Pilgrimage to heaven : eschatology and monastic spirituality in early medieval Ireland / Katja Ritari.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Ritari, Katja, author.

Series:

Studia traditionis theologiae ; 23.

Studia traditionis theologiae : explorations in early and medieval theology ; 23

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Monastic and religious life--History--Middle Ages, 600-1500.

Ireland--Church history--600-1500.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (xi, 223 pages).

Place of Publication:

Turnhout, Belgium : Brepols, [2016]

Summary:

This book focuses on the expectation of the Judgment and the afterlife in early medieval Irish monastic spirituality. It has been claimed that in the Early Middle Ages, Christianity became for the first time a truly otherworldly religion and in monastic spirituality this otherworldly perspective gained an especially prominent role. In this book, Dr Ritari explores the role of this eschatological expectation in various sources, including hagiography produced by the monastic familia of St Columba, the sermons of St Columbanus, the Navigatio sancti Brendani portraying St Brendan's sea voyages, and the vision attributed to St Adomnán about Heaven and Hell. One recurrent image used by the Irish authors to portray the Christian path to Heaven is the image of peregrinatio, a life-long pilgrimage. Viewing human life in this perspective inevitably influenced the human relationship with the world making the monastic into a pilgrim who is not supposed to get attached to anything encountered on the way but to keep constantly in mind the end of the journey.

Notes:

Minimal Level Cataloging Plus.

Includes bibliographical references (pages 187-215) and indexes.

Description based on print version record.

ISBN:

2-503-56940-4