Date of Award
Spring 5-16-2008
Document Type
Dissertation
Degree Name
Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)
Department
Historical Theology
First Advisor
Robert Rosin
Abstract
Geisler, Carol A. "An Obedient Defense of Disobedience: The Brothers of the Common Life and the Boundaries of Religion." Ph.D. diss., St. Louis: Concordia Seminary, 2008. 237 pp.
Like many of their contemporaries, the priests, clerics, and laity of the fourteenth century spiritual movement the devotio moderna wished to imitate the lifestyle of Christ, his apostles, and the earliest Christians. Inspired by the preaching and ideals of the movement's founder, Geert Grote, these men and women of the Low Countries came to be called the Brothers and Sisters of the Common Life. They pursued the apostolic life in communities, following practices patterned after those of the monastic orders-prayer, meditation, mutual admonition, the reading of devotional materials in the vernacular, and the copying of manuscripts. These activities were carried out voluntarily, and since the Brothers and Sisters took no vows and did not follow an approved rule, critics accused them of forming an illegal monastic order, living a religious life outside of approved religion.
As advocates and members of the common life communities defended their lifestyle, from the movement's beginnings in the late fourteenth century to its decline in the sixteenth century, they made use of the term religio in their arguments. In the late Middle Ages, the term "religion" was most commonly understood to mean monasticism, and the Brothers also used the word in that sense, to indicate that they were not religious, that is, not members of a new order. But as the need to defend their voluntary lifestyle continued, the Modem Devotion advocates increasingly described themselves as religious, using the word in a sense that could be applied to all of the Christian faithful. The shifting use of religio and its related forms reflected changes that were taking place in late medieval society. The words religion and religious, which most commonly defined a devotional lifestyle once reserved for the cloister, came to be used as nearly synonymous with Christianity, describing a life acceptable for Christians of every estate and no longer as the exclusive property of the monastic orders.
Recommended Citation
Geisler, Carol, "An Obedient Defense of Disobedience: The Brothers of the Common Life and the Boundaries of Religion" (2008). Doctor of Philosophy Dissertation. 157.
https://scholar.csl.edu/phd/157
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