Winner of the 1999 Book of the Year Award, sponsored by the Sociology of Religion Section of the American Sociological Association
Max
Weber argued that medieval religious movements were an important source
for the distinctive rationality of Western civilization. He intended
to study precisely this theme but died before he could do so. In Schools
of Asceticism, Lutz Kaelber builds on Weber's ideas by presenting
a fresh historical and theoretical analysis of orthodox and heretical
religious groups in the Middle Ages. He explores how doctrine and
social organization shaped ascetic conduct in these groups from the
twelfth century on.
Kaelber first examines monastic and mendicant groups, correcting
common misperceptions about the nature of their ascetic practices
and their significance for the emergence of a Protestant work ethic.
Then he turns to two of the largest and most widespread heretical
groups in the Middle Ages, the Waldensians and the Cathars. For
the most part, Waldensians and Cathars practiced a form of "other-worldly
asceticism" resembling that of monks and nuns. For the Austrian
Waldensians, however, Kaelber documents a type of "inner-worldly
asceticism" that resembled what Weber described for early modern
Protestant groups. Both types of asceticism originated in distinctive
heretical establishments: Waldensian schools and Cathar "houses
of heretics." As these establishments disappeared, the boundaries
separating Waldensianism and Catharism from Catholicism collapsed.
Kaelber is therefore able to link organizational aspects of heretical
communities to the tenacity of heresy in the Middle Ages.
Based on exhaustive research into both primary and secondary sources,
Schools of Asceticism is a bold and original book that bridges the
disciplines of comparative historical and theoretical sociology,
medieval history, and religious studies. |
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