Monastische Theologie und Protestantismus

Monastic theology is an independent and equally valued element of medieval theology that sits alongside the completely different component of scholasticism. Its roots go back to the ancient monasticism of the early church, although it reached its peak in the comprehensive work of the great Cistercian Bernhard von Clairvaux (1090/91-1153). For forty years, the church historian Ulrich Köpf has been deciphering the unique nature of this theology, its reception and the effect it had in the late Middle Ages, during Luther's time, and in Protestantism. The present volume collects the author's most important contributions about Bernhard's thinking and monastic theology, the role of religious experience therein, the relationship with mysticism, and what monastic tradition meant for Luther and Protestantism.