1: Introduction
2: The Challenge of Historiography
3: The Challenge of a New Life Style
4: The Challenge of a New Liberty
5: The Challenge of New Modes of Communication
6: Monastery Prisons and the Enlightenment
7: Runaway Monks
8: The Challenge of New Theories of Law
9: The Challenge of New Philosophies
10: The Challenge of a New Theology
11: Conclusion
Bibliography
Ulrich L. Lehner is William K. Warren Professor of Theology at
University of Notre Dame, Indiana. A member of the European Academy
of Sciences and Arts, he has received awards and fellowships from
the Princeton Institute for Advanced Study, the Notre Dame
Institute of Advanced Study, the Earhart Foundation, the German
Humboldt Foundation and the Carl Friedrich von Siemens Foundation.
He is the award-winning author of several scholarly works on
early modern and modern history of religion.
The book demonstrates in surprising new ways how eighteenth-century
Benedictines of the Catholic Enlightenment engaged with all
branches of contemporary academic study while simultaneously
accommodating the monastic life to modernizing trends in European
society. Engagingly written, deeply researched, and seriously
engaged with current research, Lehner's work demonstrates that the
Enlightenment was far more than a secular movement pitted against
an obscurantist religious outlook. It was, rather, a multi-faceted
trend to reconcile science and reason with matters of faith.
Enlightened Monks illustrates how, paradoxically, an institution
known most as a relic of the medieval past actually stood on the
front lines of this endeavor.
*John Gilmary Shea Prize committee*
Lehner's work marks a significant step in original research. His
extensive citation of archival sources offers a new perspective on
European religious culture... The book's content appeals to a wide
range of scholars and is not reserved for the narrow musings of the
specialist. The sociologist and historian will be intrigued as will
the philosopher and the theologian.
*Paul G. Monson, Journal of Church and State*
Academics will appreciate its meticulously documented research, as
well as the wealth of German scholarship Lehner makes available to
his English readers.
*Fr. Aquinas Guilbeau, First Things*
a valuable and carefully researched study ... an important and
extremely welcome addition to the literature on the Benedictine
order and the Catholic religious Enlightenment more generally.
*Thomas Ahnert, English Historical Review*
This very learned and highly original book, based on little-known
and often obscure sources, reveals the existence of a remarkable
subculture of Enlightened, even revolutionary, monks who had
personal as well as literary and philosophical connections with the
non-monastic world.
*Derek Beales, Journal of Ecclesiastical History*
considers how the Enlightenment influenced the social and
intellectual lives of Benedictine monks in German-speaking Europe
... Lehner has proffered a convincing argument that the German
Benedictines might be counted not only as constituents of the
Catholic Aufklärung, but as figures who existed squarely within the
Enlightenment itself.
*Stan Michael Landry, Religious Studies Review*
Lehner argues persuavively that many of the German Benedictines
integrated the oldest of the Enlightenment in their own system of
thought ... a scholarly work which should be in all major
libraries.
*G. R. Batho, The Historical Association*
Lehner offers, among other things, an excellent description of
monastic prisons, as well as deftly drawn portraits of various
savants, rogues, and dreamers in and out of the monasteries.
Enlightened Monks also provides important context for the later
German revival of theology centered in nineteenth-century Tübingen
... this is one of the most interesting books I've read this year
(2011).
*Lawrence S. Cunningham, Commonweal*
Lehner is nothing if not a thorough and industrious scholar, and
the wealth of information he has amassed alone makes this book a
valuable resource. But he is also a fluid writer, with an eye for
piquant details and arresting stories, ensuring that the narrative
is enlivened along the way by a great number of vivid and sensitive
portraits of individuals.
*Darrin McMahon, The Catholic Historical Review*
This fascinating book ... might stimulate monastic communities
today to ask whether they too could learn from the Enlightened
Monks.
*James Leachmann, Benedictine Culture*
This book is highly entertaining.
*Johannes Reich, Erbe und Auftrag*
A stimulating book that will leave no one indifferent!
*Daniel Misonne, Revue Benedictine*
Many of the ideas and reforms of these eighteenth century
Benedictines are in many ways strikingly similar to the radical
changes in monasticism after the Second Vatican Council ... It is
the great merit of this book to have saved these enlightened
Benedictines from oblivion and to have unearthed a monastic culture
that was characterized by its openness to modernity.
*Klaus Schatz, Theologie und Philosophie*
Beautifully written and cogently argued, Lehners book makes a
thoroughly convincing case for what those clinging to a Voltairean
Enlightenment will hardly believe enlightened monks.
*James Lees, Eighteenth Century Studies*
Lehners work is exquisitely researched and an absolute delight to
read if only for its hilarity, which is disarmingly refreshing in
scholarly works. This book is perfect for graduate students
specializing in either history or the history of theology. Very
advanced theology or history undergraduates would also find this to
be instructive for continuing on to pursue graduate research. As a
primer on research methods alone this work is exemplary, a true
guidebook for common and specialized citation methods ... As a
model of contemporary historiography and engaging scholarship,
Enlightened Monks is about as good as it gets.
*Catholic Books Review*
This book is of the same calibre as Derek Beale's magisterial work
about monasticism during the Ancien Régime.
*Rainald Becker, Francia Recensio*
Lehner's book offers an excellent social, cultural and intellectual
history of the German Benedictines ... a sophisticated structure
and sound balance between the presentation of case studies and
general trends that are all supported by the comprehensive study of
archival sources.
*Sascha Weber, Sehepunkte*
Ask a Question About this Product More... |