Signs and Wonders

This book is concerned with the concepts of Christian holiness and spirituality, from Late Antiquity through to the Middle Ages. The first group of articles focuses on the Desert Fathers, the following ones examine key figures in the monastic history of the medieval West, dealing above all with England and with Bede and Anselm of Canterbury. Throughout, Benedicta Ward's aim has been to find an approach that makes full sense of Christian writings, notably the hagiography, miracles and all. This should not be seen, she argues, simply as biography, nor as a quarry for information on social history, valuable though it may be for those purposes. The primary object of these Lives - as of the people about whom they were written - was religious; to neglect this meaning is to risk fundamentally misunderstanding these texts. Ce volume traite des concepts de la saintet et de la spiritualit chrtiennes, de lAntiquit tardive jusquau Moyen Age. Le premier groupe dtudes se concentre sur les Pres du Dsert, les suivants font lexamen de personnages-clefs dans lhistoire monastique de lOccident mdival, sattachant avant tout lAngleterre et Bde et Anselme de Cantorbry. Benedicta Ward pour propos constant de trouver une approche rendent tout son sens la litterature chrtienne et notamment la littrature hagiographique, miracles et autres. Bien que valable ces deux niveaux, ceci ne devrait pas tre peru, souligne-telle, en tant que simple biographie, ni en tant que source dinformation sur lhistoire sociale. Lobjet premier de ces Vies est dordre religieux; toute ngligence de ce sens peut mener une mcomprhension fondamentale de ces textes.