of the subject components is based on the model of the symbolic-iconic generalization of being. The artistic detachment from specific prototypes makes Yuri Zhivago and his contemporaries symbolic figures, connecting microcosms. They interact and become parts and symbols of each other and the whole world at this level of generalization. Such complex subject organization contributed to the transformation and modernization of the canon of spiritual autobiography in the novel by B. L. Pasternak “Doctor Zhivago”.

Baseado no princípio ontológico da vera justitia, ou da “divina ordem”, segundo a qual é justo que se “subordinem as coisas somente às dignas, as corporais às espirituais, as inferiores às superiores, as temporais às sempiternas” (Ep., 140), o que resulta, na prática, na subordinação dos governados aos governantes, Agostinho introduz em sua doutrina ético-política o conceito de força coercitiva, como instrumento prático garantidor da ordinata concordia ou pax temporalis, na civitas, de forma que, punido pelo reto castigo, o pecador possa retornar à ordem e assim alcançar a vida eterna. Em Agostinho, todas as formas de castigos por ele admitidos não têm um caráter de perseguição, vingança ou sadismo, mas de correção e reintegração do pecador na ordem, por isso devem ser guiados pela caridade. PALAVRAS-CHAVE – Força coercitiva. Castigo. Justiça. Ordem. Paz. Caridade. ABSTRACT With basis on the ontological principle of Vera justitia, or of “divine order”, according to which it is fair to “subordinate things only to the worthy ones, the corporal to the spiritual, the inferior to the superior, the temporal to the sempiternal” (Ep. 140), this results, in practice, in the subordination of the governees to the governators, Augustine introduces in his ethical-political doctrine the concept of coercitive force, as the practical instrument that warrants the ordinata concordia or pax temporalis, in civitas, in such a manner, that punished by the straight punishment, the sinner may return to order and so reach eternal life. In Augustine, all forms of punishment by him admitted do not take a character of persecution, revenge or sadism, but of correction and reintegration of the sinner in the order, and, for this reason, punishment must be guided by charity. KEY WORDS – Coercitive force. Punishment. Justice. Peace. Charity.

Sadhu Sundar Singh (1889-1929) was a Christocentric Indian Christian Mystic, known for his efforts to Indianize Christianity and whose thoughts on Christ, Bible, Spirituality, Christianity etc, are very original. Born in Sikh religion, by the age of sixteen he read Bhagavadgita and memorised Granth, Koran and several Upanishads. He hated Christianity so much, that he tore up and burnt the bible at this teen age. But next year, in a powerful vision he saw Jesus and was converted to Christianity. At the age of Seventeen, he set out on his journey as a new Christian, penniless, except with a New Testament copy, wearing a saffron turban and the saffron robe of a sadhu, as an ascetic devoted to spiritual practice, to preach the Gospel and about Jesus. Due to the Sadhu's uncanny physical resemblance to the Incarnate Jesus, similarities to the life and ministry of Apostle Paul, he was considered as a Biblical gure coming alive. He travelled extensively in India and around 24 countries in his missionary work. His thoughts on Prayer, Visions, Bible, and Heaven on Earth etc were so strong and original, that it even surprised most of the western theologists. His entire theology is based on his personal and spiritual experiences (Anubhava) with Lord Jesus. His thoughts about the primacy of Prayer in a Christian's life are compa red with that of other great European Christian mystics like St. Augustine, St Francis of Assisi, and St. Thomas a Kempis. Many of his theological thoughts are similar to that of Luther, even though he never met him nor read about him, but he also had some differences too. In his various severe sufferings that he faced in his efforts to preach the Gospel, even when he was persecuted, left to dead, imprisoned in Ilom, dumped in a dark well in Rasar, among skeletons and bones, he said Christ's presence has turned his prison or hell into a heaven of blessing. In him Christianity and Hinduism meet, and the Christian is like a ower which blossoms on an Indian stem. He says non-Christians, who did not get an opportunity or left an opportunity to accept Jesus, will get another opportunity afterlife to have their false and partial views of truth corrected. Even though he says all other religions are inadequate and only through Jesus one can get salvation, in his fullment approach, he says there is dim measure of “light of the truth” among the followers of different religions and provides for “continuity” in fullment and that they will eventually get full knowledge of true God, the “True Reality”. Sundar Singh is thoroughly convinced, that Christianity can enter Indian hearts and souls if offered in Indian form. He had done more than any man in the rst half of the twentieth century to establish that "Jesus belongs to India” and Christianity is not foreign.

The article states that the challenges of time require the training of future lawyers at a high level; today, there are many normative documents regulating the solution of this problem; in particular, it says that the specialty 081 "Law" results of study should be correlated with the competences of the graduate and are given the following list: integral competence, general competences, special (specialty, subject) competencies; current trends in the development of education indicate a constant complication of the content of education and raising the level of educational standards; the development of the idea of self-development of personality is relevant today; the problem of creative self-development was covered in the scientific works of numerous scientists of different fields; self-development is at the same time a continuous process of development and improvement of the individual and a condition of personal maturity, one of the most necessary human needs, a condition and guarantee of his freedom; self-development of personality always belonged to a range of problems that determined the essence of any socio-economic formation; for an individual, self-development emerges as a problem from the time when he feels not only an integral part of society, but also realizes his individuality in the process of relations with others through the exchange of essential forces, ie feelings, emotions, skills, knowledge, needs, abilities ; for society, self-development of personality begins to play a truly positive role if it realizes the value, uniqueness of each individual and begins to use its essential powers; to the twentieth century. personality self-development was not regarded as a separate issue of theory, but was always among the problems that determined the essence of each socio-economic formation; Socrates created the concept of personality, according to which a person, regardless of origin, is able to constantly develop due to its potential; Plato believed that the social nature of man is imperfect, its constituents contradictory, which leads to the imbalance of individual existence; Aristotle shared Plato's position; medieval philosophy solved the problem of individual existence, spiritual self-absorption and free will in the doctrine of the salvation of the soul; it is worth noting the teachings of Augustine; new views on the existence of society and its relationship with the individual suggested the Renaissance: in essence, man is a creation of God, but at the same time it is likened to God; at the end of XVIII - beginning of XX centuries. there are two main approaches to the study of the problem of personality self-development; among the researchers of the twentieth century. a special place belongs to the representative of the humanistic philosophy A. Maslow and his work "Self-actualization", which contained a detailed analysis of the developments made at that time; more or less active development of the problem of self-development in the former USSR began relatively recently (in the last quarter of the twentieth century) and covered at that time the issues of the essential forces of man and the conditions of their most effective use, in particular in the sphere of culture; in modern domestic humanistic science, the most significant developments in the problem of self-development of the person include the study of questions about the sources, motive forces and contradictions of the process of self-development; therefore, a historical excursion into the problem of self-development of a person testifies to the peculiarity of his thinking in different periods of society; therefore, the analysis shows that in all socio-economic formations, the problem of self-development of the individual was one of the most important elements of human life, and at the same time one of the main social problems, since it determines the relationship of the individual and society, the role and place of the individual in society.

Cremer, Annette C. / Martin Mulsow (Hrsg.), Objekte als Quellen der historischen Kulturwissenschaften. Stand und Perspektiven der Forschung (Ding, Materialität, Geschichte, 2), Köln / Weimar / Wien 2017, Böhlau, 352 S. / Abb., € 50,00. (Alexander Georg Durben, Münster) Pfister, Ulrich (Hrsg.), Kulturen des Entscheidens. Narrative – Praktiken – Ressourcen (Kulturen des Entscheidens, 1), Göttingen 2019, Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 409 S. / Abb., € 70,00. (Wolfgang Reinhard, Freiburg i. Br.) Krischer, André (Hrsg.), Verräter. Geschichte eines Deutungsmusters, Wien / Köln / Weimar 2019, Böhlau, 353 S. / Abb., € 39,00. (Wolfgang Reinhard, Freiburg i. Br.) Baumbach, Hendrik / Horst Carl (Hrsg.), Landfrieden – epochenübergreifend. Neue Perspektiven der Landfriedensforschung auf Verfassung, Recht, Konflikt (Zeitschrift für Historische Forschung, Beiheft 54), Berlin 2018, Duncker & Humblot, 280 S., € 69,90. (Fabian Schulze, Ulm / Augsburg) Ertl, Thomas (Hrsg.), Erzwungene Exile. Umsiedlung und Vertreibung in der Vormoderne (500 – 1850), Frankfurt a. M. / New York 2017, Campus, 272 S., € 39,95. (Alexander Schunka, Berlin) Earenfight, Theresa (Hrsg.), Royal and Elite Households in Medieval and Early Modern Europe. More than Just a Castle (Explorations in Medieval Culture, 6), Leiden / Boston 2018, Brill, IX u. 416 S., € 150,00. (Jeroen Duindam, Leiden) Hiltmann, Torsten / Laurent Hablot (Hrsg.), Heraldic Artists and Painters in the Middle Ages and Early Modern Times (Heraldic Studies, 1), Ostfildern 2018, Thorbecke, 236 S. / Abb., € 45,00. (Luc Duerloo, Antwerpen) Kießling, Rolf / Frank Konersmann / Werner Troßbach, Grundzüge der Agrargeschichte, Bd. 1: Vom Spätmittelalter bis zum Dreißigjährigen Krieg (1350 – 1650), Köln / Weimar / Wien 2016, Böhlau, 329 S. / Abb., € 30,00. (Maximilian Schuh, Heidelberg) Kiening, Christian, Fülle und Mangel. Medialität im Mittelalter, Zürich 2016, Chronos, 468 S. / Abb., € 26,00. (Petra Schulte, Trier) Lachaud, Frédérique / Michael Penman (Hrsg.), Absentee Authority across Medieval Europe, Woodbridge 2017, The Boydell Press, XI u. 264 S. / Abb., £ 60,00. (Melanie Panse-Buchwalter, Essen) Antonín, Robert, The Ideal Ruler in Medieval Bohemia (East Central and Eastern Europe in the Middle Ages, 450 – 1450, 44), Leiden / Boston 2017, Brill, XIII u. 400 S. / Abb., € 145,00. (Julia Burkhardt, Heidelberg) Musson, Anthony / Nigel Ramsay (Hrsg.), Courts of Chivalry and Admiralty in Late Medieval Europe, Woodbridge 2018, The Boydell Press, XIV u. 250 S. / Abb., £ 60,00. (Jörg Peltzer, Heidelberg) Paravicini, Werner, Ehrenvolle Abwesenheit. Studien zum adligen Reisen im späteren Mittelalter. Gesammelte Aufsätze, hrsg. v. Jan Hirschbiegel / Harm von Seggern, Ostfildern 2017, Thorbecke, XI u. 757 S. / Abb., € 94,00. (Christina Antenhofer, Salzburg) Kolditz, Sebastian / Markus Koller (Hrsg.), The Byzantine-Ottoman Transition in Venetian Chronicles / La transizione bizantino-ottomana nelle cronache veneziane (Venetiana, 19), Rom 2018, Viella, 324 S. / graph. Darst., € 32,00. (Mihailo Popović, Wien) Documents on the Papal Plenary Indulgences 1300 – 1517 Preached in the „Regnum Teutonicum“, hrsg. v. Stuart Jenks (Later Medieval Europe, 16), Leiden / Boston 2018, Brill, XX u. 811 S., € 175,00. (Axel Ehlers, Hannover) Kumhera, Glenn, The Benefits of Peace. Private Peacemaking in Late Medieval Italy (The Medieval Mediterranean, 109), Berlin / Boston 2017, Brill, VIII u. 314 S., € 119,00. (Tobias Daniels, München) Campopiano, Michele / Helen Fulton (Hrsg.), Anglo-Italian Cultural Relations in the Later Middle Ages, Woodbridge 2018, York Medieval Press, XI u. 212 S. / Abb., £ 60,00. (Jörg Rogge, Mainz) Hole, Jennifer, Economic Ethics in Late Medieval England, 1300 – 1500 (Archival Insights into the Evolution of Economics), Cham 2016, Palgrave Macmillan, XII u. 300 S., € 123,04. (Petra Schulte, Trier) Klingner, Jens / Benjamin Müsegades (Hrsg.), (Un)‌Gleiche Kurfürsten? Die Pfalzgrafen bei Rhein und die Herzöge von Sachsen im späten Mittelalter (1356 – 1547) (Heidelberger Veröffentlichungen zur Landesgeschichte und Landeskunde, 19), Heidelberg 2017, Universitätsverlag Winter, 280 S. / Abb., € 45,00. (Jörg Schwarz, München) Mütze, Dirk M., Das Augustiner-Chorherrenstift St. Afra in Meißen (1205 – 1539) (Schriften zur sächsischen Geschichte und Volkskunde, 54), Leipzig 2016, Leipziger Universitätsverlag, 434 S. / Abb., € 49,00. (Stefan Tebruck, Gießen) Langeloh, Jacob, Erzählte Argumente. Exempla und historische Argumentation in politischen Traktaten c. 1265 – 1325 (Studien und Texte zur Geistesgeschichte des Mittelalters, 123), Leiden / Boston 2017, Brill, X u. 414 S., € 128,00. (Frank Godthardt, Hamburg) The Dedicated Spiritual Life of Upper Rhine Noble Women. A Study and Translation of a Fourteenth-Century Spiritual Biography of Gertrude Rickeldey of Ortenberg and Heilke of Staufenberg, hrsg., komm. u. übers. v. Anneke B. Mulder-Bakker in Zusammenarbeit mit Gertrud J. Lewis / Tilman Lewis / Michael Hopf / Freimut Löser (Sanctimoniales, 2), Turnhout 2017, Brepols, VIII u. 269 S., € 80,00. (Jörg Voigt, Rom) Roeck, Bernd, Der Morgen der Welt. Geschichte der Renaissance (Historische Bibliothek der Gerda Henkel Stiftung), München 2017, Beck, 1304 S. / Abb., € 44,00. (Reinhard Stauber, Klagenfurt) Eming, Jutta / Michael Dallapiazza (Hrsg.), Marsilio Ficino in Deutschland und Italien. Renaissance-Magie zwischen Wissenschaft und Literatur (Episteme in Bewegung, 7), Wiesbaden 2017, Harrassowitz, VIII u. 291 S. / Abb., € 56,00. (Michaela Boenke, München) Furstenberg-Levi, Shulamit, The Accademia Pontaniana. A Model of a Humanist Network (Brill’s Studies in Intellectual History, 258), Leiden / London 2016, Brill, VIII u. 223 S., € 116,00. (Tobias Daniels, München) Andermann, Ulrich, Humanismus im Nordwesten. Köln – Niederrhein – Westfalen, Münster 2018, Aschendorff, 361 S., € 56,00. (Jan-Hendryk de Boer, Essen) Adams, Jonathan / Cordelia Heß (Hrsg.), Revealing the Secrets of the Jews. Johannes Pfefferkorn and Christian Writings about Jewish Life and Literature in Early Modern Europe, Berlin / Boston 2017, de Gruyter, XV u. 325 S. / Abb., € 79,95. (Gudrun Emberger, Berlin) Buchet, Christian / Gérard Le Bouëdec (Hrsg.), The Sea in History / La mer dans l’histoire, [Bd. 3:] The Early Modern World / La période moderne, The Boydell Press, Woodbridge / Rochester 2017, The Boydell Press, XXVI u. 1072 S., £ 125,00. (Jann M. Witt, Laboe) Broomhall, Susan (Hrsg.), Early Modern Emotions. An Introduction (Early Modern Themes), London / New York 2017, Routledge, XXXVIII u. 386 S. / Abb., £ 36,99. (Hannes Ziegler, London) Faini, Marco / Alessia Meneghin (Hrsg.), Domestic Devotions in the Early Modern World (Intersections, 59.2), Leiden / Boston 2019, Brill, XXII u. 356 S. / Abb., € 154,00. (Volker Leppin, Tübingen) Richardson, Catherine / Tara Hamling / David Gaimster (Hrsg.), The Routledge Handbook of Material Culture in Early Modern Europe (The Routledge History Handbook), London / New York 2017, Routledge, XIX u. 485 S. / Abb. £ 105,00. (Kim Siebenhüner, Jena) Ilmakunnas, Johanna / Jon Stobart (Hrsg.), A Taste for Luxury in Early Modern Europe. Display, Acquisition and Boundaries, London [u. a.] 2017, Bloomsbury Academic, XV u. 318 S. / Abb., £ 85,00. (Kim Siebenhüner, Jena) Czeguhn, Ignacio / José Antonio López Nevot / Antonio Sánchez Aranda (Hrsg.), Control of Supreme Courts in Early Modern Europe (Schriften zur Rechtsgeschichte, 181), Berlin 2018, Duncker & Humblot, 323 S. / Abb., € 89,90. (Peter Oestmann, Münster) Heuser, Beatrice (Hrsg.), Small Wars and Insurgencies in Theory and Practice, 1500 – 1850, London / New York 2016, Routledge, XII u. 219 S., £ 29,95. (Horst Carl, Gießen) Koopmans, Joop W., Early Modern Media and the News in Europe. Perspectives from the Dutch Angle (Library of the Written Word, 70; The Handpress World, 54), Leiden / Boston 2018, Brill, XVII u. 361 S. / Abb., € 140,00. (Johannes Arndt, Münster) Miller, John, Early Modern Britain. 1450 – 1750 (Cambridge History of Britain, 3), Cambridge 2017, Cambridge University Press, XVIII u. 462 S. / Abb., £ 22,99. (Michael Schaich, London) Blickle, Renate, Politische Streitkultur in Altbayern. Beiträge zur Geschichte der Grundrechte in der frühen Neuzeit, hrsg. v. Claudia Ulbrich / Michaela Hohkamp / Andrea Griesebner (Quellen und Forschungen zur Agrargeschichte, 58), Berlin / Boston 2017, de Gruyter, XII u. 226 S., € 69,95. (Thomas Wallnig, Wien) Näther, Birgit, Die Normativität des Praktischen. Strukturen und Prozesse vormoderner Verwaltungsarbeit. Das Beispiel der landesherrlichen Visitation in Bayern (Verhandeln, Verfahren, Entscheiden, 4), Münster 2017, Aschendorff, 215 S. / Abb., € 41,00. (Franziska Neumann, Rostock) Sherer, Idan, Warriors for a Living. The Experience of the Spanish Infantry during the Italian Wars, 1494 – 1559 (History of Warfare, 114), Leiden / Boston 2017, Brill, VIII u. 289 S. / Abb., € 120,00. (Heinrich Lang, Leipzig) Abela, Joan, Hospitaller Malta and the Mediterranean Economy in the Sixteenth Century, Woodbridge 2018, The Boydell Press, XXVI u. 263 S. / Abb., £ 75,00. (Magnus Ressel, Frankfurt a. M.) Bünz, Enno / Werner Greiling / Uwe Schirmer (Hrsg.), Thüringische Klöster und Stifte in vor- und frühreformatorischer Zeit (Quellen und Forschungen zu Thüringen im Zeitalter der Reformation, 6), Köln / Weimar / Wien 2017, Böhlau, 461 S., € 60,00. (Ingrid Würth, Halle a. d. S.) Witt, Christian V., Martin Luthers Reformation der Ehe. Sein theologisches Eheverständnis vor dessen augustinisch-mittelalterlichem Hintergrund (Spätmittelalter, Humanismus, Reformation, 95), Tübingen 2017, Mohr Siebeck, XIV u. 346 S., € 99,00. (Iris Fleßenkämper, Münster) Freitag, Werner / Wilfried Reininghaus (Hrsg.), Beiträge zur Geschichte der Reformation in Westfalen, Bd. 1: „Langes“ 15. Jahrhundert, Übergänge und Zäsuren. Beiträge der Tagung am 30. und 31. Oktober 2015 in Lippstadt (Veröffentlichungen der Historischen Kommission für Westfalen. Neue Folge, 35), Münster 2017, Aschendorff, 352 S. / Abb., € 39,00. (Andreas Rutz, Düsseldorf) Hartmann, Thomas F., Die Reichstage unter Karl V. Verfahren und Verfahrensentwicklung 1521 – 1555 (Schriftenreihe der Historischen Kommission bei der Bayerischen Akademie der Wissenschaften, 100), Göttingen / Bristol 2017, Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 370 S., € 70,00. (Reinhard Seyboth, Regensburg) Der Reichstag zu Regensburg 1541, 4 Teilbde., bearb. v. Albrecht P. Luttenberger (Deutsche Reichstagsakten. Jüngere Reihe, 11), Berlin / Boston 2018, de Gruyter Oldenbourg, 3777 S., € 598,00. (Eva Ortlieb, Graz) Putten, Jasper van, Networked Nation. Mapping German Cities in Sebastian Münster’s „Cosmographia“ (Maps, Spaces, Cultures, 1), Leiden / Boston 2018, Brill, XXIII u. 353 S. / Abb., € 135,00. (Felicitas Schmieder, Hagen) Müller, Winfried / Martina Schattkowski / Dirk Syndram (Hrsg.), Kurfürst August von Sachsen. Ein nachreformatorischer „Friedensfürst“ zwischen Territorium und Reich. Beiträge zur wissenschaftlichen Tagung vom 9. bis 11. Juli 2015 in Torgau und Dresden, Dresden 2017, Sandstein, 240 S. / Abb., € 28,00. (Vinzenz Czech, Potsdam) Haas, Alexandra, Hexen und Herrschaftspolitik. Die Reichsgrafen von Oettingen und ihr Umgang mit den Hexenprozessen im Vergleich (Hexenforschung, 17), Bielefeld 2018, Verlag für Regionalgeschichte, 319 S. / Abb., € 29,00. (Rainer Walz, Bochum) Flurschütz da Cruz, Andreas, Hexenbrenner, Seelenretter. Fürstbischof Julius Echter von Mespelbrunn (1573 – 1617) und die Hexenverfolgungen im Hochstift Würzburg (Hexenforschung, 16), Bielefeld 2017, Verlag für Regionalgeschichte, 252 S. / Abb., € 24,00. (Rainer Walz, Bochum) Sidler, Daniel, Heiligkeit aushandeln. Katholische Reform und lokale Glaubenspraxis in der Eidgenossenschaft (1560 – 1790) (Campus Historische Studien, 75), Frankfurt a. M. / New York 2017, Campus, 593 S. / Abb., € 58,00. (Heinrich Richard Schmidt, Bern) Moring, Beatrice / Richard Wall, Widows in European Economy and Society, 1600 – 1920, Woodbridge / Rochester 2017, The Boydell Press, XIII u. 327 S. / Abb., £ 75,00. (Margareth Lanzinger, Wien) Katsiardi-Hering, Olga / Maria A. Stassinopoulou (Hrsg.), Across the Danube. Southeastern Europeans and Their Travelling Identities (17th–19th C.) (Studies in Global Social History, 27; Studies in Global Migration History, 9), Leiden / Boston 2017, Brill, VIII u. 330 S. / Abb., € 110,00. (Olivia Spiridon, Tübingen) „wobei mich der liebe Gott wunderlich beschutzet“. Die Schreibkalender des Clamor Eberhard von dem Bussche zu Hünnefeld (1611 – 1666). Edition mit Kommentar, hrsg. v. Lene Freifrau von dem Bussche-Hünnefeld / Stephanie Haberer, [Bramsche] 2017, Rasch, 216 S. / Abb., € 34,50. (Helga Meise, Reims) Rohrschneider, Michael / Anuschka Tischer (Hrsg.), Dynamik durch Gewalt? Der Dreißigjährige Krieg (1618 – 1648) als Faktor der Wandlungsprozesse des 17. Jahrhunderts (Schriftenreihe zur Neueren Geschichte, 38; Neue Folge, 1), Münster 2018, Aschendorff, VII u. 342 S. / Abb., € 48,00. (Claire Gantet, Fribourg) Schloms, Antje, Institutionelle Waisenfürsorge im Alten Reich 1648 – 1806. Statistische Analyse und Fallbeispiele (Beiträge zur Wirtschafts- und Sozialgeschichte, 129), Stuttgart 2017, Steiner, 395 S., € 62,00. (Iris Ritzmann, Zürich) Mühling, Christian, Die europäische Debatte über den Religionskrieg (1679 – 1714). Konfessionelle Memoria und internationale Politik im Zeitalter Ludwigs XIV. (Veröffentlichungen des Instituts für europäische Geschichte Mainz, 250), Göttingen 2018, Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 587 S., € 85,00. (Cornel Zwierlein, Bamberg) Dietz, Bettina, Das System der Natur. Die kollaborative Wissenskultur der Botanik im 18. Jahrhundert, Köln / Weimar / Wien 2017, Böhlau, 216 S., € 35,00. (Flemming Schock, Leipzig) Friedrich, Markus / Alexander Schunka (Hrsg.), Reporting Christian Missions in the Eighteenth Century. Communication, Culture of Knowledge and Regular Publication in a Cross-Confessional Perspective (Jabloniana, 8), Wiesbaden 2017, Harrassowitz, 196 S., € 52,00. (Nadine Amsler, Frankfurt a. M.) Berkovich, Ilya, Motivation in War. The Experience of Common Soldiers in Old-Regime Europe, Cambridge / New York 2017, Cambridge University Press, XII u. 280 S. / graph. Darst., £ 22,99. (Marian Füssel, Göttingen) Stöckl, Alexandra, Der Principalkommissar. Formen und Bedeutung sozio-politischer Repräsentation im Hause Thurn und Taxis (Thurn und Taxis Studien. Neue Folge, 10), Regensburg 2018, Pustet, VII u. 280 S., € 34,95. (Dorothée Goetze, Bonn) Wunder, Dieter, Der Adel im Hessen des 18. Jahrhunderts – Herrenstand und Fürstendienst. Grundlagen einer Sozialgeschichte des Adels in Hessen (Veröffentlichungen der Historischen Kommission für Hessen, 84), Marburg 2016, Historische Kommission für Hessen, XIV u. 844 S. / Abb., € 39,00. (Alexander Kästner, Dresden) Mährle, Wolfgang (Hrsg.), Aufgeklärte Herrschaft im Konflikt. Herzog Carl Eugen von Württemberg 1728 – 1793. Tagung des Arbeitskreises für Landes- und Ortsgeschichte im Verband der württembergischen Geschichts- und Altertumsvereine am 4. und 5. Dezember 2014 im Hauptstaatsarchiv Stuttgart (Geschichte Württembergs, 1), Stuttgart 2017, Kohlhammer, 354 S. / Abb., € 25,00. (Dietmar Schiersner, Weingarten) Bennett, Rachel E., Capital Punishment and the Criminal Corpse in Scotland, 1740 – 1834 (Palgrave Historical Studies in the Criminal Corpse and its Afterlife), Cham 2018, Palgrave Macmillan, XV u. 237 S., € 29,96. (Benjamin Seebröker, Dresden) York, Neil L., The American Revolution, 1760 – 1790. New Nation as New Empire, New York / London 2016, Routledge, XIII u. 151 S. / Karten, Hardcover, £ 125,00. (Volker Depkat, Regensburg) Richter, Roland, Amerikanische Revolution und niederländische Finanzanleihen 1776 – 1782. Die Rolle John Adams’ und der Amsterdamer Finanzhäuser bei der diplomatischen Anerkennung der USA (Niederlande-Studien, 57), Münster / New York 2016, Waxmann, 185 S. / Abb., € 29,90. (Volker Depkat, Regensburg) Steiner, Philip, Die Landstände in Steiermark, Kärnten und Krain und die josephinischen Reformen. Bedrohungskommunikation angesichts konkurrierender Ordnungsvorstellungen (1789 – 1792), Münster 2017, Aschendorff, 608 S. / Abb., € 59,00 (Simon Karstens, Trier)