Dissertations / Theses on the topic 'Spirituality Contemplation'

The Art of Presence: Contemplation, Communing and Creativity reflects on the making of a dance theatre work called Song of Longing presented at Victorian College of the Arts in 2008. Song of Longing was made in collaboration with the cast, who participated in a process centred on improvisation. The resulting performance was a synergy of dance and unaccompanied singing.<br>The thesis is an investigation of the choreographer's ongoing exploration of movement, singing and improvisation, informed by Buddhist philosophy. Both the writing and the performance mirror an embodied practice - making tangible themes and concepts that have emerged into consciousness.<br>Central interests include the ‘life-world’ of the artist and its influence on the creative process, the concepts of spirituality, spirit and ‘flow’, the experiential focus of the inquiry, improvisation as presence and the value of art as healing and therapy.<br>While the perspective of the writing is drawn from the subjectivity of the practitioner, the aim of the work is to draw on the broader fields of research in these areas and to connect with the creative practices of other artists. To this end, a conventional survey of the literature has been augmented by writings and teachings on Buddhism and other spiritual practices, documentaries and visual art. Interviews with artists in Australia and India and thoughts from the performers of Song of Longing are also included.

Philosophiae Doctor - PhD<br>There has been an upsurge of interest in Christian spirituality in recent years. In this thesis I will provide a brief survey of the history and forms of Christian spirituality in order to sketch the background against which this study will be situated with specific reference to the history of contemplative spirituality. Beginning with the life and teachings of the Desert Fathers it will show that contemplative prayer is firmly rooted in the ancient Christian tradition. More specifically, I will focus on two contemporary exponents of the contemplative tradition of spirituality, namely Thomas Keating (1923-2018) and Henri Nouwen (1932-1996).

Made available in DSpace on 2016-08-03T12:19:27Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 JoseFilhop1-110.pdf: 2862164 bytes, checksum: 6b3e85037feb77785e71c9b2f37891a4 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2013-03-14<br>The present study, object of this dissertation, intends to demonstrate transcendence that takes place during the processing and contemplation of ceramics. In other words, to present the link between Spirituality and Art. For that purpose, the concepts about spirituality pointed out by Leonardo Boff and Meishu-Sama form the point of support for the study. Meishu-Sama s considerations related to art had been added, and they constitute the main part of the framing of the research. The whole processing of Ceramic Art process from the selection of clay until the firing is described in this dissertation. Concomitantly, the stage of work contemplation is equally taken into consideration from the cooling of furnace to the contact of the ceramist with his work. Parallel to theory on transcendence, spirituality and art, photographs explain the stages of doing ceramics, and ceramic pieces help understand what we intend to analyze the presence of spirituality during the production of an art work here, more specifically, ceramics.<br>O presente estudo, objeto desta dissertação de mestrado, visa demonstrar a transcendência que ocorre na produção e contemplação da cerâmica. Em outras palavras, apresentar o vínculo entre Espiritualidade e Arte e, para tanto, os conceitos sobre espiritualidade pontuados por Leonardo Boff e de Meishu-Sama constituem os pontos de apoio para o estudo. Acrescentamos igualmente as considerações de Meishu-Sama relativamente à arte, as quais constituem a forma central para estruturação da pesquisa. Todo o processo de produção da Arte Cerâmica desde a escolha da argila até as queimas é descrito na dissertação. Concomitantemente, a fase de contemplação da obra é igualmente levada em consideração a partir do resfriamento do forno até o encontro do ceramista com sua obra. Paralelamente à teoria acerca da transcendência, espiritualidade e arte, fotografias explicam as fases do fazer cerâmico, e peças de cerâmicas auxiliam na compreensão do que pretendemos analisar a presença da espiritualidade durante a produção de uma obra artística aqui, mais especificamente, a cerâmica.

This thesis is an exploration of what the monk, Thomas Merton OCSO, (1915-68) called his "theology of resistance". Its purpose is to establish that this theology was a politically as well as a spiritually inspired critique of America in the modem era, and to illustrate the coherent development of Merton's contemplative spirituality and political commitment. As an extension of this discussion I have argued in this thesis that Thomas Merton should be seen as a politically active contemplative as opposed to a social critic and a somewhat passive critic at that. It is the aim of this thesis to argue that the full implications of Merton's "theology of resistance" have not been fully understood; and that Merton commentators and scholars have overlooked the core issues of marginality and protest in his work. Central to this thesis, then, is the suggestion that Merton's "theology of resistance" was a "revolutionary" synthesis of monastic protest and contemplative marginality. A synthesis which enabled the contemplative to place himself on the margins of society, but in solidarity with all other marginal groups and people. What I am suggesting is that Merton's "theology of resistance" was the culmination of a contemplatively inspired political consciousness, an attempt to grapple with the radical and transformative potential of the marginal, the dispossessed, the peripheral, the monk.

The thesis explores how far enclosure was pivotal in shaping the female Franciscan spirituality in thirteenth-century Umbria as cloistered and contemplative. It focuses on how enclosure influenced the development of representations of female urban sainthood, with particular reference to three Umbrian saints; Clare of Assisi, Clare of Montefalco and Angela of Foligno. The issue of enclosure came to the fore because of the success of the Franciscan movement in promoting the apostolic life, which emphasised the itinerant life, evangelisation and participation within the urban community. However, women who aspired to follow these values were instead directed towards introspective, contemplative seclusion. The claustration of Clare of Assisi exemplified this type of response. Using a combination of a wide range of sources, the nature of enclosure and the processes by which claustration was consistently articulated and promoted are reconstructed. My research reveals that the creation of the cloistered ideal was a negotiated process. The first, chapter, Challenging the stabilitas loci, examines the significance of hagiographic sources, in the form of vitae and canonisation proceedings, in revealing the nature of enclosure for religious women, and, by utilising a wide number of saintly examples, shows how often enclosure was in reality broken by women. The following two chapters concentrate on the construction of male textual authority and the importance they placed on the seclusion for religious women. Chapter 2, The regularisation of chastity: between doctrine practice, examines the theological arguments that were put forward in the development of monastic rules for women and how they reflected a trend that assumed that professed religious women ought to remain within the cloister. In doing so, the regularisation of the cloister emphasised the preservation of the chastity of nuns, through their affiliation to established orders, their supervision and material provision.

La question à l'origine de cette recherche, portait sur ce qui peut favoriser l'accès à la contemplation mystique. Sans vouloir nier le mystère de l'action de Dieu au coeur de Charles de Foucauld, l'auteur essaie d'apporter un éclairage au niveau du comment. Son questionnement le conduit à interroger les sciences psychologiques pour vérifier une intuition : Est-ce que Foucauld avait un attachement très profond, à la fois filial et sponsal envers sa cousine Marie Moitessier, et que l'impossibilité de vivre ouvertement cette relation a créé un chemin qui est devenu pour lui une médiation de la présence divine? Après avoir identifié des indices pour reconnaître la trace des processus du refoulement et de la sublimation, l'auteur analyse les lettres les plus pertinentes de la correspondance accessible entre Foucauld et sa cousine, permettant ainsi au lecteur d'entrer dans le monde intime de Charles de Foucauld et de tirer sa propre conclusion.

The contemporary juridico-political and bioethical debate over physician assisted dying has emerged as one of the most divisive of the late 20th and early 21st centuries. Commonly strained through Western conceptions of individual rights and near ubiquitous calls for the respect an abstractly defined human dignity, popular discourse on assisted dying tends to promote universal understandings of both human beings as well as ethical, legal, moral action. This thesis, however, holds these debates in abeyance preferring rather to explore the ways in which the possibility of an assisted death creates a more meaningful dying space for many Canadian advocates. And though I cannot answer for everyone, for many of the 24 individuals I spent months interviewing, “hanging out” with and generally following around to various meetings/training sessions, the assisted death is not some nihilistic response to the suffering of our materially bounded/feeling bodies, but a contemporary recurrence of a deeply spiritual, relational and artful dying.

Thesis advisor: Hosffman Ospino<br>There is a pressing need to re-awaken in teaching the prophetic call to serve the liberation of children, whose complex humanity remains systemically marginalized. This proposal is grounded in a study of the Lasallian tradition of education, which originates from John Baptist de La Salle (1651-1719), founder of the Institute of the Brothers of the Christian Schools in seventeenth century France and the patron saint for Christian teachers of the young. From a Lasallian perspective, the prophetic call to teach for children’s liberation is rooted contemplatively in a Christian mysticism of faith, which energizes an incarnational mission of education in zeal, shaped by a preferential option for children as the poor and marginalized. This preferential option for children is a hermeneutical key that reads the Lasallian mission of education forward into the twenty-first century. I develop this idea of a preferential option for children, locating it in an interpretive study that critically synthesizes a Lasallian theology of child with literature in childhood studies, spirituality, critical pedagogy and participatory action research. Building on the Lasallian imagination, this study contributes to a Christian spirituality of education as it examines how contemporary theological perspectives on children and childhood serve as a lens that deepens the interconnection between Christian mysticism, liberation, and child in teaching as a prophetic vocation. To teach for children’s liberation is to promote their flourishing as full human beings created in the image and likeness of God. It attends to conditions that protect children in their social marginalization while engaging and developing their social participation as responsible agents in our common belonging to God as God’s children and siblings-in-Christ. It demands just presence in teaching, which begins with listening as receptivity to the mystery of the child as graced irruption. The prophetic call to teach for children’s liberation is mystically rooted in contemplative wonder at the Incarnation. Such wonder must also open the teacher to being disturbed by the scandalizing action of God, who steps out of God-self not only to be with the poor, but also in the least as a human child in Jesus Christ. It is this recognition of God’s presence in each child and with children that calls forth the responsibility of teachers, making an ethical claim on them to be courageously present in ways that prioritize the human dignity of children in education<br>Thesis (PhD) — Boston College, 2020<br>Submitted to: Boston College. Graduate School of Arts and Sciences<br>Discipline: Religious Education and Pastoral Ministry

Emendatio vitae was the most widely copied of all Richard Rolle’s writings in fourteenth and fifteenth-century England, and yet in modern scholarship this important work and its early audience have received comparatively little scholarly attention. My aim has been to address this lacuna by producing an edition of one of the seven Middle English translations of the text - Amendinge of Lyf - with notes and glossary. In an introductory study I adopt a dual focus: Rolle’s intended audience, and the actual early readers of this particular Middle English translation. Firstly, I conclude that Rolle may have intended Emendatio vitae as a work of ‘pastoralia’, for secular priests, and therefore with a wider audience of the laity also in mind. This being the case, it demonstrates that the adaptation of traditionally eremitic contemplative writings for a general audience, so widespread in the fifteenth-century, was already stirring in Rolle’s day. Secondly, I look in detail at a specific crosssection of Rolle’s early readership: a translator, several scribes and correctors, and other early readers and owners. The striking thing about this segment of the text’s reception is its breadth, including a priest, a number of prominent lay women and men, and by the end of the fifteenth-century also Dominican and Benedictine nuns.

In this dissertation, I am in conversation with the following questions: How can individuals and communities teach and learn to engage more peacefully, nonviolently, and compassionately with each other? Further, how can one practice a style of communication that helps at least one person suffer less each day? In asking these questions, my goal has been to imagine as well as attempt to actualize a world where individuals and communities work together to create less suffering in each other's lives by first developing compassionate awareness of our interconnectedness, then "waking up" not only to our own divinity but also to that place in all of us where the entire universe dwells. In this dissertation, communication is situated as both a spiritual practice and as a practice of yoga. To illuminate this notion, I have sequenced this text as a yoga practice in and of itself, employing Shiva Rea's "wave methodology" to introduce and support the peak purpose of this text -communication as yoga - via svadhyaya, or self-study, as a path to expand relational awareness through everyday small acts or micropractices. Communication, thus, becomes an emergent process based in yoga philosophy and practice wherein one learns to acknowledge and take responsibility for one's interactions with others and other realities by recognizing one's shared vulnerability. To heighten this awareness, this text includes 108 asanas or micropractices, which serve to explore my guiding questions as well as exemplify communication as yoga - as an everyday practice.

This study explores the similar and different developmental influences that shape the practice of beginning and advanced spiritual directors. An examination of the contemporary literature on spiritual direction finds that in the main, two developmental influences shape the practice of contemporary spiritual directors: their capacity to adopt a contemplative stance towards their directees and their ability to be aware contextually of the factors that fashion the dynamic of accompaniment. While the review highlights the presence of these two influences, the literature is deficient in understanding the similarities and differences in how these two influences shape the practice of beginning and advanced spiritual directors. To address the deficiency, this study reviews three groups of Western Australian spiritual directors, Anglican, Churches of Christ and Roman Catholic. The investigation takes a qualitative, ethnographic approach, using focus groups. An analysis and discussion of the data confirms that the similarities and differences in the influences that shape their practice revolve around two key developmental influences namely, the capacity of directors to adopt a contemplative stance to their directees, and their ability to be aware contextually of the factors that fashion the dynamic of accompaniment. While both influences shape beginning and advanced directors, the former impacts more on the practice of beginning directors and the latter more affects advanced directors. Two factors may initiate and sustain the capacity of directors to adopt a contemplative stance. First, directors grow by noticing and attending to all the dimensions of their human experience. Second, directors develop by having their experience attended to in some form of therapeutic relationship or through participation in various developmental group processes. Directors may enhance their capacity to be aware contextually of the factors that fashion the dynamic of accompaniment through understanding paradigms about spiritual direction practice and spiritual development. Their appreciation of paradigms about spiritual direction may derive from two sources. The first is by how they distinguish more effectively spiritual direction from other therapeutic practices. The second is by how they grow in understanding relevant theological, philosophical, and psychological perspectives that inform good practice. Directors may further increase their comprehension of interpretive frameworks about spiritual development by redressing the attitudinal effects of fundamentalism and incorporating a multiplicity of approaches to spirituality. Training programmes are an important means to introduce and develop directors’ abilities to be aware contextually of the factors that fashion the dynamic of accompaniment. A person’s ecclesial role may influence the context in which a director commences practice. From this discussion, this study draws conclusions and offers recommendations applicable to practice and research.

In the latter half of the 20th century interreligious dialogue has become a necessary and important feature in human co-existence. This study discusses the dialogue of religious experience. The essentials in this dialogue are mutual understandings of prayer and contemplation as practiced in differing religious and cultural contexts. The dissertation consists of four parts. The first is a survey of missiological theology on interreligious dialogue, contemplation and inculturation in the Catholic Church after the Second Vatican Council. The second part considers initiatives taken in dialogue in the Benedictine Order from early 1960-ties to mid 1990-ties. Attention is given to "East-West Spiritual Exchange" which has taken place regularly between European participants in "Dialogue Interreligieux Monastique" and Zen Buddhists in Japan. The third section focuses on Japan. Three Japanese Catholic theologians are discussed. In efforts to establish theological and pastoral communication with Zen tradition, moving towards an integration of details emerging from Zen practice to Catholic spirituality, the Japanese theologians theologize in a fashion similar to the Benedictines. The final section analyses initiatives in dialogue of religious experience discussed in the thesis. Key concepts draw attention to distinctive characteristics of specific expressions in dialogue, partly in monastic contexts, partly in Japanese contexts. Because the particular form of dialogue presented is an ongoing process which has only recently commenced, no final results in developments can yet be identified. Suffice it to state that initiatives described are new inputs in Catholic missiological study. Both Benedictine and Japanese theologians have in many ways paved the way for official Catholic theology on interreligious dialogue.

Situated within deep history, this study explores the auditory and spiritual lives of Paleolithic women. It considers their personal agency in mediating the spiritual power of sound and how doing so contributes to a multifaceted musicality. The theoretical framework involves a wide spectrum of topics, from ways of rethinking the writing of history and reckoning with time, to sound studies and the study of acoustics in ancient sites, to a critical examination through a feminist lens of normative disciplinary scholarship in anthropology and archaeology, religious studies, and musicology. I explore potential audio-visual-lithic relationships for their implications for deepening an understanding of the spiritual aspects of Paleolithic life. Drawing from this interdisciplinary literature, integrative discussions are constructed which when considered collectively, not only provide different types of role models and different criteria pertaining to women's experiences of music-making, but also facilitate the emergence of a more nuanced understanding of Paleolithic spiritual practices. In this women-centric narrative innumerable generations of women's participation as spiritual healers within the shamanic musical paradigm are acknowledged and valued, broadening the parameters of women's cultural heritage and spiritual experience. This expansion can help women today turn away from a compensatory music history perspective that is oriented toward figuring out how to fit into a prescribed androcentric narrative of Western art music and turn towards a more holistic narrative in which women can better consider their lineage(s) on their own terms. It fosters re-conceptualizations of women's musical and spiritual identities by reorienting the timeline, contexts, and definition of women's experiences of music-making as sound-producers and sound-interpreters. This project is intended to provide one possible starting point for new conversations about women in music regardless of one's positionality. From a more inclusive gynocentric vantage point, the toxic self-perpetuating loop which has affected how musicology has thus far been shaped, namely through the undervaluing of women’s musical experiences and the ways that they think and feel about music, is being contested. Ultimately, it is a matter of ownership.

In this collaborative Craft Master project by Ulrika Barr and Kristina Levén, we have investigated how glass can affect an environment to create a space in between. A “Ma-space” that could offer a pause in the everyday life in relation to the public sphere. We have worked parallel with two expressions of glass in relation to a room. Rocks of Glass casted hot glass together with Foamglas and colors and Veils of Glass- fused window glass in leaded techniques. By using filming as a medium, projections brings out the inner world of the glass. Sound is another layer in the collage installation outcome.The collaboration has been from first idea and intuitive investigations in the workshop to the final installation.The material outcome is a unique expression for this Glass Craft duo called BarroLevén. The written part of the project includes both common and separate parts.<br><p>In collaboration with Ulrika Barr</p>

Als darrers anys s’ha anat fent més explícita la col·laboració entre la psicologia i l’espiritualitat, como ho demostra el creixent interès dels temes convergents dels dos camps. Aquest interès queda reflectit en el desenvolupament de nous models conceptuals i aplicats, que integren als seus plantejaments la dimensió transcendent de la persona –que tradicionalment havia estat considerada des de l’àmbit de l’espiritualitat-. Per un altre costat, cada vegada s’està aprofundint més en l’estudi dels efectes de diferents pràctiques de meditació –procedents de tradicions espirituals-, i en la seva aplicació en contexts psicoterapèutics (vegis per exemple Schreurs, 2004; Wellwood, 2002). En concret, el concepte de mindfulness –que es pot traduir per consciència plena- y que ve del budisme, està sent incorporat en investigacions científiques de camps interdisciplinaris com son les ciències de la salut, les neurociències i les ciències cognitives. L’objectiu d’aquesta tesi és endinsar-se en la vivència espiritual i contribuir en la comprensió dels efectes que aporta la pràctica espiritual. En concret, la tesis es va abordar des de l’estudi de dues pràctiques espirituals de la tradició cristiana: els Exercicis Espirituals de Sant Ignasi de Loyola –una pràctica intensiva d’un mes de durada-, i els Exercicis de Contemplació del jesuïta Franz Jalics, de 8 dies. El mètode desenvolupat fou un anàlisi narratiu exhaustiu en primera persona de les experiències de 10 participants en aquests exercicis. Els resultats trobats es van presentar en forma de mapa conceptual i en macro-categories de significat de l’experiència. Així mateix, un tercer nivell d’anàlisi i d’abstracció va fer sorgir un concepte nuclear al qual denominem Sensibilitat Espiritual, pel que vam proposar una definició a partir de les categories trobades. Com a conclusió, s’apunta cap a una psicologia contemplativa, enfocada a la dimensió espiritual i contemplativa de d’esser humà i dels processos que faciliten aquesta dimensió.<br>En los últimos años se ha ido haciendo más explícita la colaboración entre la psicología y la espiritualidad, como lo demuestra el creciente interés de los temas convergentes entre ambos campos. Este interés queda reflejado en el desarrollo de nuevos modelos conceptuales y aplicados que integran en sus planteamientos la dimensión trascendente de la persona--que tradicionalmente había sido considerada desde el ámbito de la espiritualidad--como ha sido el caso de la psicología transpersonal. Por otro lado, cada vez se está profundizando más en el estudio de los efectos de diferentes prácticas de meditación--procedentes de tradiciones espirituales--así como su aplicación en contextos psicoterapéuticos (véase por ejemplo Schreurs, 2004; Wellwood, 2002). En concreto, el concepto de mindfulness--traducible por conciencia plena--y que procede del budismo está siendo incorporado en investigaciones científicas de campos interdisciplinarios como son las ciencias de la salud, las neurociencias y las ciencias cognitivas. El objetivo de esta tesis es adentrase en la vivencia espiritual, y contribuir en la comprensión de los efectos que aporta la práctica espiritual. En concreto, la tesis se abordó desde el estudio de dos prácticas espirituales de la tradición cristiana : los Ejercicios Espirituales de San Ignacio de Loyola- una práctica intensiva de un mes de duración- y los Ejercicios de Contemplación del jesuita Franz Jalics, de 8 días. El método desarrollado fue un análisis narrativo exhaustivo de las experiencias en primera persona de 10 participantes en dichos ejercicios espirituales. Los resultados hallados se presentaron en forma de mapa conceptual y en macro-categorías de significado de la experiencia. Así mismo, un tercer nivel de análisis y de abstracción, dio lugar a la emergencia de un concepto nuclear al que denominamos Sensibilidad Espiritual, y para el que propusimos una definición a partir de las categorías halladas. Como conclusión se apunta hacia una psicología contemplativa, enfocada hacia la dimensión espiritual y contemplativa del ser humano y de los procesos que facilitan dicha dimensión.<br>For the last years, the collaboration between psychology and spirituality has become more explicit, as it is shown by the growing interest of convergent themes between both fields. This interest is reflected in the development of new conceptual and applied models that integrate in their approach the transcendental dimension of the human being- that had traditionally been considered only by the field of spirituality. Besides, there is a deepening search into the effects of different meditation practices, coming from spiritual traditions, and its application in psychotherapeutic contexts (e.g. Schreurs, 2004; Wellwood, 2002). Specifically, the concept of mindfulness--that originally comes from Buddhism-- is being incorporated in scientific research of inter-disciplinar fields such as the health sciences, neurosciences and cognitive sciences. The goal of this thesis is to study thoroughly in the lived spiritual experience, and to contribute to the understanding of the effects that the spiritual practice brings forth. Specifically, the thesis addressed the study of two spiritual practices from the Christian tradition. The Spiritual Exercises of Saint Ignatius of Loyola--an intensive month-long practice--and the Contemplative Retreat of the Jesuit Franz Jalics. The method employed a detailed narrative analysis of the first person accounts of 10 participants in the mentioned spiritual practices. The findings were presented in the form of conceptual map and in macro-categories of the meaning of the experience. Likewise, a third level of analysis and abstraction brought up the emergence of a nuclear concept that we called Spiritual Sensitivity, and to which we proposed a definition based on the categories previously found. As a conclusion, we point to the emergence of a contemplative psychology, focused on the spiritual and contemplative dimension of the human being and on the processes that facilitate this dimension.

Dans un contexte de crises et d’innovations sociales, et dans un monde d’interdépendance croissante, nous avons voulu savoir de quelle manière le processus de croissance spirituelle contribuait au développement d’une conscience postconventionnelle et transpersonnelle chez les acteurs de changement. Cette recherche est le résultat d’un travail de comparaison des corpus de trois auteurs qui se sont intéressés à notre objet d’étude, qui se distinguent par leur approche pragmatique et qui ont développé une démarche intégrant la dimension spirituelle pour répondre aux besoins de leurs contemporains – Thérèse d’Avila en théologie spirituelle à l’époque de la Renaissance, Karlfried Graf Dürckheim en psychologie transpersonnelle pendant le XXe siècle et Otto Scharmer en leadership dans la période actuelle de la modernité avancée. Précisons que les travaux de Scharmer reposent sur 150 entrevues avec des innovateurs provenant de divers milieux organisationnels. Notre méthodologie comportait trois stratégies d’analyse des données, – l’analyse par questionnement analytique, l’analyse à l’aide des catégories conceptualisantes et l’analyse par théorisation –, mettant en lumière divers niveaux de compréhension, le disciplinaire et l’interdisciplinaire. De façon générale, les résultats de notre recherche montrent que les trois auteurs qui s’inscrivent dans des disciplines et des périodes historiques différentes convergent, ce qui démontre notre hypothèse de départ. Les trois auteurs se comparent, sont complémentaires et fournissent un éclairage nouveau pour mieux comprendre le phénomène étudié qui est récurrent et se reproduit dans l’histoire humaine. Ainsi, le travail d’intégration argumentative et de modélisation a permis de croiser les regards disciplinaires sur notre objet d’étude. Nous avons mis en lumière la structure commune chez les trois auteurs, à savoir que le développement de la conscience des acteurs de changement en innovation sociale se situe à l’intérieur d’un processus de croissance spirituelle qui s’organise autour de trois grands axes : un diagnostic de la condition humaine, une anthropologie de la personne en quête d’intégration et une démarche spirituelle vers le centre de son être. En outre, ces trois axes constitutifs du processus de croissance spirituelle reposent sur sept arguments principaux et ses composantes qui ont émergé au terme d’un long processus exploratoire et créatif. Le diagnostic comprend : 1) le contexte culturel : rupture instauratrice; conscientisation; évolution spirituelle; 2) l’action humaine : combat et quête de sens; intériorisation; vocation. L’anthropologie implique : 3) la désappropriation de soi : Sagesse pratique; transformation vivifiante; maître intérieur; 4) une unité harmonieuse : âme et corps; attitude corporelle juste; facultés de l’âme. La démarche regroupe : 5) le chemin en trois phases : processus d’intégration de sa vie relationnelle; 6) le but et les mouvements : mouvements circulaire, en spirale ou en U vers l’union avec le centre de son être; 7) la méthode et les moyens : pratique du silence, des vertus et dans la vie quotidienne. Chacun de ces éléments fondamentaux et ses composantes contribuent au développement d’une conscience postconventionnelle et transpersonnelle chez les acteurs de changement en innovation sociale.

Sanctae modernae in diebus nostris? - Hagiographische Konzeptionen weiblicher vita religiosa im Umfeld der Mendikanten Die Dissertationsschrift ergründet die Entwürfe weiblicher Heiligkeit im Umfeld der Bettelorden. Die Frauenviten der Mendikanten boten sich für eine vergleichende Untersuchung an, da sie eine hagiographische Neuheit darstellten, insofern ein Großteil der verehrten Frauen Laien waren. In Anbetracht dessen, dass die Mendikanten einen erheblichen Beitrag zur Moralisierung der mittelalterlichen Gesellschaft und zur Verbreitung kirchlicher Ordnungs- und Normierungskonzepte geleistet haben, wurde ich von der Frage geleitet, ob sich mit den Bettelorden die Funktion der Hagiographie gewandelt hat, so dass sie stärker als zuvor zur sittlichen Besserung der Gläubigen eingesetzt wurde. Die Untersuchung der weiblichen Heiligenviten der Mendikanten hat gezeigt, dass die Aussageabsichten der Texte jeweils andere waren und die Schriften, um mit Gert Melville (Geltungsgeschichten) zu sprechen, sehr „differente Funktionen der Legitimierung, der Konsolidierung, der Integration und Abgrenzung“ einnahmen, was zu recht unterschiedlichen „Ausgestaltungen der für relevant angesehenen Vergangenheitspartien“ geführt hat. Um die Texte dennoch vergleichen zu können, habe ich sie in Gruppen unterteilt, entsprechend ihrer im Text dominierenden Funktionsweise : ♦ Viten in denen die paränetische Funktion im Vordergrund steht ♦ Viten in denen die Rechtfertigung einer bestimmten Lebensweise im Vordergrund steht ♦ Viten mit prestigestiftender Funktion ♦ Multifunktionale Viten Für die weitere Forschung ist es ratsam, sich nur einem dieser Typen zuzuwenden. Für die Betrachtung der paränetischen Viten wäre ein Vergleich mit der entsprechenden Predigtliteratur deutlich aufschlussreicher. Der Dominikaner Thomas von Cantimpré, der sich mit jedem Satz seiner Werke als Seelsorger zu erkennen gibt, gehört zu den am besten untersuchten Hagiographen heiliger Frauen. Bislang galten seine Werke als typische Beispiele mendikantischer Vitenschreibung. Dies war auch der Grund, dass die Dissertationsschrift mit ihm bzw. dem in seinem Umfeld wirkenden Jakob von Vitry einsetzt. Die vergleichende Untersuchung aller weiblichen Heiligenviten zeigt, dass Thomas im 13. Jahrhundert noch eine Ausnahmeerscheinung war, da die Werke in denen die Paränese im Vordergrund steht, nur einen Teil der hagiographischen Lebensbeschreibungen betrifft. Fazit: Auch im Zeitalter der Bettelorden erfüllte die Textsorte vor allem klassische Funktionen, indem sie in erster Linie der Andacht und Heilsvergewisserung diente, darüber hinaus jedoch auch ganz pragmatische Absichten verfolgte. Dynastische Interessen trugen ebenso wie innerklösterliche Probleme, kirchliche Anordnungen (Klausurierung weiblicher Religioser, Verurteilung der häretischen Spiritualen), ordensinterne Bestimmungen (beispielsweise solche, die regelten, wie mit der cura monialium zu verfahren sei) oder wichtige politische Ereignisse (die Auseinandersetzungen zwischen Guelfen und Ghibellinen in Florenz) zur Entstehung der Schriften bei. In Hinblick auf die bedeutende Rolle die das Papsttum, einzelne Dynastien, Kommunen oder Klöster bei der Abfassung einer Vita gespielt haben, glaube ich, dass es sich bei den jeweiligen Heiligkeitkonzeptionen mehr um zeittypische oder auch regionale Phänomene (Modeerscheinungen) den originär mendikantische Heiligkeitskonzeptionen handelt. Die in den Heiligenviten präsentierten Leitideen sowie die Art der Darstellung richteten sich vor allem nach der Funktion der Texte bzw. danach für wen (welche Rezipienten) die Werke bestimmt waren. So ist der laikale Rezipientenkreis der Grund dafür, dass sich die meisten Elisabethviten durch eine leicht verständliche Ausdrucksweise und ein klares Heiligenbild auszeichnen. Wohingegen die Werke des Thomas von Cantimpré, der sich als Novizenmeister zunächst an seine eigenen Mitbrüder richtet, einem komplexen Aufbau folgen und kunstvoll stilisiert sind. Einfluss auf die Gestaltung der Schriften hatten außerdem die sehr unterschiedlichen biographischen Hintergründe der Hagiographen. Denn der hochrangige Ordensvertreter und Vertraute der Kurie betätigte sich ebenso als Vitenautor (Jakob von Vitry und Konrad von Marburg waren Kreuzzugsprediger, Konrad überdies Inquisitor, Thomas von Cantimpré war Lektor, Thomas von Celano war der erste offizielle Ordenschronist des Franziskanerordens, Dietrich von Apolda war der Hagiograph des heiligen Dominikus) wie der politisch unbedeutende Bruder, den nicht sein Orden, sondern die persönliche intensive Beziehung zur Beichttochter zum Schreiben trieb. Neben dem unterschiedlichen Bildungsgrad der Autoren wirkten sich außerdem die starken regionalen Unterschiede auf die Qualität der Texte aus. So hatte das Verfassen von Heiligenviten in Brabant eine lange Tradition, während es in Ungarn etwas völlig Neues war. Auch regionale Besonderheiten hatten Einfluss auf die thematische Aufbereitung der Schriften. So kam dem Bußgedanken wie auch der Seelenrettung aus dem Fegefeuer in den brabanter Schriften besondere Bedeutung zu, was auf die regionale Nähe zur Pariser Universität zurückzuführen ist, an der damals genau jene Themen diskutiert wurden. Als weiteres Ergebnis der Untersuchung ist somit festzuhalten, dass die in den Frauenviten der Bettelorden aufgezeigten Leitideen mehr über die Rezipienten und Autoren aussagen, als über die Heiligen, die sie beschreiben. Dieser Befund widerlegt die in der Frauen- und Mentalitätsforschung gängige These, wonach die Frauenviten typisch weibliche Frömmigkeitsformen darstellen. Für die Beurteilung der Texte ist es vielmehr entscheidend, ob sie für ein laikales, monastisches oder klerikales Publikum verfasst wurden.

Saint Teresa of Jesus, the Spanish mystic of 16th century and the Carmelite order reformer presents the doctrine of internal prayer and all its stages in her works based on own personal experience of life with the God. The intention of this work is to analyze Teresa's mystical path as a process of spiritual life with various stages of transformation. It will deal with what it means to be united with the God for the human life in Teresa's conception. It will also submit how Teresa's doctrine of mystical path has been reflected in the Czech environment since 1900 to the present, respectively by Czech authors and by foreign authors of whose works were translated into the Czech language. The work will be based on the concrete text of Interior Castle, in which Teresa represents the soul with number of dwelling places. The structure will be defined by single dwelling places, which are considered the ascetic and mystical stages of the prayer. The work itself, the Interior Castle, will be introduced together with the first to third ascetic dwelling places which had been the subject of previous bachelor's work. The mystical stages of the prayer, which are represented by fourth to seventh dwelling places, will create the main part of the thesis. The reflections of various authors are considered as the...

Text in Afrikaans<br>In this qualitative research study the landscape of the age-old tradition of contemplative spirituality within the context of the reformed tradition was investigated. An empirical study was done to determine the pastoral needs and experiences of Afrikaans speaking believers from the reformed tradition, involved in contemplative spirituality. Questionnaires and qualitative interviews were used for this purpose. The research path has been further shaped by social construction theory as a postmodern approach. This study was born out of my own discovery of the healing qualities of contemplative spirituality and secondly due to the growing demand among Afrikaans speaking reformed believers for exposure to the disciplines of contemplative spirituality. Little research is available on this topic and is it the hope of this research to open new conversations about contemplative spirituality in the Afrikaans reformed tradition.<br>Practical Theology<br>M. Th. (Praktiese Teologie)

Either relational contact with God is seen to be existentially attainable or God will become increasingly irrelevant to contemporary society. For Church identity and effectiveness as she serves the world, it is vital that God's initiating power can be seen to impact on this world. As response to fourteen symptoms the Church faces as 'crises,' an inclusive hermeneutic seeks fresh categories for a foundational spirituality capable of catalysing reform and transformation. This comprehensive foundational hermeneutic hypothesised is grounded on three foundational categories of experience, relationality and spiritual intuition. Any reception of such transcendence has to occur subjectively ‘in experience.’ Evasive as it is, experience is posited as a foundational category that needs to be rehabilitated through fundamental philosophy and theology, as well as interdisciplinary explorations. It will be shown that the challenges facing the contemporary Church are rooted in lost experience of transcendence. However the entry point experience provides is never to become narcissistically selfreferential but aims to establish a reciprocal relationship in faith. As an overarching category, dynamic relationality will need to be socially transformative. The deep 'God-person' relational mode, as it synthesises both human capacities and spiritual faculties, is experienced interiorly and as such is called spiritual intuition. It is argued that the notion of, and capacity for, intuition has been widely ignored and eroded. It is demonstrated that a 'reasonable intuition' is a more synthetic faculty 'naturally' open to illumination and infusion by the Spirit than an excessive traditional Church reliance on the workings of reason-intellect. Here the witness of the life of St Francis of Assisi allows simpler and accessible entry into the categories of affective experience and spiritual intuition under overarching relationality. Francis as model, when compared to other Saints, substantiates the three foundational categories. The conclusion chapter tests the foundational theory as it is applied to the fourteen challenges the Church faces. The results of this study, and its applications, offer a promising, fruitful humble metaphysic as 'solution' for the ‘Church in the world’ much in line with Pope Francis' recent approaches.<br>Christian Spirituality, Church History & Missiology<br>D. Th. (Christian Spirituality)

This study sets out to determine whether Teresa of Ávila's spirituality, especially her treatise, The Interior Castle, can still provide an appropriate guide for the journey to God in the world of the 21st century. This remarkable book offers a particularly unique contribution to Christian literature. To accomplish this goal, a study of the nature of Christian Spirituality is undertaken, followed by a brief history of Christian spirituality. This provides a backdrop for an examination of the historical setting against which the Interior Castle was written. The study then explores the seven mansions of the Interior Castle to gain an understanding of the journey to God and examines some of the most important and recurring themes in the book. The stages and forms of prayer which are central to the Interior Castle are discussed and the mystical experiences of the 'dark night of the spirit' and union with God are analysed. Lastly, the findings are evaluated to ascertain whether Teresa's writings are still relevant in this contemporary era for those embarking upon the journey towards God.<br>Christian Spirituality, Church History and Missiology<br>M. Th. (Christian Spirituality)

Ce mémoire s’intéresse aux scènes de danse de trois films du réalisateur hongrois Béla Tarr afin d’en dégager une esthétique du temps. L’analyse des films sera précédée d’une recherche sur la philosophie du temps, centrée autour de l’œuvre Temps et récit de Paul Ricœur, dans laquelle le temps humain est décrit comme un temps raconté. Retraçant sa pensée, nous définirons l’éternité telle qu’exprimée chez Augustin, indissociable d’une expérience spirituelle. Nous examinerons ensuite différents enjeux de l’histoire de la danse au cinéma touchant au récit, à l’attraction et à la spiritualité. Ces recherches préliminaires permettront d’articuler notre analyse entre philosophie et esthétique, et de décrire une temporalité à la fois exprimée intellectuellement par les films et vécue par le spectateur ou la spectatrice. La danse, en construisant un temps de l’immanence qui s’oppose au régime narratif, invite à la contemplation et ouvre sur une expérience ayant des affinités avec la conception augustinienne de l’éternité.<br>This master’s thesis focuses on the dance scenes from three films by the Hungarian director Béla Tarr, in order to flesh out an aesthetic of time. The films’ analysis will be preceded by a research on the philosophy of time, centered around Paul Ricœur’s work Time and Narrative, in which the human time is described as a narrated time. Tracing his thought, we will define the notion of eternity as conceived by Augustine that is inseparable from a spiritual experience. We will then examine different issues of the history of dance in cinema concerning narrative, attraction and spirituality. This preliminary research will let us articulate our analysis between philosophy and aesthetic in order to describe a temporality expressed both intellectually in the films and lived by the viewer. Dance, while constructing a time of immanence that opposes the narrative regime, invites contemplation and opens an experience that is compatible with the Augustinian conception of eternity.

This dissertation suggests the Song of Songs as a biblical paradigm for Christian spiritual direction based on the poem’s human dynamics, theological poetics and mystical aesthetic. The Song of Songs is paradigmatic as a journey from a state of self-neglect (depletion), through dynamic encounters of love (transformation), to living who I am in union with the divine I AM (deification). Identifying the human beloved as archetypal seeker and positing transformation in love as the raison-d’être for spiritual direction, the research delineates important implications for spiritual praxis, namely: the human subject (locus); human yearning (focus); the human search (journey); dynamics of human transformation and spiritual maturation (process); aspects of life-integration and union with God (purpose); and becoming a living sacrament in the world (epiphany). With its experiential-existential approach, The Canticle of Spiritual Direction serves as an interdisciplinary and intercultural resource on the Song of Songs, Christian spiritual direction, and Christian mysticism.<br>Christian Spirituality, Church History & Missiology<br>M. Th. (Christian Spirituality)

My dissertation traces the contemporary American assimilation of Asian enlightenment traditions and discourses. Through a close reading of three communities, I consider how Asian traditions and ideas have been refracted through the psychological, political, and economic lenses of American culture. One of my chapters, for example, discusses how the American Insight community has attempted to integrate the enlightenment teachings of Theravada Buddhism with the humanistic, democratic, and pluralistic values of the European Enlightenment. A second chapter traces the American gum Andrew Cohen's transformation from a Neo-Advaita teacher to a leading proponent of "evolutionary enlightenment," a teaching that places traditional Indian understandings of nonduality in an evolutionary context. Cohen's early period shows the further deinstitutionalization of traditional Advaita Vedanta within the radically decontextualized Neo-Advaitin network, and evolutionary enlightenment engages and popularizes another less-known but influential Hindu lineage, namely that of Sri Aurobindo's integral yoga. a A third chapter examines contemporary psychospiritual attempts to incorporate psychoanalytic theory into Asian philosophy in order to reconcile American concerns with individual development with Asian mystical goals of self-transcendence. In conclusion, I argue that the contemporary American assimilation of Asian enlightenment traditions is marked by a number of trends including: (I) a move away from the rhetoric and privileging of experience that scholars such as Robert Sharf have shown to be characteristic of the modem Western understanding of Asian mysticism; and (2) an embrace of world-affirming Tantric forms of Asian spirituality over world-negating renouncer traditions such as Theravada Buddhism and Advaita Vedanta. I also reflect on how the cultural shift from the modem to postmodern has affected East-West integrative spiritualities.

Through centuries of Christian theology, prayer has held an important role in theology and the ministerial vocation. However, foundational literature on Protestant theological education for ministry does not offer a clear role for the practice of prayer in the theological classroom. In order to explore the relationship between theology and prayer in the context of theological education, this dissertation first explores the wider conversation around prayer in theology, the ministerial vocation, spirituality studies, and theological education. Second, it analyzes the role of prayer in foundational texts that have influenced and continue to influence the Protestant theological education conversation. Third, in order to gain a deeper understanding of how a practice of prayer functions within a theological framework, this dissertation analyzes three Protestant theologians for the relationship between theology and prayer. Fourth, by placing the analysis of the theological education texts, theologians, and voices from practical theology, spirituality, and contemplative studies into conversation, this dissertation offers a proposal for how prayer can function within a theological classroom. Chapter one draws upon multiple voices across theological traditions within Christianity and argues for the importance of prayer in the work of theology and in the ministerial vocation. It provides an overview of the role of prayer within practical theological methods and theological education, and also explores the split between theology and spirituality. Chapter two analyzes seven foundational texts discussing Protestant graduate ministerial theological education for the role of prayer. Chapters three, four, and five explore the writings of three Protestant theologians--Karl Barth, Eugene Peterson, and Marjorie Suchocki--for how their understanding and practice of prayer functions within their respective theological frameworks, and what their under-standings offer to theological education for ministry. Chapter six places these theologians into conversation with scholars in spirituality studies, practical theology, and scholars from the new field of contemplative studies in order to offer a contemplative pedagogical framework. Using a four-movement dynamic based on lectio divina, the flexible framework balances four modes of attention: first person introspective reflection, second person dialogic prayer, third person objective investigation, and attentive rest.

In this study the author investigates the nature of compassion, ways of developing compassion within ourselves, and ways of bringing compassion into schools. The author sees an imbalance and disconnection in the current Ontario public school system, between education of the mind (to have) and education of the heart (to be). This is demonstrated in the heightening violence in schools, because violence in schools means that students do not feel connected to and are not happy in their schools. To accomplish this purpose, the author explores the different ways we can connect—within ourselves, with classroom subjects, with students in the school, and with the community at large—through life stories of four holistic educators, including herself. Three have taught in Buddhist, Waldorf, and Montessori schools, which all foster compassion not only through empathy, caring, and love, but also through emotional and moral components of heart education, such as intuition, creativity, imagination, joy (Miller, 2006), and moral education (Noddings, 1992). The enquiry uses qualitative research and narrative method that includes portraiture and arts-based enquiry. The findings in the participants’ narratives reveal that compassion comprises spirituality, empathy, and caring. We can develop compassion through contemplation in an awareness of interconnection between the I and the Other. In conclusion, we can foster compassion in schools if we use holistic education’s basic principles of balance, inclusion, and connection (Miller, 1981, 1993, 1994, 1999, 2000, 2006, 2007, 2010), and if we bring in different ways of fostering compassion that the author has explored through four holistic teachers’ narratives in this study. By nurturing and connecting to students’ hearts, rather than forcing knowledge into their heads, it is possible to create schools where students are happy and feel connected to their learning.

This thesis explores the significance of contemporary Christian spirituality for authentic Christian ministry. To this end an extensive survey of contemporary academic literature is conducted. The research bears in mind the almost unprecedented contemporary interest in `spirituality,' both for academics and laypersons alike, and presupposes the need to redefine and understand spirituality for our times. The study yields the finding that contemporary academic spirituality contributes a newfound authenticity to Christian ministry. Spirituality achieves such authenticity for ministry through highlighting and realising a number of outstanding features. These features include: a new global awareness, and an appreciation of spiritual diversity; a `this-worldly' embodiment or `materialism' as integral to spirituality; a rediscovery of the experiential dimension of ministry; a re-awakening of the contemplative spirit as permeative of every dimension of life and activity, and a new inter-disciplinary appreciation of the metaphors, means and stages for spiritual formation and maturation. The hermeneutically sound and convincing contribution of spirituality is ascribed to its growing academic credibility, its utilisation of its own historical tradition and documented experience, and its discriminative deployment of postmodernism's amenability to Christian spirituality. Finally, the thesis is not concerned with distilling practical ministerial activities from spirituality. It strives, rather, for an understanding of ministry at the ontological level, where self-understanding, vocational awareness and a desire for God realise the essence and dynamic of ministry.<br>Christian Spirituality, Church History and Missiology<br>Thesis (D.Th.)

English abstract The present dissertation Spirituality of Presence: the Significance of R. Voillaume s Work focuses on the life and work of R. Voillaume (1905-2003). His work is understood as spirituality of presence , or to be more precise of double presence: presence to God and presence to man. After the introductory part dealing with Voillaume s life, historical context and a survey of his work, the dissertation continues with an analysis of his literary work. The main theme is a relecture of Foucauld s spirituality of Nazareth in the light of the mentioned concept of presence: the hidden and silent presence in the midst of men refers not only to the significance of hidden life in Catholic spirituality, it also points out to the deep openness to the situation of modern man and to the search of an authentic Christian life as a life of presence trying to make the life of faith accessible to a contemporary man in a creative and nonconformist way. The conclusion puts Foucauldian spirituality (whose main interpreter is R. Voillaume) into the context of Catholic spirituality and confronts his spirituality of presence with the findings of biblical theology. Theoretically, the dissertation combines personalistic and systematic approaches. Voillaume s work is understood as a major manifestation of Catholic...

Includes bibliographical references (leaves 254-281)<br>Using a text-immanent multi-dimensional methodology that combines impulses from both synchronic and diachronic reading of a text, this study focuses on understanding the spirituality embedded in ‘seeing him as he is’ in 1 John 3:2. Discourse analysis has provided the structure of the entire research by identifying the different semantic networks that enhance better understanding and dynamic interaction between text and reader.it has also helped in determining the argument and rhetoric of the Elder, assisting in constructing the bigger picture by means of semantic networks that create coherent mind maps and also relating what has been read with what is still to be read. The environs of the pericope under investigation have been used as a backdrop in order to arrive at an understanding of this envisaged eschatological phenomenon. These environs include the window provided by Judaism through the Old Testament, Hellenistic and Palestinian Judaism, extra-biblical literature, the Graeco-Roman world, mystery religions, philosophies, and the New Testament. These environs have pointed to the use of intermediaries in the visio-Dei. While ‘seeing him as he is’ in 1 John 3:2 involves both the Father and the Son, this eschatological expectation is weaved into a matrix of discourse that the Elder used to cushion the adherents in view of the pending apostasy. The adherents’ status as ‘children of God’ is the axis from which the Elder builds his entire discourse. They will experience love (1 Jn 4:16), his purity (1 Jn 3:3), his righteousness (1 Jn 2:1), his truth (1 Jn 5:20), and his glory (Jn 17:24). Although the adherents were already experiencing all these, it would be experienced completely after the Parousia, when they ‘see him as he is’. This study contributes towards a Johannine understanding of perceiving the divine, and reveals the climactic involvement of the Son in both the past and future perceptions including ‘seeing him as he is’ in 1 John 3:2. This study has identified the object of the Visio-Dei as Christ. It is He through whom believers will see the Father.<br>Christian Spirituality, Church History and Missiology<br>D. Phil. (Christian Spirituality)

Towards a Franciscan model of Clinical pastoral supervision is a study of interaction between two movements: Clinical Pastoral Education (CPE) and Franciscan Spirituality. Francis and Clare were the primary founders of the Franciscan movement and Franciscan spirituality arose from their reflections on their unique response of following Christ. From the early Franciscan sources, essential elements are retrieved. Compassion is illustrated as a key quality of this model through textual analysis of four stories of Francis and his early followers. Clinical Pastoral Education is a result of the contributions of three founders: Keller, Cabot and Boisen. Clinical pastoral supervision (CPS) is a distinguishing concept of CPE. Various models of CPS are categorised according to three paradigms of western society: classical, modern and postmodern. The study concludes by framing a Franciscan model of clinical pastoral supervision. Contemplation and compassion are the two Franciscan characteristics which give this model a unique Franciscan dimension.<br>New Testament<br>M.Th.

The purpose of this qualitative research study, which utilizes a phenomenological inquiry method, is to inquire into the awareness of what it means to be a whole teacher from the perspective of the philosophy of Jiddu Krishnamurti, a philosopher/spiritual teacher. Four participants (teachers) were interviewed from the Oak Grove School, an alternative, holistic school founded by Krishnamurti in 1974. This inquiry probed into teachers’ thinking, teachers’ lives, teachers’ inner lives, teachers’ contemplative practices, teachers’ calling/vocation and teachers’ pedagogy. The findings of this inquiry reveal the awareness that exists among the participants with regards to their understanding of Krishnamurti’s educational philosophy and the way in which this philosophy has shaped their lives and the lives of their students (both implicit- ly and explicitly) The findings from this research further show that Krishnamurti’s philosophy has certainly had an impact on the participants’ wholeness. Krishnamurti was never interested in imposing his philosophy on the teachers to think in a narrow groove. Rather, he challenged them to arrive at wholeness or a holistic approach towards living by their own volition, by putting aside all philosophy, including his own. This research points towards the possible ways in which wholeness can be developed using: Innate wisdom (teachers’ inner life, teachers’ calling); wisdom gained through experiencing life (teachers’ life, teachers’ thinking); wisdom gained through their teaching experience (teachers’ pedagogy) and wisdom gained through practices that bring harmony to the mind, body and spirit (teachers’ contemplative approaches). An experiential model titled, The Flower Model: An Experiential Metaphor – which integrates the three stages of awareness – was developed using Krishnamurti’s approach towards wholeness. This model can be used to guide teachers with their respective psychological conditionings that reside or exist in their thinking, lives, inner lives, contemplative practices, vocation and pedagogy/curriculum design.

The meaning of loss is love. I know this through attention to experience. Whether loss or love is experienced in abundance or in absence, the meaning is mystical with an opening of body, mind, heart and soul to spirit. And so, in the style of a memoir, in the way of contemplative prayer, I contemplate and share my soul as a promise kept in the mystical reach through loss. With the first, initiating loss, the loss of my nine-year-old nephew, Caleb, I experience an epiphany that gives me spiritual instructions that will not be ignored. I experience loss as an abundance of meaning that comes to me as gnosis, as “knowledge of the heart” according to Elaine Pagels or divine revelation in what Evelyn Underhill calls mystical illumination in the experience of “losing-to-find” in union with the divine. Then, with gnostic import, in leaving the ordinary for the extraordinary, I enter the empty room in the painful yet liberating experience of the loss of my self. In the embrace of emptiness, I proceed to the first wall, the second wall, the third wall, the dark corner of denial, the return to centre, and, finally, to breaking the fourth wall in the empty room so as to keep my promise to you. Who are “you”? You are God. You are Caleb. You are spirit. You are my higher soul or self. And, you are the reader. You are my dear companion in silence. And then, through a series of broken promises and more loss, within what John of the Cross calls, “the dark night of the soul,” I am stopped by the ineffability of the dark corner of denial, the horror of separation and the absence of meaning, which is depicted as the grueling gap between the spiritual abyss and the breakthrough. What does it mean to keep going through a solemn succession of losses? I don’t know. In going into the empty room, I simply put pain to work in order to reach you. Through loss, though there are infinite manifestations, there is only one way: keep going. And so, in a triumph of the spirit, I keep going so as to be: a promise kept in the mystical reach through loss. As for you, through my illumined and dark experiences of loss, what is my promise to you? I keep going to reach the unreachable you. In the loss of self, with embodied emptiness, in going into the dark corner of denial, with a return to the divine centre of my emptied self, in an invitation to you, I give my soul to you in union with you.<br>Graduate<br>2020-06-25

Sanctae modernae in diebus nostris? - Hagiographische Konzeptionen weiblicher vita religiosa im Umfeld der Mendikanten Die Dissertationsschrift ergründet die Entwürfe weiblicher Heiligkeit im Umfeld der Bettelorden. Die Frauenviten der Mendikanten boten sich für eine vergleichende Untersuchung an, da sie eine hagiographische Neuheit darstellten, insofern ein Großteil der verehrten Frauen Laien waren. In Anbetracht dessen, dass die Mendikanten einen erheblichen Beitrag zur Moralisierung der mittelalterlichen Gesellschaft und zur Verbreitung kirchlicher Ordnungs- und Normierungskonzepte geleistet haben, wurde ich von der Frage geleitet, ob sich mit den Bettelorden die Funktion der Hagiographie gewandelt hat, so dass sie stärker als zuvor zur sittlichen Besserung der Gläubigen eingesetzt wurde. Die Untersuchung der weiblichen Heiligenviten der Mendikanten hat gezeigt, dass die Aussageabsichten der Texte jeweils andere waren und die Schriften, um mit Gert Melville (Geltungsgeschichten) zu sprechen, sehr „differente Funktionen der Legitimierung, der Konsolidierung, der Integration und Abgrenzung“ einnahmen, was zu recht unterschiedlichen „Ausgestaltungen der für relevant angesehenen Vergangenheitspartien“ geführt hat. Um die Texte dennoch vergleichen zu können, habe ich sie in Gruppen unterteilt, entsprechend ihrer im Text dominierenden Funktionsweise : ♦ Viten in denen die paränetische Funktion im Vordergrund steht ♦ Viten in denen die Rechtfertigung einer bestimmten Lebensweise im Vordergrund steht ♦ Viten mit prestigestiftender Funktion ♦ Multifunktionale Viten Für die weitere Forschung ist es ratsam, sich nur einem dieser Typen zuzuwenden. Für die Betrachtung der paränetischen Viten wäre ein Vergleich mit der entsprechenden Predigtliteratur deutlich aufschlussreicher. Der Dominikaner Thomas von Cantimpré, der sich mit jedem Satz seiner Werke als Seelsorger zu erkennen gibt, gehört zu den am besten untersuchten Hagiographen heiliger Frauen. Bislang galten seine Werke als typische Beispiele mendikantischer Vitenschreibung. Dies war auch der Grund, dass die Dissertationsschrift mit ihm bzw. dem in seinem Umfeld wirkenden Jakob von Vitry einsetzt. Die vergleichende Untersuchung aller weiblichen Heiligenviten zeigt, dass Thomas im 13. Jahrhundert noch eine Ausnahmeerscheinung war, da die Werke in denen die Paränese im Vordergrund steht, nur einen Teil der hagiographischen Lebensbeschreibungen betrifft. Fazit: Auch im Zeitalter der Bettelorden erfüllte die Textsorte vor allem klassische Funktionen, indem sie in erster Linie der Andacht und Heilsvergewisserung diente, darüber hinaus jedoch auch ganz pragmatische Absichten verfolgte. Dynastische Interessen trugen ebenso wie innerklösterliche Probleme, kirchliche Anordnungen (Klausurierung weiblicher Religioser, Verurteilung der häretischen Spiritualen), ordensinterne Bestimmungen (beispielsweise solche, die regelten, wie mit der cura monialium zu verfahren sei) oder wichtige politische Ereignisse (die Auseinandersetzungen zwischen Guelfen und Ghibellinen in Florenz) zur Entstehung der Schriften bei. In Hinblick auf die bedeutende Rolle die das Papsttum, einzelne Dynastien, Kommunen oder Klöster bei der Abfassung einer Vita gespielt haben, glaube ich, dass es sich bei den jeweiligen Heiligkeitkonzeptionen mehr um zeittypische oder auch regionale Phänomene (Modeerscheinungen) den originär mendikantische Heiligkeitskonzeptionen handelt. Die in den Heiligenviten präsentierten Leitideen sowie die Art der Darstellung richteten sich vor allem nach der Funktion der Texte bzw. danach für wen (welche Rezipienten) die Werke bestimmt waren. So ist der laikale Rezipientenkreis der Grund dafür, dass sich die meisten Elisabethviten durch eine leicht verständliche Ausdrucksweise und ein klares Heiligenbild auszeichnen. Wohingegen die Werke des Thomas von Cantimpré, der sich als Novizenmeister zunächst an seine eigenen Mitbrüder richtet, einem komplexen Aufbau folgen und kunstvoll stilisiert sind. Einfluss auf die Gestaltung der Schriften hatten außerdem die sehr unterschiedlichen biographischen Hintergründe der Hagiographen. Denn der hochrangige Ordensvertreter und Vertraute der Kurie betätigte sich ebenso als Vitenautor (Jakob von Vitry und Konrad von Marburg waren Kreuzzugsprediger, Konrad überdies Inquisitor, Thomas von Cantimpré war Lektor, Thomas von Celano war der erste offizielle Ordenschronist des Franziskanerordens, Dietrich von Apolda war der Hagiograph des heiligen Dominikus) wie der politisch unbedeutende Bruder, den nicht sein Orden, sondern die persönliche intensive Beziehung zur Beichttochter zum Schreiben trieb. Neben dem unterschiedlichen Bildungsgrad der Autoren wirkten sich außerdem die starken regionalen Unterschiede auf die Qualität der Texte aus. So hatte das Verfassen von Heiligenviten in Brabant eine lange Tradition, während es in Ungarn etwas völlig Neues war. Auch regionale Besonderheiten hatten Einfluss auf die thematische Aufbereitung der Schriften. So kam dem Bußgedanken wie auch der Seelenrettung aus dem Fegefeuer in den brabanter Schriften besondere Bedeutung zu, was auf die regionale Nähe zur Pariser Universität zurückzuführen ist, an der damals genau jene Themen diskutiert wurden. Als weiteres Ergebnis der Untersuchung ist somit festzuhalten, dass die in den Frauenviten der Bettelorden aufgezeigten Leitideen mehr über die Rezipienten und Autoren aussagen, als über die Heiligen, die sie beschreiben. Dieser Befund widerlegt die in der Frauen- und Mentalitätsforschung gängige These, wonach die Frauenviten typisch weibliche Frömmigkeitsformen darstellen. Für die Beurteilung der Texte ist es vielmehr entscheidend, ob sie für ein laikales, monastisches oder klerikales Publikum verfasst wurden.:1. Einleitung 7 1.1. Fragestellung und Erkenntnisziel 9 1.2. Die Heiligenviten als Quellen 10 1.3. Der Weg der bisherigen Forschung 12 A In Bezug auf die hagiographischen Quellen 12 B Speziell zu den Frauenviten 15 C Die Frauenviten und die weibliche vita religiosa in der historischen Ordensforschung 20 1.4. Aufbau der Arbeit 23 1.5. Zeitlicher Rahmen der Untersuchung 24 2. Einstieg ins Thema 24 2.1. Heiligkeitskonzeptionen im Wandel der Geschichte 24 2.2. Apokalyptische Zustände in Kirche und Welt und die Hoffnung auf Erneuerung- Der geschichtliche Kontext der Untersuchung Die Herausbildung der Moraltheologie und ihr Einfluss auf die Bußbewegung 27 Die Einbindung der Laien in die Kirchenhierachie – Die Bestätigung der Humiliaten 31 Die Anfänge der Franziskaner und Dominikaner – Zwei unterschiedliche mendikantische Lebensformen 33 Büßer, Beginen und Terziaren – Der Versuch ihrer Regulierung 34 Pastorale Neuerungen – Die Voraussetzungen für die Ausbreitung des Bußideals 36 Das Ziel der Mendikanten – Die Erneuerung von Kirche und Gesellschaft 38 3. Das hagiographische Vokabular: Jakob von Vitry und seine Vita für die Begine Maria von Oignies (1215) 39 3.1. Zum Leben und den Schriften des Jakob von Vitry (um 1160/70 – 1240) 40 3.2. Das Leben der Maria von Oignies (1177-1213) 48 3.3. Aufbau, Inhalt und didaktische Implikationen der Vita Mariae Oigniacensis 49 Sponsa Christi – Imitatio Mariae 50 Maria und Martha – Vita activa versus vita contemplativa 53 Die Büßerin Maria Magdalena als Nachahmungsmodell 54 Die Verehrung der Eucharistie 58 3.4. Die Vita Mariae Oigniacensis – Aufforderung zur Buße, orthodoxe Propagandaschrift gegen die Lehre der Katharer und Exempelsammlung für die Laienpredigt, Zu den Intentionen des Hagiographen 60 4. Die Frauenviten der Dominikaner 64 4.1. Das Supplement zur Vita Mariae Oigniacensis (um 1231): „Das Heil wirkt in Brabant“ – Ein hagiographischer Gegenentwurf zum Kurienhof in Rom des Dominikaners Thomas von Cantimpré 64 4.1.1. Zu Thomas von Cantimpré (um 1201 - um 1270/72) 64 4.1.2. Aufbau, Inhalt und Implikationen des Supplements 67 Die Entwicklung des Kults um Maria von Oignies 69 4.1.3. Das Supplement zur Vita Mariae Oigniacensis – Jakob von Vitry und sein Verrat an der vita apostolica 71 4.2. Eine kuriose Heilige? - Die Vita Christinae Mirabilis (um 1232, geändert 1239-40) 71 4.2.1. Das Leben der Christina von St. Trond (um 1150-1224) und die Entwicklung ihres Heiligenkultes 72 4.2.2. Aufbau, Inhalt und didaktische Implikationen der Vita Christinae Mirabilis 73 Die drei Stadien geistlichen Lebens nach Wilhelm von Saint Thierry 74 Christinas Seele in ihrem animalischen Stadium 75 Die Seele im verstandesmäßigen – rationalen Stadium 77 Die Seele im geistigen – spirituellen Stadium 77 imitatio christi - vita apostolica 78 4.2.3. Buße für die erlösungsbedürftige Menschheit: Die Vita Christinae - Ein didaktisches Instrument zur Vermittlung von Buß- und Fegefeuerlehre oder ein Hilfsmittel für die Laienpredigt? 79 4.3. Die Vita Margaretae Ypris (um 1240) – Ein Leben getreu nach den evangelischen Räten: Armut, Keuschheit und Gehorsam 81 4.3.1. Das Leben der Margareta von Ypern (1216-1237) 81 4.3.2. Aufbau, Inhalt und didaktische Implikationen der Vita Margarete de Ypris 82 4.3.3. Die Vita Margarete de Ypris - Ein Lehrbuch für die cura animarum? Der ordenspolitische Hintergrund der Vita Margarete 87 4.4. Das Klosterleben als oberste Stufe der Christusnachfolge und Idealform der vita religiosa - Die Vita Lutgardis Aquiriensis (nach 1248, beendet 1262) 90 4.4.1. Das Leben der Lutgard von Aywières (1182-1246) 91 Die Entwicklung des Lutgard Kults 92 4.4.2. Aufbau, Inhalt und didaktische Implikationen der Vita Lutgardis Aquiriensis 94 Buch I: ecclesia in purgatorio 94 vita activa oder vita contemplativa? 96 II. Buch: ecclesia militans 98 III. Buch: vita perfecta 100 4.4.3. Die Vita Lutgardis - Ein Nachahmungsmodell für Regulierte Nonnen 101 4.5. Das Exemplum der Yolanda von Vianden im Bonum universale de apibus (um 1257 - 1263) 104 4.6. Die Vita für Yolanda von Vianden (spätes 13. Jahrhundert) 106 4.6.1. Zum Autor der Vita Bruder Hermann (um 1250-1308) 106 4.6.2. Zum Leben der Yolanda von Vianden (1231-1283) 107 Yolandas kultische Verehrung 109 4.6.3. Zum Inhalt der Vita 111 4.6.4. Die Yolandavita – Eine Werbeschrift für potentielle Stifter 117 Warum Walther von Meisenburg das Dominikanerinnenkloster Marienthal empfahl 119 Yolandas Klostereintritt vor dem Hintergrund der damaligen dominikanischen Frauenpolitik 121 Die Darstellung religiöser Gemeinschaften in der Yolanda- Vita als Quelle für die religiöse Konkurrenzsituation 123 Die Beziehungen der Frauengemeinschaften untereinander 126 Exkurs: Die identitätsstiftende Funktion der Mystik 127 4.7. Die Vita Margarete contracta (Entstehungszeit unsicher, wahrscheinlich 2. Hälfte 13. Jahrhundert) 127 4.7.1. Zum Autor der Vita, dem Dominikanerbruder Johannes (Lebensdaten unbekannt) 129 4.7.2. Zum Leben der Margareta von Magdeburg (Lebensdaten ungewiss, vermutlich Mitte des 13. Jahrhunderts) 131 4.7.3. Aufbau und Inhalt der Vita Margarete contracte 133 Imitatio Christi – Margaretas Lebens- und Leidensweg 3 Die Verworfenheit 134 Vita activa 134 Margaretas Buße 135 Die Reinigung Margaretas 135 Am Kreuz mit Christus – Margareta nimmt das Leid als Gabe Gottes an 136 Bruder Johannes wird Margaretas Beichtvater – Wie aus anfänglichen Missverständnissen eine spirituelle Freundschaft entsteht 137 Margareta als zweite Maria 139 Margaretas Missachtung und Verleumdung durch die Menschen 139 Vita perfecta 141 4.7.4. Die Vita der Margareta contracta – Eine theologische Lehrschrift 142 4.8. Die Legenda b. Margaritae de Ungaria (1274) 146 4.8.1. Zur Autorschaft der Margaretenlegende 146 4.8.2. Zum Leben der Margareta von Ungarn (1242-1270, Heiligsprechung 1934) 146 Bemühungen um Margaretas Heiligsprechung 149 Der Aufschwung des Margaretenkults in Italien und in den deutschsprachigen Regionen 151 4.8.3. Der Inhalt der Legenda b. Margaritae de Ungaria (Legenda vetus) 154 4.8.4. Imitatio Elisabeth: Die Dominikanerin Margareta von Ungarn 158 Die Einstellung des Dominikanerordens zu den Frauen 159 Exkurs: Die Aufgabe der Frauen im Dominikanerorden - Die Briefe Jordans von Sachsen an Diana von Andalo 162 Exkurs: Die Dominikanische Heiligenverehrung 164 5. Das Zeitalter der Franziskaner: Heilige Frauen in der Nachfolge des Poverello: Elisabeth von Thüringen (1207-1231), Humiliana Cerchi (1219-1246), Klara von Assisi (1193-1253), Isabella von Frankreich (1224-1269) und Douceline von Digne (um 1214-1274) 166 5.1. Elisabeth von Thüringen – Leben, kultische Verehrung und hagiographische Schriften 166 5.1.1. Das Leben der heiligen Elisabeth von Thüringen 168 Elisabeth und die Franziskaner 169 Elisabeths Kanonisation und die Entwicklung ihres Heiligenkultes 172 Zum Inhalt der Heiligsprechungsbulle Gloriosus in maiestate 174 Der Brief Papst Gregors IX. an die Königin Beatrix von Kastilien mit der Aufforderung der Heiligen Elisabeth nachzufolgen 175 Der Kniefall des Kaisers vor der Heiligen 175 Der Brief des Kaisers an die Franziskaner und der Deutsche Orden als Verwalter der Elisabethkultstätten 176 Elisabeth eine Heilige für alle 178 Die Exempelfunktion der Heiligen für die Frauen des Hochadels 180 In Nachahmung der heiligen Elisabeth – Das Entstehen „Heiliger Höfe“ 182 Ausdruck der Elisabethverehrung – Die Förderung des Franziskanerordens und seines weiblichen Ordenszweigs durch die europäischen Herrscherhäuser 183 5.1.2. Die Summa vitae des Konrad von Marburg (1232) 185 5.1.3. Zu Konrad von Marburg (um 1180/90-1233) 186 5.1.4. Der Inhalt der Summa vitae 189 5.1.5. Die Summa vitae – Eine Schrift zur Präsentation einer neuen Heiligen 191 Konrad von Marburg ein Anhänger der Pariser Moraltheologie 192 5.2. Die Vita Sancte Elyzabeth lantgravie (1236/37) 193 5.2.1. Zum Autor Cäsarius von Heisterbach (um 1180 – Mitte 13. Jahrhundert) 194 5.2.2. Aufbau und Inhalt der Vita Sancte Elyzabeth Lantgravie 196 5.2.3. Die Vita Sancte Elyzabeth – Ein Exemplum für Deutschordensritter 203 Die Heilige Elisabeth im Sermo de Translatione des Cäsarius von Heisterbach 204 5.3. Eine weitere Vita Sancte Elyzabeth Lantgravie des Dominikaners Dietrich von Apolda (1289-1294) 205 5.3.1. Zu Dietrich von Apolda (um 1228/29 – nach 1301/02) 208 5.3.2. Aufbau und Inhalt der Vita Sancte Elyzabeth 209 5.3.3. Die Elisabethvita des Dietrich von Apolda – Zwei unterschiedliche Wege der Imitatio Christi 214 Das Dominikanische in Dietrichs Elisabethvita 215 Das Exempel der heiligen Elisabeth in dominikanischen Predigtkompendien 216 5.4. Die Elisabethviten franziskanischer Provenienz 217 5.4.1. Aufbau und Inhalt der `Großen franziskanischen Elisabethvita´ (letztes Viertel 13. Jahrhundert) 221 5.4.2. Elisabeth als Exemplum für die nordeuropäischen Klarissen 223 Elisabeth – Eine franziskanische Heilige 225 Exkurs: Das Exempel des Poverello und seine Aufforderung zur Nachfolge Christi 226 5.5. Die Vita beatae Humilianae de Cerchis (1246-1248) für die Büßerin Emiliana Cerchi 229 5.5.1. Zum Autor der Vita Vito von Cortona († um 1250) und zum Verfasser der Mirakelsammlung Bruder Hippolyt (Lebensdaten unbekannt) 230 5.5.2. Zum Leben der Emiliana Cerchi (1219-1246) 230 Florenz im Ausnahmezustand – Der Beginn der kultischen Verehrung Humilianas als Heilige der Guelfen 231 Die Familie der Cerchi übernimmt die Hauptrolle innerhalb der Humilianaverehrung 234 5.5.3. Aufbau und Inhalt der Vita beatae Humilianae de Cerchis 235 Humiliana wird Terziarin 237 Zwei spätere Mirakelsammlungen: Die Apparitiones post mortem und die Miracula intra triennium ab obitu patrata 242 5.5.4. Die Vita beatae Humilianae de Cerchis – Ein früher Lobpreis auf den Dritten franziskanischen Orden vor dem Hintergrund der Ghibellinsch-Guelfischen Kriege 243 Von den Anfängen der Bußbewegung bis zur Institutionalisierung des Dritten franziskanischen Ordens 244 Der Widerstand im Orden gegen die institutionelle Vereinigung mit den Büßern 246 Die Fürsprecher der Büßer 247 Der Inhalt der Bußregel 248 Der Lebensbericht der seligen Humiliana als Zeugnis für die Bußregel 248 5.6. Die Heilige Klara von Assisi – Die Ausformung ihres Heiligkeitskonzepts bis hin zur Legenda S. Clarae Virginis Assisiensis (1255/56) 250 5.6.1. Klaras Leben und die geschichtlichen Hintergründe der Armen Frauen von San Damiano 251 Klaras Gemeinschaft San Damiano und der päpstliche Damiansorden 254 Die Vielfalt der Regeln 260 Klaras Tod und ihre Heiligsprechung 263 Zur kultischen Verehrung der heiligen Klara im Franziskanerorden 263 Der Versuch der Vereinheitlichung – Der Damiansorden wird zum Klarissenorden 264 Bonaventura bindet männlichen und weiblichen Ordenszweigfester aneinander 265 Das Ende der Widersprüche – Klaras Erbe wird zur Reliquie 268 5.6.2. Ein Leben in der Nachfolge des Heiligen Franziskus – Klaras eigene Schriften, Kontroversen um die Echtheit der Texte 269 Die Briefe Klaras an Agnes von Böhmen 273 Ausdruck der Poverellonachfolge – Die Regel der heiligen Klara (Forma vitae sororum pauperum) 276 Klaras Testament 280 5.6.3. Klaras Heiligkeit, wie sie aus den Akten des Kanonisationsprozesses spricht 281 Zu Klaras Franziskusnachfolge 287 Die Kanonisationsurkunde Clara, claris, praeclara 290 5.6.4. Die Legenda Sanctae Clarae Assisiensis – Zum Autor der Legenda Sanctae Clarae Assisiensis Thomas von Celano (um 1190-1260) 292 Der Einfluss Papst Gregors IX. auf die Schriften des Thomas von Celano 294 5.6.5. Aufbau und Inhalt der Legenda Sanctae Clarae Assisiensis 295 5.6.6. Die Legenda Sanctae Clarae Virginis Assisiensis – Ein Nachahmungsmodell für klausurierte Schwestern 301 Klara - Eine Heilige für die Nonnen des Damians-/Klarissenordens 302 Exkurs: Die Ausbreitung des Damians-/Klarissenordens 305 5.7. La Vie de la bienheureuse Isabelle de France soeur du roy S. Loys fondatrice de Longchamp (1283) 310 5.7.1. Zur Autorin der Vita Agnes von Harcourt (1240er - 1291) 310 Der Brief der Agnes von Harcourt an König Ludwig IX. und Longchamp 312 Karl von Anjou beauftragt Agnes mit der Abfassung der Isabellavita 313 5.7.2. Zum Leben Isabellas von Frankreich 314 Sanctae virginitatis propositum und andere Schriftstücke als Zeugnisse päpstlichen Bemühens um die Gunst der Königstochter 315 Isabellas Prestige in den Augen der Franziskaner 318 Zur Isabellaregel 325 Zum Kult um Isabella von Frankreich 326 5.7.3. Aufbau und Inhalt von La vie de notre saincte et benoite dame et mere Madame Yzabeau de France 328 5.7.4. Die Vita der Isabella von Frankreich – Ein Zeugnis dynastischer Memoria vor dem Hintergrund der Heiligenpolitik Karls von Anjou 333 Isabella – Heilige, aber nicht Nonne von Longchamp 334 Gemeinsamkeiten und Unterschiede zu den anderen Anhängerinnen des heiligen Franziskus 336 Die Verbreitung der Isabellaregel 337 5.8. Li Vida de la benaurada Sancta Doucelina, Mayre de las Donnas de Robaut (um 1297/ nach 1311 vor 1315) 339 5.8.1. Zur Textentstehung und der Frage der Verfasserschaft 340 Zur mutmaßlichen Hagiographin Filipa von Porcellet 342 5.8.2. Zum Leben der Douceline von Digne (um 1215-1274) 343 Die Roubauder Beginengemeinschaft 344 Doucelines Kultische Verehrung, Verdächtigungen und der Fortbestand der Kommunität 347 Zum Einfluss Hugos von Digne auf die Lebensweise der Frauen von Roubaud 349 5.8.3. Aufbau und Inhalt von Li Vida de la benaurada Sancta Doucelina 352 5.8.4. Li Vida de la benaurada Sancta Doucelina – Eine Legitimationsschrift für den in Verdacht geratenen Beginenkonvent von Roubaud 361 Die franziskanische Inquisition in Südfrankreich 363 Die Legitimationsstrategie der Roubauder Beginen – Bonaventuras Franziskusvita 364 Franziskanisch ja, aber nicht klarianisch 365 Die Anbindung der Roubauder Beginen an Karl von Anjou und andere weltliche Herrscher 366 6. Schlussbetrachtung 368 Frauenviten als institutionelle Steuerungs- und Normierungsinstrumente 374 Rezipienten und Hagiographen – Funktionale und regionale Unterschiede in der Vitenliteratur 376 Der Einfluss des Klerus auf das zeitgenössische Heiligenbild – Predigt und cura mulierum 377 Dominikanische und franziskanische Frauenviten – Zwei differente Darstellungsweisen weiblicher Heiligkeit 379 Die franziskanische Hagiographie 381 Die dominikanische Hagiographie 382 7. Abkürzungsverzeichnis 385 8. Quellen- und Literaturverzeichnis 386 Verzeichnis der untersuchten Heiligenviten 386 Weitere Quellen 389 Literatur 399 Zeitschriften und Reihen 437