Band 15, Heft 1 - Askese im Mittelalter. Beiträge zu ihrer Praxis, Deutung und Wirkungsgeschichte. Hrsg. von Gottfried Kerscher und Gerhard Krieger

Focusing especially on case studies from the Old High German glosses to the Rule of Benedict, and especially on the lexeme disciplina , one of their central ascetic terms, this contribution examines different manifestations and methods of the glossators’ annotation system from a primarily linguistic viewpoint. The Old High German words interpolated between and to the side of the Latin lines are interpreted not only as linguistic primary material, but at the same time as means of deepening our cultural-historical understanding of medieval forms of life and the spheres of knowledge inherent to them in which asceticism played a major role.

The study focuses on fasting as a means of recovering God’s grace, an act which was frequently ordered by authorities throughout the European Middle Ages. Crop failure in particular, as well as the famine which regularly resulted from it, were countered by fasting lasting several days. The famine of the years 805 to 806 is a special case of collective asceticism focussed on a distinct geographical entity and carried out using suitable rules e.g. fasting, prayer, alms-giving etc. At the same time it is shown to be a paradigmatic example of medieval crisis management. In cases such as these, renunciation seems to have been a sort of religiously motivated inward-looking self-compulsion. Consequently asceticism of this type can be regarded as the product of an external compulsion which seeks to mediate the world of events through a collectively established religious order.

My paper focuses on two different ways of relating textuality and asceticism in late medieval vernacular texts. The first part investigates various textual representations of the polyvalent ascetic biography of Elizabeth of Hungary (most of them based on the ‘Vita S. Elyzabeth’ by Dietrich von Apolda), and observes that Elizabeth’s rather modern, worldly ascetic practices did not inhibit monastic reception of their hagiographic representations in the vernacular. Nonetheless, at least one passage of the different versions of the ‘Vita’ questions, in a more or less pronounced manner, the very possibility of representing ascetism. Rutebeuf’s 13th-century French version puts it most clearly: It is not the movement of lips and teeth that leads to salvation, but true compunction. Subsequently, the second part discusses a related question raised by a 14th-century Rhenish Franconian confessional handbook: Does textual ascetism have to be encoded via linguistic form?

The contribution concentrates on the graphic representation of asceticism and ascetic life forms as it is perceived in a late medieval version of the legend of ‘Barlaam and Josaphat’. The legend was handed down from a Buddhist text version first in Byzantium and later in the West; the often illustrated German vernacular version of Rudolf von Ems forms the basis of the contribution. Asceticism served as a self-compulsatory voluntary decision for the acquisition of divine mercy in all of these works. Here the indefatigable striving for welfare corresponded to the indefatigable occupational work culminating in actions conferring with God’s ultimate will. However, this could hardly be represented by means of detailed illustrations, but had to be communicated in a sign-like fashion through actions such as putting away of one’s clothes etc.; indeed, even an emaciated body was a sufficiently clear sign denoting asceticism.

The study examines Nicolas de La Chesnaye’s play ‘La Condamnation de Banquet’, a text written shortly after the year 1500 and criticizing heavily the conduct of nightly banquets in the French upper classes of its time. It was also transformed into tapestries, still extant, shortly after its first publication. Bodily conditions (e.g. sobriety), illnesses (e.g. stroke) and institutions (e.g. a tribunal) serve as personifications of such topics as excessive sumptuousness, and the moral depravation and aberration associated with it. The play’s perspective is to highlight social responsibility and to provide its audience with recommendations for a healthy way of living. Asceticism is declared to be a bonum commune and a way of optimizing oneself.

This article deals with the incompatibility of Christian and Jewish stereotypes in asceticism and tries to establish new models for approaching ascetic tendencies within the latter. In the context of halachic regulations we examine different ascetic aspects within Judaism, with a special focus on medieval Spain. In this area we observe a certain interaction between Jewish and Sufi trends, esp. in the works of Bachja ibn Paquda, Abraham bar Chijja and Abraham Maimonides. In the works of these authors we find tripartite models of asceticism which signify the path to the deity. In a comparison with Sufi texts such as those of Al-Gazali, the three levels of repentance/law, meditation/path and the recognition of the divine truth are shown to be intertwined in a similar way, and all describe the way of the philosopher or mystic to the highest knowledge. In a further section this tripartite schema is compared to kabbalistic texts with their ideas of ascent and union with the divine within ecstatic kabbalah. In the first example we observe how an erotic impulse may lead to an ascetic way of life and how the horizontal move out of society leads to a vertical ascent of the soul and the foundation of a new, mobile society. In the second text we also detect the three intertwined stages of our model and see how ascetic preparations lead to an erotic union of the mystic’s soul with the divine intellect. Asceticism is described in both texts as a mode of transformation and the path between two extremes, which finally leads to intimate knowledge of the deity.

Asceticism and science are connected in Weber’s thought insofar as “asceticism” includes an attitude of job-related professionalization and this attitude in turn signifies capitalistic as well as scientific activity. In this way, asceticism has also an “innerworldly” nature, in contrast to the way it is depicted in Christianity or in other religions. In this (religious) sense, asceticism serves as a means to otherworldly completion, while its “innerworldly” meaning is entirely interior to itself. Insofar as for Weber, asceticism, independent from any religious sense, signifies scientific as well as economic activity, it is a “practical-rational” conduct of life in the sense of competence, enhancement, and perfection. This is the methodological basis for a reconsideration of Thomas Aquinas’ ideas on asceticism. Thomas, like Weber, uncouples the relation of otherworldly completion and asceticism and links this decoupling to the priority of perfection of asceticism. However Thomas, contrary to Weber, associates asceticism with the conditions innate to a particular way of life; in this sense, asceticism can determine human existence itself, insofar as it is realized both “outside the world in monastic communities” and also “within this world and for it”. With reference to the relation of science and asceticism, for Thomas as well as for Weber scientific activity is “ascetic” in the sense that it strives for perfection. However, in contrast to Weber, Thomas maintains that it is impossible for a subject to bring his scientific activity to a complete conclusion.

In this article Weber’s famous theory concerning “The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism” is taken as a theory of civilization. It is shown that in his analysis of ascetic Puritanism, and also of the Calvinistic doctrine of predestination, Weber comes to depict the principle of self-control as the main feature of the Puritan which makes him “the father of modern self-discipline”. Self-discipline in turn is the principal ability of modern man in Norbert Elias’ theory of civilization. But all these categories that Elias uses to describe the status of being civilized – self-control, control of emotion, methodical moderation of spontaneity, punctuality etc. – already appear in the work of Max Weber in his attempt to explain the religious genesis of such attitudes.