Teaching the Teachers

The Vercelli Book and the Mixed Life

Datos Bibliográficos

ID8861860
AutoresFrancis Leneghan (0000-0002-3999-6533, autor de correspondencia)
Año2013
Volumen94
Número6
Páginas627-658
Fecha de publicación2013-10-01
Peer ReviewedSí
Open AccessNo
TipoARTICLE
RevistaEnglish Studies (JOURNAL)
Identificadores de la revistaISSN: 0013-838X • E-ISSN: 1744-4217
EditorialRoutledge (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1080/0013838x.2013.814319
OpenAlexW2026495313
IdiomaEN
Citas recibidas8
Referencias citadas38

In this article I propose that the rationale of the compilation of the Vercelli Book is best appreciated if we group texts according to theme and content rather than form. The distinction between prose and verse appears to have been of little concern to the compiler, who combines homiletic texts with exemplary narratives concerning the education of teachers and, finally, a life of a hermit. This points to an interest in the tension between the pastoral duties of the preacher and the contemplative virtues of the ascetic life. Drawing on Gregory the Great's influential formulation of the “mixed life” of the ideal pastor in his “Cura Pastoralis”, I argue that the Vercelli Book invites the implied preacher-reader to balance the duty of preaching with the need for prayer, thereby harmonizing the active and contemplative lives

Aesthetics · Art · Asceticism · Contemplation · Duty · Epistemology · Ideal (ethics · Literature · Narrative · Prayer · Theme (computing · Theology · Byzantine Studies and History · Computer Science · Medieval Literature and History · Psychology · Reformation and Early Modern Christianity · Philosophy