Monastic Spaces and Their Meanings: Thirteenth-Century English Cistercian Monasteries (review)

Reviews 203 Parergon 20.1 (2003) At this point it becomes clear that Buc is engaged in much the same enterprise as John Milbank, whom he cites approvingly. Milbank’s monumental Theology and Social Theory: Beyond Secular Reason (Oxford, 1990) argues that sociology is essentially an ideological promotion of the secular, a systematic endorsement of insensitivity to the proper claims of Christian tradition. This work has been very influential in the recent postmodern rehabilitation of faithbased perspectives. Milbank is an uncompromising Christian apologist; Buc does not commit himself so clearly. Yet, he obviously thinks that the unveiling of social-scientific theories as secularised theologies substantially devalues their status, if not renders them valueless; something which does not necessarily follow if one accords positive, not negative, value to the secular. In conclusion, this is a very interesting book; both sections involve complex discussion of serious issues. Buc is entertaining and knowledgeable on medieval rituals, and genuinely curious about the development of social scientific theories. But it is not necessary to subscribe to his conclusions, however intriguing the journey to arrive at them may be. Carole M. Cusack Studies in Religion University of Sydney Cassidy-Welch, Megan, Monastic Spaces and Their Meanings: ThirteenthCentury English Cistercian Monasteries, (Medieval Church Series 1), Turnhout, Brepols, 2001; hardback; pp. xiv, 293; 49 b/w illustrations; RRP EUR50.00; ISBN 2503510892. Megan Cassidy-Welch’s innovative study explores the multiplicity of functions and meanings associated with spaces both physical and abstract in male Cistercian houses in thirteenth-century Yorkshire. She considers a variety of sources ranging from the archaeological to the devotional to the legal. Her purpose in examining such diverse material is ‘to contribute to the synthesis of expressions of Cistercian devotion and spirituality by considering particular material cultures together with the institutional, theological, and social conditions which produced and defined them’ (p. 16). This is a goal that she achieves admirably. The first three chapters deal with the relationships of physical sites in the monastery to abstract or metaphorical spaces. Cassidy-Welch initially explores the physical and non-physical boundaries separating the secular and religious 204 Reviews Parergon 20.1 (2003) realms. She argues that the creation of non-physical boundaries was a key part of the process by which the novice made the transition to the monastic world. Central to this process was the reformation of the novice’s memory, which was understood to have materiality. The novice was to replace his experienced past with a new, communal past based on memories of Christ’s life and death. In her second chapter, Cassidy-Welch examines the cloister, which she sees as ‘one of the central sites for the expression and practice of communal rites’ both liturgical and domestic (p. 58). The cloister also provides an ideal example of Cistercian interest in the relationships between earthly and heavenly topographies. Cassidy-Welch observes that the cloister signified the space of the heavenly paradise, a metaphor that was extended to refer to the entire monastic site as well as to the cloistered life. Cassidy-Welch turns her attention to the Cistercian church in Chapter Three, challenging the idea that Cistercian churches were non-visual in their emphasis. She argues for the importance to the Cistercians of seeing with the mind as well as with the eye, advancing the idea that Cistercian churches exhibit a ‘discernible iconography of light and sound’ (p. 76). She concentrates particularly on the eastern end of Yorkshire Cistercian churches since that area ‘was ... the focus of much attention during the thirteenth century’ (p. 81). The east, which was associated with Paradise, the Holy Land, and light, demonstrates ‘the blurring of earthly and heavenly space’ evident in the expansions of the eastern ends of Cistercian churches (p. 81). The fourth, fifth, and sixth chapters deal with ‘the regulation and order of monastic spaces through the discipline of the monastic body’ (p. 21). CassidyWelch first examines the chapter house; skillfully mobilizing the work of Michel Foucault, she reads the chapter house as a disciplinary space. She considers the readings of the Benedictine Rule that took place there, along with rituals of accusation, confession, judgment, and punishment, concluding that the chapter house ‘functioned as a site...