Description
Book SynopsisI assume that historical sources can convey human feeling, even though it is fruitless to psychologize individual friends or to reach complete explanations about their motives. I simply accept that because medieval Christians believed in friendship and felt the need for it, some of them both practiced and lived out friendships.from the new Introduction
Human beings have always formed personal friendships. Some cultures have left behind the evidence of philosophical discussion; some have provided only private or semipublic letters. By comparing these, one discerns the effect exercised by the society in which the writers lived, its opportunities, and its restrictions. The cloistered monks of medieval Europe, who have bequeathed a rich literary legacy on the subject, have always had to take into account the overwhelming fact of community. Brian Patrick McGuire finds that in seeking friends and friendship, medieval men and women sought self-knowledge, the enjoyment of life, the co
Trade Review
"Brian McGuire's Friendship and Community is by now a classic, the most important book to appear—ever—on the subject. Its sweep is broad. McGuire shows the development of medieval ideals of friendship and community from antiquity to the high Middle Ages. Current interest on the topic is high, in large part due to McGuire’s book."—C. Stephen Jaeger, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Table of Contents
Introduction—The Debate on Friendship: Antecedents and InterpretersIntroduction to the 2010 EditionI. The Wisdom of the Eastern FathersII. The Western Fathers and the Search for CommunityIII. The Monk and the Wanderer: Varieties of Early Medieval FriendshipIV. The Eclipse of Monastic Friendship, c. 850–c. 1050V. Reform and Renewal: New Impulses Towards Friendship, c. 1050 –c. 1120VI. The Age of Friendship: Networks of Friends, c. 1120–c. 1180VII. Aelred of Rievaulx and the Limits of FriendshipVIII. Continuity and Change: The Persistence of Friendship, c. 1180–c. 1250IX. Epilogue—Ends and Beginnings in Community and FriendshipNotes
Table of Abbreviations
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Index
