Christian Spirituality - In the Middle Ages #267693

The Middle Ages, both ascetic and mystical, lie before us like a vast forest, full of life but exceedingly dense. It is, therefore, of first importance to cut out a path which will enable us to pass through without too great labour and will serve as a landmark in exploring its depths. It is this which I have endeavoured to achieve.<br><br>The spirituality of the Middle Ages is to be found in the great religious families, which form so many schools - not to be confused with the theological schools - in which asceticism and mysticism became developed in accordance with the spirit proper to each foundation. Four religious Orders above all – I say above all, because I do not disregard the merits of the others - have left their mark strongly impressed on spirituality: the Benedictine Order, the Canons Regular of St Augustine, the Franciscans and the Dominicans. The spirituality in each one of these, whilst being fundamentally and substantially the same, nevertheless differs in the point of view from which it is regarded and in the way in which it is taught. These great Orders thus form schools, clearly distinct and characteristic, each one having its particular conception of spiritual science.<br><br>Now, these schools of the Middle Ages shared with one another a threefold conception of this science: practical and affective spirituality, which touches the heart rather than the reason; speculative spirituality, which builds up theories and concerns itself less with practice; finally, a spirituality at the same time speculative and affective, which includes both sentiment and reason. The influence of Platonism, found principally in the writings of Dionysius the Areopagite, and that of Aristotelianism with which St Thomas Aquinas was imbued in his theology, contributed to the formation of these different conceptions of spirituality.<br><br>At the beginning of the Middle Ages the Benedictine school reigned supreme. It received from St Bernard an incomparable brilliancy which irradiated all the other schools. It was characterized by marked, almost exclusive preference for affective and practical piety. The Abbot of Clairvaux disdained theories, and the result of his action on his school was such that it passed through the Middle Ages without feeling the influence of scholastic theology or of the works of Dionysius the Areopagite.