Columba Stewart | College of Saint Benedict/St. John's University (original) (raw)
Papers by Columba Stewart
Preservation, Digital Technology & Culture, 2016
Syria is often in the news but the coverage usually focuses either on the fighting or on the refu... more Syria is often in the news but the coverage usually focuses either on the fighting or on the refugees who are trying to escape. However, another part of the humanitarian crisis is the damage and destruction of cultural heritage. News stories about cultural heritage in Syria have tended to concentrate on museums, monuments, and archaeological sites. Photos of demolished monuments make for eye-catching news items. Libraries and archives—the repositories of much historical memory—receive less coverage. How are they faring in Syria right now? It is not an easy question to answer. After consulting with many colleagues, I have uncovered little. Stéphane J. Ipert, director of the International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions Preservation and Conservation Centres (IFLA / PAC), in a separate article in this issue on preservation activities in Arabic-speaking countries, could write only that there was a conservation facility in the National Library in Damascus. Another article in this issue by two reporters for BuzzFeed, Borzou Daragahi and Sarah Dadouch, describe a makeshift library, but it contains contemporary books. There are some reports that books and manuscripts have been taken out of Syria for safe keeping. That seems likely. Even more likely is that we will not know much for quite some time. Another way to learn about the current state of Syrian libraries and archives is to find information about cultural heritage damage in the region. One source is the American Schools of Oriental Research, usually referred to as ASOR. Founded in 1900, ASOR promotes the study of the Near East through numerous programs and partnerships. In August
with Margaret A. Farley, R.S.M., Yale Divinity School, Rev. John O'Malley, SJ, Weston Jesuit ... more with Margaret A. Farley, R.S.M., Yale Divinity School, Rev. John O'Malley, SJ, Weston Jesuit School of Theology, and Columba Stewart, O.S.B., St. John's Abbey, MN.Higgins Hall 31
The Oxford Handbook of Christian Monasticism
The Latin literature of early monasticism was created within much tighter personal networks than ... more The Latin literature of early monasticism was created within much tighter personal networks than that of the East, but these networks spanned considerable geographical distances. The use of a single language for both the composition of ascetic literature and the translation of many important Greek writings further strengthened the unifying role of the literary corpus. Latin monasticism was particularly marked by theological controversy (Priscillianist, Origenist, Pelagian), and came to be dominated theologically by Augustine of Hippo. Augustine also played a key role in developing the genre of the monastic rule (regula), which would become normative in Western monastic practice, as evident in the regulae of Gaul and Italy that became the foundations for medieval monasticism.
Yours, Mine, or Theirs? Historical Observations on the Use, Collection and Sharing of Manuscripts in Western Europe and the Christian Orient, 2009
Many of you readers of this Festschrift are well-acquainted with the history and often tragic fat... more Many of you readers of this Festschrift are well-acquainted with the history and often tragic fate of particular manuscript collections, as well as with the questionable circumstances in which important western collections of manuscripts from the Christian Orient were formed. A review of that history and a consideration of the present situation of church-held manuscript collections in the Christian Orient (and the risks they face), can inform present-day efforts to strengthen the bond between those communities and their manuscripts, while finding ways to make such collections more accessible to the broad scholarly community
Book Description: Prayer and Worship in Eastern Christianities, 5th to 11th Centuries forges a ne... more Book Description: Prayer and Worship in Eastern Christianities, 5th to 11th Centuries forges a new conversation about the diversity of Christianities in the medieval eastern Mediterranean, centered on the history of practice, looking at liturgy, performance, prayer, poetry, and the material culture of worship. It studies prayer and worship in the variety of Christian communities that thrived from late antiquity to the middle ages: Byzantine Orthodoxy, Syrian Orthodoxy, and the Church of the East. Rather than focusing on doctrinal differences and analyzing divergent patterns of thought, the essays address common patterns of worship, individual and collective prayer, hymnography and liturgy, as well as the indigenous theories that undergirded Christian practices. The volume intervenes in standard academic discourses about Christian difference with an exploration of common patterns of celebration, commemoration, and self-discipline
The etiology of monasticism echoes broader debates about the distinctiveness of Christianity vis-... more The etiology of monasticism echoes broader debates about the distinctiveness of Christianity vis-à-vis other religious and cultural movements, the place of asceticism within Christianity, and the place of the intellectual life within monasticism. In the 75 years and many miles that passed between Athanasius’s Life of Antony and Cassian’s monastic project in Gaul, much changed in the relationship between Christianity and non-Christian philosophers. As time passed, the polemical imperative faded. By the time of Cassian’s Conferences, philosophy as a living alternative to monasticism seems quite remote. Throughout the literature of early monasticism, sampled only briefly in this paper, it is unsurprising that the most significant monastic affinity with philosophy, as well as the most intense monastic critique of philosophy’s ultimate value, is where they competed most keenly, in the cultivation of virtue
International Journal of Middle East Studies, 2018
The study of manuscripts was traditionally the preserve of scholar-curators in research libraries... more The study of manuscripts was traditionally the preserve of scholar-curators in research libraries who devoted their lives to the exhaustive study and description of collections that were often gathered from several sources. The expected result of their solitary labor was a printed catalog that might describe at most a few hundred manuscripts from a particular linguistic or religious culture. That model has been challenged by the advent of large-scale digital projects that aggregate thousands or even tens of thousands of manuscripts from multiple libraries in a single database or portal.
San Benito El Arte Benedictino 2009 Isbn 978 84 271 3017 3 Pags 11 24, 2009
Prayer and Thought in Monastic Tradition : Essays in Honour of Benedicta Ward, SLG
Book Description: Prayer and Thought in Monastic Tradition presents a chronological picture of th... more Book Description: Prayer and Thought in Monastic Tradition presents a chronological picture of the development of monastic thought and prayer from the early English Church (Bede, Adomnan) through to the 17th Century and William Law\u27s religious community at King\u27s Cliffe. Essays interact with different facets of monastic life, assessing the development and contribution of figures such as Boniface, the Venerable Bede, Anselm of Canterbury and Bernard of Clairvaux. The varying modes and outputs of the monastic life of prayer are considered, with focus on the use of different literary techniques in the creation of monastic documents, the interaction between monks and the laity, the creation of prayers and the purpose and structure of prayer in different contexts. The volume also discusses the nature of translation of classic monastic works, and the difficulties the translator faces
Spiritus: A Journal of Christian Spirituality, 2001
write these reflections in a small Benedictine monastery in Japan founded from our community of S... more write these reflections in a small Benedictine monastery in Japan founded from our community of St. John’s in Collegeville, Minnesota. This house is filled with instantly recognizable elements that echo features of the home monastery. The cloister gates are crafted in the same distinctive pattern of wood slats, allowing visitors a glimpse of the monastic enclosure. Because all of the furniture was made in our woodworking shop as a gift to our brothers when they moved to a new site, the chairs feel right. The habits they wear are of the American Cassinese variety, with hoods fixed to the scapular by a button rather than sewn on. My abbot’s photograph is on display. Some of the monks are men I lived and worked with in Minnesota; the Japanese have been my students. However, the ease made possible by affiliation and a shared way of life goes only so far, and many of the ideas I brought with me for my brief stay must be left, along with my shoes, at the front door. The notes on the bulletin board are in a script that I cannot even begin to decipher, and the liturgy so deeply familiar in form flows briskly past me as a river of verbal incomprehension. Benedictines like to bow, but here bowing is everywhere: at the exchange of the pax in the Eucharist, in veneration of the consecrated bread and wine, as the presider takes leave of the assembly. (Even the schoolchildren bow to motorists when they cross the street.) Japanese Benedictine life chastens even as it fascinates. Here, as during my stays in the Middle East, I am reminded not to imitate those who have looked east to escape their own cultural constraints or to fulfill fantasies of oriental splendor. A domesticated exoticism of carefully edited motifs betrays everyone involved, both self and the plundered other. To think we can “own” another culture, either through colonial occupation or religious inheritance, is a very perverse—and destructive—form of blindness. I read, teach, and write about early monastic literature. I love these texts deeply, though I have moved beyond the stage of wide-eyed infatuation with Antony, Evagrius, John Cassian, and the rest. First fervor has its own wonder, but one cannot make a life of it. I am trying now to see these texts more clearly than I could when I first read them, not so as to spurn or debunk them, but to appreciate their achievement more accurately. I hope that mine is now a wiser and more “We”? Reflections on Affinity and Dissonance in Reading Early Monastic Literature
Modern Theology, 2011
Evagrius Ponticus (c. 345399) combined the resources of Hellenistic philosophy, the theologies o... more Evagrius Ponticus (c. 345399) combined the resources of Hellenistic philosophy, the theologies of Origen and the Cappadocians, and Egyptian monastic practice to create a comprehensive view of spiritual development, within which he placed a sophisticated study of the human ...
The Hill Museum & Manuscript Library (HMML) was founded to microfilm monastic manuscripts in Euro... more The Hill Museum & Manuscript Library (HMML) was founded to microfilm monastic manuscripts in Europe at a time when nuclear war was an ever-present fear. That war never happened, but others did. Over the decades, HMML has responded to the urgent needs of endangered communities in Africa, the Middle East, and India. This illustrated presentation will trace HMML\u27s path from Europe to Ethiopia, to the Middle East and India, and finally to the west African nation of Mali, where HMML is partnering to save the threatened manuscripts of Timbuktu
Journal of Early Christian Studies, 2001
Evagrius Ponticus (ca. 345-399), practitioner and theologian of monastic prayer, brought his deep... more Evagrius Ponticus (ca. 345-399), practitioner and theologian of monastic prayer, brought his deep knowledge of both Hellenistic philosophy and Christian thought (especially the work of Origen) to bear on his tracing of the human journey back to perfect union with God. His several writings on prayer, and particularly his teaching about "imageless prayer," must be situated within that philosophical and theological framework. The emphasis on imageless prayer creates a tension with the Christian and monastic focus on biblical texts. Examining Evagrius' theories of mental operation and biblical exegesis helps in understanding both the imperative of imageless prayer for Evagrius and its problematic aspects.
Complete Works DFM 745 (this section: 14-16?? CC): fols 27v-45r: Ep Melania MBM 364 (early 13C): ... more Complete Works DFM 745 (this section: 14-16?? CC): fols 27v-45r: Ep Melania MBM 364 (early 13C): Eulogius 78v-100v, S1 version, w/ intro; 142r-151r: varia, with 8 Passions (CPG 2451), at 147v-150v CFMM 283, (15C): pp. 89-104: "teaching of Aba Evagrius on Stillness (šelya) and monasticism (dayrutha) and how they can be possessed" = Hypotyposis/Foundations (CPG 2441) as in BL 14578 fol. 97rb though starts with Ch. 2 (=fol. 97va, l.5) and then complete to end. CFMM 417 (cf. Dolabani, Dayr al-Z. catal., pt. II, pp. 52-62; dated March 1474) pp. 466-469 On the perfect and the just (CPG 2465) pp. 469-480 On the eight passions (CPG 2451) pp. 480-487 On Vices and virtues (CPG 2448); this copy has an introduction that is not in CFMM 420
?Que podemos conocer acerca de como rezaban los monjes egipcios? Estan los tipos habituales de ev... more ?Que podemos conocer acerca de como rezaban los monjes egipcios? Estan los tipos habituales de evidencia, textuales y arqueologicos, asi como tambien el efecto perdurable de la practica de la oracion monastica egipcia en tradiciones monasticas posteriores.
Preservation, Digital Technology & Culture, 2016
Syria is often in the news but the coverage usually focuses either on the fighting or on the refu... more Syria is often in the news but the coverage usually focuses either on the fighting or on the refugees who are trying to escape. However, another part of the humanitarian crisis is the damage and destruction of cultural heritage. News stories about cultural heritage in Syria have tended to concentrate on museums, monuments, and archaeological sites. Photos of demolished monuments make for eye-catching news items. Libraries and archives—the repositories of much historical memory—receive less coverage. How are they faring in Syria right now? It is not an easy question to answer. After consulting with many colleagues, I have uncovered little. Stéphane J. Ipert, director of the International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions Preservation and Conservation Centres (IFLA / PAC), in a separate article in this issue on preservation activities in Arabic-speaking countries, could write only that there was a conservation facility in the National Library in Damascus. Another article in this issue by two reporters for BuzzFeed, Borzou Daragahi and Sarah Dadouch, describe a makeshift library, but it contains contemporary books. There are some reports that books and manuscripts have been taken out of Syria for safe keeping. That seems likely. Even more likely is that we will not know much for quite some time. Another way to learn about the current state of Syrian libraries and archives is to find information about cultural heritage damage in the region. One source is the American Schools of Oriental Research, usually referred to as ASOR. Founded in 1900, ASOR promotes the study of the Near East through numerous programs and partnerships. In August
with Margaret A. Farley, R.S.M., Yale Divinity School, Rev. John O'Malley, SJ, Weston Jesuit ... more with Margaret A. Farley, R.S.M., Yale Divinity School, Rev. John O'Malley, SJ, Weston Jesuit School of Theology, and Columba Stewart, O.S.B., St. John's Abbey, MN.Higgins Hall 31
The Oxford Handbook of Christian Monasticism
The Latin literature of early monasticism was created within much tighter personal networks than ... more The Latin literature of early monasticism was created within much tighter personal networks than that of the East, but these networks spanned considerable geographical distances. The use of a single language for both the composition of ascetic literature and the translation of many important Greek writings further strengthened the unifying role of the literary corpus. Latin monasticism was particularly marked by theological controversy (Priscillianist, Origenist, Pelagian), and came to be dominated theologically by Augustine of Hippo. Augustine also played a key role in developing the genre of the monastic rule (regula), which would become normative in Western monastic practice, as evident in the regulae of Gaul and Italy that became the foundations for medieval monasticism.
Yours, Mine, or Theirs? Historical Observations on the Use, Collection and Sharing of Manuscripts in Western Europe and the Christian Orient, 2009
Many of you readers of this Festschrift are well-acquainted with the history and often tragic fat... more Many of you readers of this Festschrift are well-acquainted with the history and often tragic fate of particular manuscript collections, as well as with the questionable circumstances in which important western collections of manuscripts from the Christian Orient were formed. A review of that history and a consideration of the present situation of church-held manuscript collections in the Christian Orient (and the risks they face), can inform present-day efforts to strengthen the bond between those communities and their manuscripts, while finding ways to make such collections more accessible to the broad scholarly community
Book Description: Prayer and Worship in Eastern Christianities, 5th to 11th Centuries forges a ne... more Book Description: Prayer and Worship in Eastern Christianities, 5th to 11th Centuries forges a new conversation about the diversity of Christianities in the medieval eastern Mediterranean, centered on the history of practice, looking at liturgy, performance, prayer, poetry, and the material culture of worship. It studies prayer and worship in the variety of Christian communities that thrived from late antiquity to the middle ages: Byzantine Orthodoxy, Syrian Orthodoxy, and the Church of the East. Rather than focusing on doctrinal differences and analyzing divergent patterns of thought, the essays address common patterns of worship, individual and collective prayer, hymnography and liturgy, as well as the indigenous theories that undergirded Christian practices. The volume intervenes in standard academic discourses about Christian difference with an exploration of common patterns of celebration, commemoration, and self-discipline
The etiology of monasticism echoes broader debates about the distinctiveness of Christianity vis-... more The etiology of monasticism echoes broader debates about the distinctiveness of Christianity vis-à-vis other religious and cultural movements, the place of asceticism within Christianity, and the place of the intellectual life within monasticism. In the 75 years and many miles that passed between Athanasius’s Life of Antony and Cassian’s monastic project in Gaul, much changed in the relationship between Christianity and non-Christian philosophers. As time passed, the polemical imperative faded. By the time of Cassian’s Conferences, philosophy as a living alternative to monasticism seems quite remote. Throughout the literature of early monasticism, sampled only briefly in this paper, it is unsurprising that the most significant monastic affinity with philosophy, as well as the most intense monastic critique of philosophy’s ultimate value, is where they competed most keenly, in the cultivation of virtue
International Journal of Middle East Studies, 2018
The study of manuscripts was traditionally the preserve of scholar-curators in research libraries... more The study of manuscripts was traditionally the preserve of scholar-curators in research libraries who devoted their lives to the exhaustive study and description of collections that were often gathered from several sources. The expected result of their solitary labor was a printed catalog that might describe at most a few hundred manuscripts from a particular linguistic or religious culture. That model has been challenged by the advent of large-scale digital projects that aggregate thousands or even tens of thousands of manuscripts from multiple libraries in a single database or portal.
San Benito El Arte Benedictino 2009 Isbn 978 84 271 3017 3 Pags 11 24, 2009
Prayer and Thought in Monastic Tradition : Essays in Honour of Benedicta Ward, SLG
Book Description: Prayer and Thought in Monastic Tradition presents a chronological picture of th... more Book Description: Prayer and Thought in Monastic Tradition presents a chronological picture of the development of monastic thought and prayer from the early English Church (Bede, Adomnan) through to the 17th Century and William Law\u27s religious community at King\u27s Cliffe. Essays interact with different facets of monastic life, assessing the development and contribution of figures such as Boniface, the Venerable Bede, Anselm of Canterbury and Bernard of Clairvaux. The varying modes and outputs of the monastic life of prayer are considered, with focus on the use of different literary techniques in the creation of monastic documents, the interaction between monks and the laity, the creation of prayers and the purpose and structure of prayer in different contexts. The volume also discusses the nature of translation of classic monastic works, and the difficulties the translator faces
Spiritus: A Journal of Christian Spirituality, 2001
write these reflections in a small Benedictine monastery in Japan founded from our community of S... more write these reflections in a small Benedictine monastery in Japan founded from our community of St. John’s in Collegeville, Minnesota. This house is filled with instantly recognizable elements that echo features of the home monastery. The cloister gates are crafted in the same distinctive pattern of wood slats, allowing visitors a glimpse of the monastic enclosure. Because all of the furniture was made in our woodworking shop as a gift to our brothers when they moved to a new site, the chairs feel right. The habits they wear are of the American Cassinese variety, with hoods fixed to the scapular by a button rather than sewn on. My abbot’s photograph is on display. Some of the monks are men I lived and worked with in Minnesota; the Japanese have been my students. However, the ease made possible by affiliation and a shared way of life goes only so far, and many of the ideas I brought with me for my brief stay must be left, along with my shoes, at the front door. The notes on the bulletin board are in a script that I cannot even begin to decipher, and the liturgy so deeply familiar in form flows briskly past me as a river of verbal incomprehension. Benedictines like to bow, but here bowing is everywhere: at the exchange of the pax in the Eucharist, in veneration of the consecrated bread and wine, as the presider takes leave of the assembly. (Even the schoolchildren bow to motorists when they cross the street.) Japanese Benedictine life chastens even as it fascinates. Here, as during my stays in the Middle East, I am reminded not to imitate those who have looked east to escape their own cultural constraints or to fulfill fantasies of oriental splendor. A domesticated exoticism of carefully edited motifs betrays everyone involved, both self and the plundered other. To think we can “own” another culture, either through colonial occupation or religious inheritance, is a very perverse—and destructive—form of blindness. I read, teach, and write about early monastic literature. I love these texts deeply, though I have moved beyond the stage of wide-eyed infatuation with Antony, Evagrius, John Cassian, and the rest. First fervor has its own wonder, but one cannot make a life of it. I am trying now to see these texts more clearly than I could when I first read them, not so as to spurn or debunk them, but to appreciate their achievement more accurately. I hope that mine is now a wiser and more “We”? Reflections on Affinity and Dissonance in Reading Early Monastic Literature
Modern Theology, 2011
Evagrius Ponticus (c. 345399) combined the resources of Hellenistic philosophy, the theologies o... more Evagrius Ponticus (c. 345399) combined the resources of Hellenistic philosophy, the theologies of Origen and the Cappadocians, and Egyptian monastic practice to create a comprehensive view of spiritual development, within which he placed a sophisticated study of the human ...
The Hill Museum & Manuscript Library (HMML) was founded to microfilm monastic manuscripts in Euro... more The Hill Museum & Manuscript Library (HMML) was founded to microfilm monastic manuscripts in Europe at a time when nuclear war was an ever-present fear. That war never happened, but others did. Over the decades, HMML has responded to the urgent needs of endangered communities in Africa, the Middle East, and India. This illustrated presentation will trace HMML\u27s path from Europe to Ethiopia, to the Middle East and India, and finally to the west African nation of Mali, where HMML is partnering to save the threatened manuscripts of Timbuktu
Journal of Early Christian Studies, 2001
Evagrius Ponticus (ca. 345-399), practitioner and theologian of monastic prayer, brought his deep... more Evagrius Ponticus (ca. 345-399), practitioner and theologian of monastic prayer, brought his deep knowledge of both Hellenistic philosophy and Christian thought (especially the work of Origen) to bear on his tracing of the human journey back to perfect union with God. His several writings on prayer, and particularly his teaching about "imageless prayer," must be situated within that philosophical and theological framework. The emphasis on imageless prayer creates a tension with the Christian and monastic focus on biblical texts. Examining Evagrius' theories of mental operation and biblical exegesis helps in understanding both the imperative of imageless prayer for Evagrius and its problematic aspects.
Complete Works DFM 745 (this section: 14-16?? CC): fols 27v-45r: Ep Melania MBM 364 (early 13C): ... more Complete Works DFM 745 (this section: 14-16?? CC): fols 27v-45r: Ep Melania MBM 364 (early 13C): Eulogius 78v-100v, S1 version, w/ intro; 142r-151r: varia, with 8 Passions (CPG 2451), at 147v-150v CFMM 283, (15C): pp. 89-104: "teaching of Aba Evagrius on Stillness (šelya) and monasticism (dayrutha) and how they can be possessed" = Hypotyposis/Foundations (CPG 2441) as in BL 14578 fol. 97rb though starts with Ch. 2 (=fol. 97va, l.5) and then complete to end. CFMM 417 (cf. Dolabani, Dayr al-Z. catal., pt. II, pp. 52-62; dated March 1474) pp. 466-469 On the perfect and the just (CPG 2465) pp. 469-480 On the eight passions (CPG 2451) pp. 480-487 On Vices and virtues (CPG 2448); this copy has an introduction that is not in CFMM 420
?Que podemos conocer acerca de como rezaban los monjes egipcios? Estan los tipos habituales de ev... more ?Que podemos conocer acerca de como rezaban los monjes egipcios? Estan los tipos habituales de evidencia, textuales y arqueologicos, asi como tambien el efecto perdurable de la practica de la oracion monastica egipcia en tradiciones monasticas posteriores.
by Albrecht Diem, Matthieu van der Meer, Matthew Gillis, Abigail Firey, Irene van Renswoude, Clare Woods, Zachary Yuzwa, Marijana Vukovic, Columba Stewart, Eric Shuler, Manu Radhakrishnan, Matthew Ponesse, Abraham Plunkett-Latimer, Alexander O'Hara, Rob Meens, Sven Meeder, James LePree, Kathryn Jasper, Andrew Irving, Julie Hofmann, Zachary M Guiliano, Brendan Cook, Isabelle Cochelin, Susan Boynton, Courtney Booker, Daniel Abosso, Bruce Venarde, Corinna Prior, and Mariel Urbanus
http://hildemar.org Hildemar of Corbie's Commentary on the Rule of Benedict (ca. 845CE) is a m... more http://hildemar.org
Hildemar of Corbie's Commentary on the Rule of Benedict (ca. 845CE) is a major source for the history of monasticism, but it has long been accessible only in two obscure nineteenth-century editions of its Latin text. The goal of the Hildemar Project is to make the entire commentary more accessible for research and teaching purposes. The first step is to provide a fully searchable version of the Latin text along with an English translation. This translation is a collaborative effort of more than fifty scholars, including specialists in monasticism, Latin, manuscripts studies, and Carolingian history.
Currently a slightly revised version of the Latin text from Rupert Mittermüller’s edition [Regensburg, 1880] is available on the site. The translation of all seventy-three chapters – one for each chapter of Benedict’s Rule – is now complete.
The website also provides a complete list of the manuscripts of Hildemar’s Commentary (with links to manuscript catalogues and manuscripts available online) and a complete bibliography of scholarship on Hildemar and his work.
The next step in the project will be to improve the Latin text presented on the website by providing links to the different versions of Hildemar’s work. Users will be able to compare the (problematic) nineteenth-century edition with the original manuscripts. A long-term goal of the Hildemar Project is to provide a new edition of Hildemar’s Commentary that meets the standards of a critical edition but also capitalizes on the greater flexibility and customization available in a digital environment.
The Hildemar Project is a collaborative project that profits from the expertise of as many scholars as possible and is tailored to the needs and interests of its users. Any form of feedback, suggestions for improvement, identification of sources, or commentary on the Latin text are welcome. Please either use the Forum or contact us directly.