The Pursuit of Salvation. Community, Space, and Discipline in Early Medieval Monasticism

• Christian Church : religious orders & monasticism
• Early Christian & Patristic Latin literature
• Religious history (c. 500-1500)
• Early Middle Ages (c.500-1000)

“In sum this book brings together the key insights of Diem’s important methodological work on this and other early monastic rules and makes useful contributions to the debate on the persistence or otherwise of Columbanian monasticism and the early spread of the Benedictine rule. While it will be of great interest to specialists in the field, many of its conclusions will be controversial.” (Katrina Edwards, in Journal of the Australian Early Medieval Association, 24.02.2022, p. 209)

“Die lebendige und bildreiche Sprache des Werkes, in dem so mancher originelle Vergleich und manche Wendung aus Vorträgen erhalten geblieben ist, weckt Lust darauf, dieser Einladung zu folgen und, wenn man einmal dabei ist, noch ein bisschen zu bleiben. Bleiben wird auch dieses Buch, denn an der hier unternommenen Herkulesaufgabe einer Darstellung der Entwicklung des westlichen Klosterwesens wird man auf absehbare Zeit nicht vorbeikommen, auch wenn man in dem einen oder anderen Punkt anderer Meinung sein sollte.” (Arnold Otto, in Jahrbuch für mitteldeutsche Kirchen- und Ordensgeschichte, 18, 2022, p. 286)

“At first glance, this book looks like a critical edition, English translation, and extensive commentary on the Regula cuiusdam ad uirgines, a seventh-century monastic rule that was written for a female community. However, this study is much more than that. Albrecht Diem takes the Regula cuiusdam ad uirgines as a starting point for a broader investigation of early medieval monasticism: he analyses the role of monastic discipline and space, as well as the function of monastic communities in the salvation process. For this purpose, Diem draws on his own in-depth and long-term research on early medieval monastic rules. (...) Throughout his work, Diem diligently combines philological with historical and theological investigation, which makes this publication extremely valuable.” (Rahel Schär, in Early Medieval Europe, 31.2, 2023, pp. 1-3)

“Although Diem’s focus is on a single relatively brief work, the Regula cuiusdam ad uirgines, he uses this as the foundation on which to build a complex, thoughtful, and illuminating discussion of early medieval monasticism as a whole. In doing so, Diem challenges a range of long-held theories and assumptions. Although some scholars may disagree with specific elements of his case, all who work in this area will need to grapple with it going forward. (...) Although the Regula cuiusdam ad uirgines is his ostensible focus, he sets it into conversation with a very wide range of other materials, to illustrate the author’s decision-making processes, as well as the text’s reception. This is a constantly intertextual discussion, and Diem displays his familiarity with the intricacies of monastic materials in the process.” (Lisa Kaaren Bailey, in Studies in Late Antiquity, 7.2, 2023, p. 327)

« D’un point de vue méthodologique, on retiendra que l’étude d’A.D. est la première à centrer l’étude de la tradition monastique sur une analyse purement lexicographique. Elle ouvre ainsi une voie et montre l’intérêt que les historiens pourraient tirer de la mise en place d’une véritable base d’interrogation des textes monastiques du haut Moyen Âge, si du moins il leur est aussi possible d’avancer dans le même temps vers une méthodologie affinée de l’analyse de l’intertextualité et des champs lexicaux. »  (Laurent Ripart, dans RMA, 291, 2023, p. 246)

“By this book and the studies that preceded it, Diem has provided an authoritative and extensive source and content analysis of the Regula cuiusdam ad virgines. He does so, in Jonas’s words, with attention and zeal, or, we might say, with a great deal of work and study. He details how Jonas used the Rule of Benedict, but also corrected it to fit his own ideas about how the nuns for whom he was writing should live. All students of pre-Carolingian monasticism in the Latin West are much beholden to Professor Diem.” (Hugh Feiss, O.S.B, in The American Benedictine Review, 74/4, 2023, p. 459)

Albrecht Diem, Associate Professor of Late Antique and Early Medieval History at Syracuse University