Open AccessMellem Klosteret og Verden
Author(s) -
Mette Birkedal Bruun
Publication year - 2020
Publication title -
dansk teologisk tidsskrift
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.101
H-Index - 2
eISSN - 1902-3898
pISSN - 0105-3191
DOI - 10.7146/dtt.v82i1-2.118191
Subject(s) - asceticism , solitude , argument (complex analysis) , mythology , biography , position (finance) , sociology , history , literature , classics , art , art history , archaeology , biochemistry , chemistry , finance , economics
The article presents Armand-Jean de Rancé’s reform of the Cistercian abbey of La Trappe. It positions Rancé’s ascetic programme within the wider devotional culture of seventeenth-century France, and explores in three registers the inherent dynamic between withdrawal from the world and engagement with the world. The first register concerns the abbot’s biography, the argument being that the familial, societal and ecclesiastical ircles inhabited by Rancé before and after his conversion are more closely connected than has been traditionally seen. The second is dedicated to the position of La Trappe in contemporary society and a discussion of the continuous traffic across the monastic wall of texts, guests, rumours and myths. The third involves an examination of the role of withdrawal and engagement in Rancé’s reform and its ascetic programme, showing how the abbot expounds the central notion of solitude as a place, a condition and a strategy. The article presents key insights from the author’s doctoral thesis, which was defended at the University of Copenhagen in June 2017.