THE WISDOM OF THE BEGUINES: THE FORGOTTEN STORY OF A MEDIEVAL WOMEN’ S MOVEMENT

Book ID/图书代码： 02173014B71968

English Summary/英文概要： The beguines began to form in various parts of Europe over eight hundred years ago, around the year 1200. Beguines were laywomen, not nuns, and thus did not take solemn vows and did not live in monasteries. The beguines were a phenomenal movement that swept across Europe yet they were never a religious order or a formalized movement. But there were common elements that rendered these women distinctive and familiar, including their common way of life, their unusual business acumen, and their commitment to the poor and marginalized. These women were essentially self-defined, in opposition to the many attempts to control and define them. They lived by themselves or together in so-called beguinages, which could be single houses for as few as a handful of beguines or, as in Brugge and Amsterdam, walled-in rows of houses (enclosing a central court with a chapel) where over a thousand beguines might live—a village of women within a medieval town or city. And each region of Europe has its own beguine stories to tell. Among the beguines were celebrated spiritual writers and mystics, including Mechthild of Magdeburg, Beatrijs of Nazareth, Hadewijch of Brabant, and Marguerite Porete, who was condemned as a heretic and burned at the stake in Paris in 1310. She was not the only beguine suspected of heresy, and often politics were the driving force behind such charges. Certain clerics defended beguines against charges of heresy, while other women had to go undercover by joining a Benedictine or Cistercian monastery.

Amazingly, many beguine communities survived for a long time despite oppression, wars, the plague, and other human and natural disasters. Beguines lived through—and helped propel—times of great transition and reform. Beguines courageously spoke to power and corruption, never despairing of God’s compassion for humanity. They used their business acumen to establish and support ministries that extended education, health care, and other social services to the vulnerable. And they preached and taught of a loving God who desired a relationship with each individual person while calling to reform those who used God’s name for personal gain.

What strength of spirit protected the lives of these women and their beguinages? What can we learn from them? What might they teach us? The beguines have much to say to our world today. This book invites us to listen to their voices, to discover them anew.

Chinese Summary/中文概要： 八百年前，约1200年，贝居安修女会在欧洲大陆的许多个角落开始萌芽形成。她的成员们均为女平信徒，并非真正意义上的修女，她们不会进行庄严的宣誓，也不会居住在修道院中。贝居安运动曾声势浩大的横扫欧洲，尽管她们从来都没有自身的宗教原则，也并不是一个正规化的运动。但是这些女性身上有着一些共同之处，使得她们既独特又熟悉，其中便包括她们共同的生活方式，她们敏锐的商业头脑，以及她们致力于帮助穷人和生活在社会边境的人们的决心。这些女性们对自己进行了自我的界定，她们反对那些试图控制和界定她们的世俗世界的条条框框。她们要么自力更生，要么相互帮助，她们称自己为贝居安修女，她们或许几个人生活在独立的屋舍之中，或住在布鲁日和阿姆斯特丹的一排屋舍里（在一个以教堂为中心的院落中围成一圈），那里可以居住上千名贝居安修女----在一个中世纪的城镇之中，这里就像一个女性的村庄。欧洲的每一种宗教都有其自身的贝居安故事，在贝居安修女们之中，她们庆祝灵魂座驾和神秘的事件，其中包括马格德堡的麦西蒂尔德、拿撒勒的比阿特丽丝、布拉本特的海德威治以及马格瑞特•博瑞特，她们均被谴责为异教徒，并于1310年在巴黎的火刑柱上被活活烧死。她并非唯一一个被怀疑为异教徒的贝居安修女，而政治原因往往是这样的刑法背后的推动力量。有些牧师们会为贝居安修女收到的异端指控进行辩护，而其他的女性们只能暗中悄悄加入天主教本笃会或是西多会修道院。

令人惊奇的是，尽管遭到各种压迫、战争和灾难以及其他天灾人祸的影响，许多贝居安社团还是存在了很长一段时间。她们克服了困难，并且还帮助推动了重要的时代转变和改革。贝居安修女们勇敢的向权威和腐败势力谏言，践行着人道主义怜悯行为，并且从未辜负上帝。她们用其敏锐的商业头脑建立并支撑政府部门，致力于教育扩充，医疗保健事业，以及其他帮助弱势群体的社会公共服务。她们宣扬上帝之爱，称上帝对每个人都是同等的，她们反对那些假借上帝之名来谋取私利的人物和行为。

是怎样的一种精神力量保卫着这样的一群女性以及她们的贝居安信条？我们又能从她们身上学到些什么？她们能够教会我们些什么？贝居安修女们有太多想要对我们这个时代说的话。本书将邀请你去倾听她们的声音，去发现全新的贝居安修女。（DC）

Awards/获奖情况：

About the Author/作者介绍： 劳拉•斯旺多年来一直潜心研究女性的精神发展历程及其宗教生活。她是Magistra: A Journal of Women’s Spirituality in History杂志的副主编，同时也是华盛顿州圣马丁大学宗教研究院的一名副教授。她曾是圣普拉希德隐修院女院长和成员，这是一个本笃会女性团体，她的作品包括The Forgotten Desert Mothers （《被遗忘的沙漠母亲》）和 Engaging Benedict（《专注的本笃教徒》）。

Laura Swan has for many years studied and written about the history of women’s spirituality and the monastic life. She is the associate editor of Magistra: A Journal of Women’s Spirituality in History and adjunct professor of religious studies at Saint Martin’s University in Washington State. A member and former prioress of St. Placid Priory, a community of Benedictine women in the Pacific Northwest, her books include The Forgotten Desert Mothers and Engaging Benedict.

Format:

Rights Status/版权销售情况：Simplified Chinese/简体中文：AVAILABLE

Complex/Traditional Chinese/繁体中文：AVAILABLE

Sales in other countries/其他国家销售情况：

原文第一章内容：暂无

手稿：暂无

大纲：暂无