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To govern is to serve : an essay on medieval democracy / Jacques Dalarun ; translated and with an introduction by Sean L. Field ; foreword by M. Cecilia Gaposchkin and Anne E. Lester.
- Format:
- Book
- Author/Creator:
- Dalarun, Jacques, author.
- Series:
- Medieval societies, religions, and cultures.
- Cornell scholarship online.
- Medieval societies, religions, and cultures
- Cornell scholarship online
- Standardized Title:
- Gouverner c'est servir. English
- Language:
- English
- French
- Subjects (All):
- Power (Christian theology)--History of doctrines--Middle Ages, 600-1500.
- Power (Christian theology).
- Political theology--History of doctrines--Middle Ages, 600-1500.
- Political theology.
- Physical Description:
- 1 online resource (256 pages)
- Place of Publication:
- Ithaca : Cornell University Press, 2023.
- Summary:
- This book explores the practices of collective governance in medieval religious orders that turned the precepts of the Gospels - most notably that "the first will be last, the last will be first" - into practices of communal deliberation and the election of superiors. The book argues that these democratic forms have profoundly influenced modern experiences of democracy, in particular the idea of government not as domination but as service. The book undertakes meticulous textual analysis and historical research into twelfth- and thirteenth-century religious movements - from Fontevraud and the Paraclete of Abelard and Heloise through St. Dominic and St. Francis - that sought their superiors from among the less exalted members of their communities to chart how these experiments prefigured certain aspects of modern democracies.
- Contents:
- The Servant Served
- Unworthiness in Power
- Maternal Government.
- Notes:
- This translation also issued in print: 2023.
- Includes bibliographical references and index.
- Description based on online resource; title from PDF title page (viewed on May 23, 2023).
- ISBN:
- 1-5017-6835-2
- 1-5017-6787-9
- OCLC:
- 1344159262
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