Dominican Culture, Dominican Theology : The Order of Preachers and Its Spheres of Action (1215 – ca. 1600)

Abstract

In the early 13th century, a novel concept of religious community overran the occidental world: the Dominican Order. Unlike earlier religious orders who confined monks to the purview of praying the liturgy and living a life of contemplative seclusion, the Dominicans, by means of preaching, focused on engaging with the broad community beyond the convent walls. The result was a hitherto unseen interpenetration of a religious order into the intellectual as well as cultural realities surrounding it. The Dominicans soon became a driving force in medieval culture and their influence can be found in the practical, intellectual, and material aspects of European culture, from art to philosophy, from politics to the economy. The articles collected in this volume investigate the complex interdepencies of Dominican culture and Dominican theology from a plurality of scholarly perspectives throughout the Late Middle Ages and into Early Modernity.