penitence, confession, and the power of submission in late medieval womens religious communities后悔,忏悔和提交的力量在中世纪晚期妇女的宗教社区.pdfVIP

Religions 2012, 3, 646–661; doi:10.3390/rel3030646 OPEN ACCESS religions ISSN 2077-1444 /journal/religions Article Penitence, Confession, and the Power of Submission in Late Medieval Womens Religious Communities Rabia Gregory Department of Religious Studies, University of Missouri, 221 Arts Science Building, Columbia, MO 65211, USA; E-Mail: gregoryra@ Received: 7 July 2012; in revised form: 23 July 2012 / Accepted: 25 July 2012 / Published: 6 August 2012 Abstract: This article argues that depictions of penance and confession in late medieval Sisterbooks, which were written by women religious for communal use, show that medieval women understood religious authority to be enhanced through submission and service to community members. These collections of the lives and reminiscences of deceased sisters and father confessors construct idealized piety and religious authority through public acts of obedience and submission which built a reputation for sanctity, not just for the individual penite nt, but for her entire community. Thus in the Sisterbooks, obedience to a confessor or spiritual director for both male and female penitents shifts the locus of spiritual authority from the confessor to the penitent and her community through communal observation and evaluation. These medieval Christian women understood the relationships between confessors and confessants as one which conf