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Author Ranft, Patricia

Title The theology of Peter Damian : "let your life always serve as a witness" / Patricia Ranft
Published Washington, D.C. : Catholic University of America Press, ©2012
©2012

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Description 1 online resource
Contents Italy at the millennium -- Establishing fundamental principles -- The mature theologian -- Standards for church reform -- Renewal of religious life -- Reflections on secular society
Summary "Few Western thinkers have been more influential and less known than Peter Damian (1007-1072). After centuries of neglect and misinterpretation, the man who emerges from Patricia Ranft's exhaustive investigation of his writings will surprise many. Immoderate in rhetoric yet moderate in teachings, Peter Damian is a man for the ages. Damian began his career in the schools of northern Italy, but soon joined a community of hermits at Fonte Avellana. His genius was too brilliant to hide, however, and he was called forth from solitude to fill the roles of religious reformer, theologian, adviser, cardinal, preacher, spiritual director, and papal legate. These roles brought him in contact with the pressing issues of mid-eleventh-century Italy. Fortunately, he recorded much of what he did and thought. In many areas he broke with accepted practices, abandoned old methods, and offered innovative approaches to problems. The previously unrecognized social theology at the core of his thought contributed much to the culture developed during this crucial period of Western history. In the first comprehensive work based wholly on critical editions of Damian's writings, Ranft explores all 180 letters of Damian and his vita of Romuald. She highlights Damian's ideas across a range of topics -- stewardship, social responsibilities, community, class, gender, ethics, ecology, justice, sexuality, avarice, authority, individualism, clerical behavior, and labor -- and shows how his ideas influenced the shape of Western culture."--Publisher's description
Bibliography Includes bibliographical references and index
Notes English
Print version record
Subject Peter Damian, Saint, 1007?-1072.
Peter Damian, Saint, 1007?-1072 -- Correspondence
Peter Damian, Saint, 1007?-1072
RELIGION -- Christian Theology -- Systematic.
RELIGION -- Christianity -- General.
RELIGION -- Christianity -- Catholic.
Genre/Form Personal correspondence
Form Electronic book
ISBN 9780813219981
0813219981