Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Dedication
- Acknowledgements
- Preface
- 1 Richard Rolle, English Writer
- 2 “Ihesu louynge, Ihesu thynkynge, Ihesu desyrynge”: Affectivity, the Devotional Movement and Rolle's Implied Reader
- 3 “I wil becum a messager to bring þe to hys bed”: Ego Dormio
- 4 “A noble tretise of loue”: The Commandment
- 5 ‘A man or a womman þat is ordeynet to contemplatif lif’: The Form of Living
- Bibliography
- Index
2 - “Ihesu louynge, Ihesu thynkynge, Ihesu desyrynge”: Affectivity, the Devotional Movement and Rolle's Implied Reader
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 12 September 2012
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Dedication
- Acknowledgements
- Preface
- 1 Richard Rolle, English Writer
- 2 “Ihesu louynge, Ihesu thynkynge, Ihesu desyrynge”: Affectivity, the Devotional Movement and Rolle's Implied Reader
- 3 “I wil becum a messager to bring þe to hys bed”: Ego Dormio
- 4 “A noble tretise of loue”: The Commandment
- 5 ‘A man or a womman þat is ordeynet to contemplatif lif’: The Form of Living
- Bibliography
- Index
Summary
To þe I writ þis speciali, for I hope in þe more goodnes þan in anoþer, þat þou wil gif þi þoght to fulfil in dede þat þou seest is profitable for þi soule, and þat lif gif þe to in þe whoch þou may holyest offre þi [hert] to Ihesu Criste, and lest be in besynesse of þis world. For if þou stabilly loue God and brennyngly whils þou lyvest here, withouten dout þi sete is ordeyned for þe ful hegh and ioiful bifore þe face of God amonge [his] holy angels.
The counterpart of the implied author is the implied reader – not the flesh and bones you or I sitting in our living rooms reading the book, but the audience presupposed by the narrative itself.
ROLLE'S DISTINCTION as a writer of devotional literature derives mainly from his affective method. Briefly stated, affective language in devotional literature excites and directs the emotions of the audience so that readers are drawn first to holiness and then to union with God. The recognition of the need for affective devotion in Christianity ultimately derives from the Apostle Paul who states in his epistle to the Roman Christians that the problem for the believer is not so much in knowing how to behave, but in knowing how to drive his or her emotions and passions into such an intimate relationship with the divine that obedience and worship become instinctive (Rom. 7:15–25).
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- The English Prose Treatises of Richard Rolle , pp. 21 - 56Publisher: Boydell & BrewerPrint publication year: 2004