Javascript must be enabled to continue!
‘Acedia’ 700–1200
View through CrossRef
Among the seven deadly sins, none is more interesting to study for its historical development and the complexity of its meaning than the sin of acedia. For while its companions — with the possible exception of avarice — remained fairly static through the centuries of medieval thought, and indeed have remained so to the present, acedia presented a variety of faces and changed in its very nature, from the moment when it entered Christian teaching in the West to the fifteenth century. In Christian thinking, pride has always been pride; its psychological roots may have been explained in agreement with different philosophical and psychological systems, and its manifestations may vary according to changing attitudes and experiences, but its nature has remained essentially unchanged. The same is true of envy, wrath, lust, and the others. But not so with acedia. A reflection of the complexity which this concept acquired during its medieval lifetime can still be seen in the totally different connotations which its names have for the cognoscenti of today. The ancient term acedia fascinates because it suggests such phenomena as spiritual dryness, ennui or WeItschmerz, while its vernacular equivalent sloth, as everyone readily agrees, stands for something so common and ordinary that it hardly deserves a second thought.
Title: ‘Acedia’ 700–1200
Description:
Among the seven deadly sins, none is more interesting to study for its historical development and the complexity of its meaning than the sin of acedia.
For while its companions — with the possible exception of avarice — remained fairly static through the centuries of medieval thought, and indeed have remained so to the present, acedia presented a variety of faces and changed in its very nature, from the moment when it entered Christian teaching in the West to the fifteenth century.
In Christian thinking, pride has always been pride; its psychological roots may have been explained in agreement with different philosophical and psychological systems, and its manifestations may vary according to changing attitudes and experiences, but its nature has remained essentially unchanged.
The same is true of envy, wrath, lust, and the others.
But not so with acedia.
A reflection of the complexity which this concept acquired during its medieval lifetime can still be seen in the totally different connotations which its names have for the cognoscenti of today.
The ancient term acedia fascinates because it suggests such phenomena as spiritual dryness, ennui or WeItschmerz, while its vernacular equivalent sloth, as everyone readily agrees, stands for something so common and ordinary that it hardly deserves a second thought.
Related Results
Process and Patronage in the Decorative Arts of the Early Campaigns of Troyes Cathedral, ca. 1200-1220s
Process and Patronage in the Decorative Arts of the Early Campaigns of Troyes Cathedral, ca. 1200-1220s
A methodology that exploits all aspects of the building program of Troyes Cathedral is here employed to reveal more about the cathedral's early history. Little-known grisailles fro...
Palaepaphos-Teratsoudhia Tomb 288 (c. 1650 BC–c. 1200 BC)
Palaepaphos-Teratsoudhia Tomb 288 (c. 1650 BC–c. 1200 BC)
This paper presents a new tomb complex of the Late Bronze Age at Palaepaphos-Teratsoudhia in south-west Cyprus. Although looted, Tomb 288 yielded a representative repertoire of fun...
Evidence of NAO control on subsurface ice accumulation in a 1200 yr old cave-ice sequence, St. Livres ice cave, Switzerland
Evidence of NAO control on subsurface ice accumulation in a 1200 yr old cave-ice sequence, St. Livres ice cave, Switzerland
AbstractMid-latitude ice caves are assumed to be highly sensitive to climatic changes and thus represent a potentially interesting environmental archive. Establishing a precise chr...
What's in a Name? A Survey of Roman Onomastic Practice from c. 700 B.C. to A.D. 700
What's in a Name? A Survey of Roman Onomastic Practice from c. 700 B.C. to A.D. 700
Perusal of over a thousand years of the fasti of the Romans' eponymous magistracy is sufficient to demonstrate that Roman onomastic practice did not stand still. Why, then, is ther...
Buddhist Architectural Transformation in Medieval China, 300–700 CE: Emperor Wu’s Great Assemblies and the Rise of the Corridor-Enclosed, Multicloister Monastery Plan
Buddhist Architectural Transformation in Medieval China, 300–700 CE: Emperor Wu’s Great Assemblies and the Rise of the Corridor-Enclosed, Multicloister Monastery Plan
During the Northern and Southern dynasties (420–589 CE), Chinese Buddhist monasteries transitioned from singlequadrangle structures into large compounds encompassing central and su...
Literati Encomia on Embroidered Buddhist Icons, c.700-900 CE
Literati Encomia on Embroidered Buddhist Icons, c.700-900 CE
Abstract
This study examines all the surviving examples of short prose pieces written in praise of embroidery depicting Buddhist objects of worship between circa 700 and 900. The p...
Paleoenvironmental Changes and Glacial Stades of the Last 50,000 Years in the Cordillera Central, Colombia
Paleoenvironmental Changes and Glacial Stades of the Last 50,000 Years in the Cordillera Central, Colombia
Using data from glacial geomorphology, tephra-soil stratigraphy and mineralogy, palynology, and radiocarbon dating, a sequence of glacial and bioclimatic stades and interstades has...
Spears, Darts, and Arrows: Late Woodland Hunting Techniques in the Upper Ohio Valley
Spears, Darts, and Arrows: Late Woodland Hunting Techniques in the Upper Ohio Valley
The belief that the bow and arrow replaced the spear and/or dart as hunting weapons in eastern North America between 1500 and 1200 B.P. is tested using a classification function th...