Fee Download The Wisdom of the Beguines: The Forgotten Story of a Medieval Women’s Movement, by Laura Swan
Do you understand why you need to review this site as well as what the relationship to checking out publication The Wisdom Of The Beguines: The Forgotten Story Of A Medieval Women’s Movement, By Laura Swan In this modern age, there are many methods to acquire the book and also they will certainly be much easier to do. One of them is by getting the e-book The Wisdom Of The Beguines: The Forgotten Story Of A Medieval Women’s Movement, By Laura Swan by online as what we tell in the link download. Guide The Wisdom Of The Beguines: The Forgotten Story Of A Medieval Women’s Movement, By Laura Swan could be a selection since it is so appropriate to your necessity now. To get guide on-line is quite simple by just downloading them. With this possibility, you could review the e-book anywhere and whenever you are. When taking a train, hesitating for checklist, and hesitating for someone or other, you can review this on-line book The Wisdom Of The Beguines: The Forgotten Story Of A Medieval Women’s Movement, By Laura Swan as a buddy once again.
The Wisdom of the Beguines: The Forgotten Story of a Medieval Women’s Movement, by Laura Swan
Fee Download The Wisdom of the Beguines: The Forgotten Story of a Medieval Women’s Movement, by Laura Swan
Exactly how if there is a site that allows you to look for referred book The Wisdom Of The Beguines: The Forgotten Story Of A Medieval Women’s Movement, By Laura Swan from all over the world publisher? Instantly, the site will certainly be extraordinary finished. So many book collections can be discovered. All will be so simple without complicated point to relocate from site to site to get guide The Wisdom Of The Beguines: The Forgotten Story Of A Medieval Women’s Movement, By Laura Swan desired. This is the site that will offer you those assumptions. By following this website you could obtain great deals varieties of publication The Wisdom Of The Beguines: The Forgotten Story Of A Medieval Women’s Movement, By Laura Swan collections from versions sorts of writer as well as publisher prominent in this world. The book such as The Wisdom Of The Beguines: The Forgotten Story Of A Medieval Women’s Movement, By Laura Swan as well as others can be gained by clicking nice on link download.
This book The Wisdom Of The Beguines: The Forgotten Story Of A Medieval Women’s Movement, By Laura Swan offers you better of life that can develop the high quality of the life brighter. This The Wisdom Of The Beguines: The Forgotten Story Of A Medieval Women’s Movement, By Laura Swan is just what individuals now need. You are below and also you might be precise and also certain to obtain this book The Wisdom Of The Beguines: The Forgotten Story Of A Medieval Women’s Movement, By Laura Swan Never doubt to get it even this is merely a book. You can get this book The Wisdom Of The Beguines: The Forgotten Story Of A Medieval Women’s Movement, By Laura Swan as one of your compilations. However, not the compilation to present in your bookshelves. This is a precious publication to be reviewing collection.
Just how is to make sure that this The Wisdom Of The Beguines: The Forgotten Story Of A Medieval Women’s Movement, By Laura Swan will not presented in your bookshelves? This is a soft file book The Wisdom Of The Beguines: The Forgotten Story Of A Medieval Women’s Movement, By Laura Swan, so you could download The Wisdom Of The Beguines: The Forgotten Story Of A Medieval Women’s Movement, By Laura Swan by buying to obtain the soft file. It will certainly relieve you to review it every time you need. When you really feel lazy to move the printed book from home to workplace to some place, this soft file will alleviate you not to do that. Because you could just save the information in your computer hardware and device. So, it enables you review it everywhere you have determination to read The Wisdom Of The Beguines: The Forgotten Story Of A Medieval Women’s Movement, By Laura Swan
Well, when else will certainly you locate this possibility to obtain this book The Wisdom Of The Beguines: The Forgotten Story Of A Medieval Women’s Movement, By Laura Swan soft file? This is your excellent possibility to be here and also get this excellent book The Wisdom Of The Beguines: The Forgotten Story Of A Medieval Women’s Movement, By Laura Swan Never leave this book before downloading this soft documents of The Wisdom Of The Beguines: The Forgotten Story Of A Medieval Women’s Movement, By Laura Swan in web link that we offer. The Wisdom Of The Beguines: The Forgotten Story Of A Medieval Women’s Movement, By Laura Swan will really make a lot to be your friend in your lonesome. It will certainly be the most effective companion to improve your company and leisure activity.
The beguines began to form in various parts of Europe over eight hundred years ago, around the year 1200. Beguines were laywomen, not nuns, and thus did not take solemn vows and did not live in monasteries. The beguines were a phenomenal movement that swept across Europe yet they were never a religious order or a formalized movement. But there were common elements that rendered these women distinctive and familiar, including their common way of life, their unusual business acumen, and their commitment to the poor and marginalized. These women were essentially self-defined, in opposition to the many attempts to control and define them. They lived by themselves or together in so-called beguinages, which could be single houses for as few as a handful of beguines or, as in Brugge and Amsterdam, walled-in rows of houses (enclosing a central court with a chapel) where over a thousand beguines might live—a village of women within a medieval town or city. And each region of Europe has its own beguine stories to tell.
Among the beguines were celebrated spiritual writers and mystics, including Mechthild of Magdeburg, Beatrijs of Nazareth, Hadewijch of Brabant, and Marguerite Porete, who was condemned as a heretic and burned at the stake in Paris in 1310. She was not the only beguine suspected of heresy, and often politics were the driving force behind such charges. Certain clerics defended beguines against charges of heresy, while other women had to go undercover by joining a Benedictine or Cistercian monastery.
Amazingly, many beguine communities survived for a long time despite oppression, wars, the plague, and other human and natural disasters. Beguines lived through—and helped propel—times of great transition and reform. Beguines courageously spoke to power and corruption, never despairing of God’s compassion for humanity. They used their business acumen to establish and support ministries that extended education, health care, and other social services to the vulnerable. And they preached and taught of a loving God who desired a relationship with each individual person while calling to reform those who used God’s name for personal gain.
What strength of spirit protected the lives of these women and their beguinages? What can we learn from them? What might they teach us? The beguines have much to say to our world today. This book invites us to listen to their voices, to discover them anew.
- Sales Rank: #518582 in Books
- Published on: 2014-11-11
- Original language: English
- Number of items: 1
- Dimensions: 8.25" h x 5.75" w x 1.00" l, .0 pounds
- Binding: Hardcover
- 208 pages
Review
PRAISE FOR "THE WISDOM OF THE BEGUINES":
“The Wisdom of the Beguines…sweeps up some surprising women…and a range of locales…What’s left is a legacy that had more influence than official church history acknowledges. Swan’s book is a useful corrective.”—THE SEATTLE TIMES
“Swan…brings their lives and writings to the general reader with a clear, admiring narrative…her book is a sympathetic look at the Beguines that will intrigue anyone interested in women’s spirituality.”—PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
“…Swan’s book provides an accessible overview of beguine spirituality in the context of their own times…[it] does a good job of explaining both the beguines’ spiritual practices and their continuing legacy.”—COMMONWEAL
About the Author
Laura Swan has for many years studied and written about the history of women’s spirituality and the monastic life. She is the associate editor of Magistra: A Journal of Women’s Spirituality in History and adjunct professor of religious studies at Saint Martin’s University in Washington State. A member and former prioress of St. Placid Priory, a community of Benedictine women in the Pacific Northwest, her books include The Forgotten Desert Mothers and Engaging Benedict.
Excerpt. � Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.
EXCERPT from the INTRODUCTION:
The beguines began to form in various parts of Europe over eight hundred years ago—around the year 1200. Beguines were laywomen, not nuns, and thus did not take solemn vows and did not live in monasteries. The beguines were a phenomenal way of life that swept across Europe, yet they were never a religious order or a formalized movement. And they did not have one specific founder or rule to live by. But there were common elements that rendered these women distinctive and familiar, including their common way of life, chastity and simplicity, their unusual business acumen, and their commitment to God and to the poor and marginalized. These women were essentially self-defined, in opposition to the many attempts to control and define them. They lived by themselves or together in so-called beguinages, which could be single houses for as few as a handful of beguines or, as in Brugge, walled-in rows of houses enclosing a central court with a chapel where over a thousand beguines might live—a village of women within a medieval town or city. And each region of Europe has its own beguine stories to tell.
Some beguines were suspected of heresy, and often politics
were the driving force behind such charges. Certain clerics
defended beguines against charges of heresy, while other women
had to go undercover by joining a Benedictine or Cistercian
monastery.
[...]
Beguines existed all the way into the twenty-first century—
news agencies reported the death of the “last beguine,” Marcella
Pattyn, in 2013. She was in her early nineties and had lived in
Belgium. However, there are reports of young women making
spiritual promises and seeking a beguine lifestyle, both in Europe
and North America. Some of these new beguines live with their
parents, or by themselves, and others have created informal communities.
[...]
Scholars have identified 111 medieval beguinages
in Belgium alone, and thirteen of them are UNESCO World
Heritage sites: Ghent, Leuven, Diest, and Brugge; Hoogstraten,
Lier (Lierre), Mechelen (Malines), and Turnhout; Sint-Truiden
(Saint-Trond), Tongeren (Tongres), Dendermonde (Termonde),
Sint-Amandsberg (Mont-Saint-Amand-lez-Gand), and Kortrijk
(Courtrai). Today most homes within the surviving beguinages
in the Low Countries are affordable housing for the elderly, writers,
or artists. The exteriors and gardens are kept as they might
have been when beguines—the original builders—lived there.
Most of these beguinages will have one home, furnished appropriately
for the medieval period, open for visitors to explore and
learn about the beguines and their way of life.
Most helpful customer reviews
27 of 27 people found the following review helpful.
A Medieval Women's Movement Unearthed
By Story Circle Book Reviews
Much if not most of women's experience has languished in the dark shadows of history. Around 1980 scholars became interested in a medieval movement of independent women known as beguines and began unearthing historical records about their way of life. The Wisdom of the Beguines: The Forgotten Story of a Medieval Women's Movement by Laura Swan illuminates the development and growth of the beguines from its formation around 1200 until the death of the last beguine in 2013. Swan presents a well-documented, amply footnoted academic study which is quite readable. On occasion she creates an imaginary stroll into a beguinage to draw the reader into her story.
Swan tells us that beguines were from every social and economic class and their ages ranged from about fourteen up to their eighties or beyond. She describes them:
Self-supporting and single or widowed, these women stood out for their spiritual and personal independence, preaching in public and debating with select theologians and biblical scholars... For the most part, beguines were free to make their own life choices and to move about their town or city as they wished (as long as they had a companion with them), and women of every family status would become beguines: they were unmarried or widowed, or they would leave their husbands, or raise children alongside. And they could cease being beguines and get married.
While the majority of monasteries for women were located in the countryside, most beguinages were established in urban areas. The beguines were excellent businesswomen and owned property. Some made their living in the world of finance, while others were registered merchants or worked in the emerging textile industry. They composed music, illuminated texts, translated scriptures from Latin into the vernacular, wrote poetry, and preached.
The beguines' business endeavors were motivated by their need to finance their ministries to the poor. The beguines were dedicated to contemplation and prayer. Many great mystical writings, such as those by Mechthild of Magdeburg and Catherine of Siena, came from beguines. Yet they were equally dedicated to living the gospel life through action. They established infirmaries and orphanages, attended the dying, educated children, and cared for lepers. For the beguines, ministry was as important as attendance at prayer—a radical idea at the time.
Swan offers a picture of beguines across Europe in their daily lives in beguinages, their ministries, their compassion and spirituality, their roles as preachers and performers, and their literary works. As independent women making their own decisions in areas such as business, finance, and spirituality, they faced opposition from men who were threatened by their actions and sought to control them. Many were accused of heresy and faced the Inquisition. Swan doesn't shy away from addressing the question of whether the beguines were heretics.
I first heard of the beguines twenty-five years ago when I was moved by works by some beguine mystics. At the time, very little information was available about the extent or details of this remarkable group of women, so I dove into Swan's book with great anticipation. I wasn't disappointed.
by Barbara Heming
for Story Circle Book Reviews
reviewing books by, for, and about women
9 of 9 people found the following review helpful.
Who Were the Beguines?
By Lois Sibley
It was a mystery to me, so I was glad to receive a review copy from BlueBridge (www.bluebridgebooks.com) and have enjoyed reading it. The Wisdom of the Beguines, the Forgotten Story of a Medieval Women's Movement is by Laura Swan, who is adjunct professor of religious studies, Washington State, and a former prioress of a community of Benedictine women in the Pacific Northwest. I am impressed by the research and study she must have done to tell us about the Beguines, and am grateful to her for all of this history of an important women's group I had not heard of previously. Yes, I have heard of some of the early women mystics, such as Teresa of Avila, Catherine of Siena, Hildegard of Bingen, Julian of Norwich, but those are about all I knew of, until now.
The Beguines began to form in groups in Europe more than 800 years ago! That's in the early 1200s. They were not nuns, but laywomen. They did not take vows, nor live in monasteries. There was no founder nor rule to live by. Some lived alone, some lived in groups, perhaps sharing a house. Swan writes: "They did share their common way of life: chastity and simplicity, their unusual business acumen, and their commitment to God and to the marginalized."
Beguines existed into the twenty-first century and some news media reported the death of "the last Beguine, Marcella Pattyn in 2013" She was in her 90s and had lived in Belgium. They thought she was the last but Swan says there are reports that young women are "making spiritual promises and seeking a beguines lifestyle today, both in Europe and in North America."
Swan gives much information about who was where and what they were doing, their ups and downs, problems with business guilds, church officials, and local politics, even while they were much involved in helping the poor and needy in their communities. Often their day included "prayer, fasts, physical labor, and works of charity." She says that the beguines were "united in their commitment to ministry," and they were also involved in local businesses to support their ministries. I think we have much to learn about the women who have gone before us and their ministries and The Wisdom of the Beguines is an important beginning.
---Lois Sibley
0 of 0 people found the following review helpful.
This book covers the why and how like no other
By Amanda S. Stevens
I've been fascinated with the Beguines and the history around them since I traveled to Bruges Belgium. This book covers the why and how like no other. I will go back to it again and again for my own research on the medieval woman.
The Wisdom of the Beguines: The Forgotten Story of a Medieval Women’s Movement, by Laura Swan PDF
The Wisdom of the Beguines: The Forgotten Story of a Medieval Women’s Movement, by Laura Swan EPub
The Wisdom of the Beguines: The Forgotten Story of a Medieval Women’s Movement, by Laura Swan Doc
The Wisdom of the Beguines: The Forgotten Story of a Medieval Women’s Movement, by Laura Swan iBooks
The Wisdom of the Beguines: The Forgotten Story of a Medieval Women’s Movement, by Laura Swan rtf
The Wisdom of the Beguines: The Forgotten Story of a Medieval Women’s Movement, by Laura Swan Mobipocket
The Wisdom of the Beguines: The Forgotten Story of a Medieval Women’s Movement, by Laura Swan Kindle
Tidak ada komentar:
Posting Komentar