585 - Anchoritic Spirituality: Ancrene Wisse and Associated Works

Anchoritic Spirituality: Ancrene Wisse and Associated Works
By Anne Savage and Nicholas Watson
New York, Paulist, 1991. 487 pp. $22.95.

The Anchorites were medieval so]itaires, mostly women, who were permanently enclosed in cells attached to churches. Their vocation symbolized a living death intended to embody the spiritual transformations implicit in such texts as Col. 3:3 and Gal. 2:20 in a highly physical and public way. The works assembled for this volume were written for anchoresses by Augustinian Canons in the early years of the thirteenth century. The most important work of the group, Ancrene Wisse, which means roughly "a guide for anchoresses," is a discussion of the anchoritic life intended as a practical outline of rules and observances and a daily spiritual companion.

The translators of this volume have done a commendable job of making contemporary the tension between, on the one hand, the negative, abject, and cautionary aspects of anchoritic spirituality, emphasizing personal frailty and the wrath of God, and on the other hand, the anchorite's almost heroic acts of self-exposure to God's transformative promises.

While the Paulist series on Western Spirituality is inconsistent with regard to scholarship, this volume must rank with the very best. Among many textual elements to be commended are their extensive notes, the index to patristic and scriptural citations, and their notes on translation and style. The translator's sensitivity to literary, genre, and hermeneutic issues in spirituality are to be highly commended.

In its encounter with spirituality, the academy is finding itself not unaffected. For this reviewer, the most telling evidence of Savage and Watson's deep scholarly and spiritual encounter with anchoritic spirituality can be found in their dedication: "This book is for ... our son, who was conceived in the middle of Holy Maidenhood, grew in secret through Sawles Warde and Ancrene Wisse, came into the world at the end of The Martyrdom of St. Katherine, and enamored his parents forever throughout The Wooing of Our Lord. "

Steven L. Chase
Fordham University
New York, NY.