Includes bibliographical references and index.

Preliminary Material -- Introduction / Babette S. Hellemans -- Abelard, Heloise, and Discussion of Love in the Twelfth-Century Schools / Constant J. Mews -- Abelard and the Jews / Eileen C. Sweeney -- Divine Omnipotence and the Liberal Arts in Peter Damian and Peter Abelard / Julian Yolles -- Conflict and Correspondence. Inner and Outer in Abelard and Hugh of Saint Victor / Ineke van ’t Spijker -- Was Abelard Right to Deny That He Had Written a Book of ‘Sentences’? / Michael T. Clanchy -- Veiled Platonic Triads in Abelard’s Theologia ‘Summi Boni’ / Lesley-Anne Dyer -- Abelard and Rhetoric: Widows and Virgins at the Paraclete / William Flynn -- Trapping the Future: Abelard’s Multi-Layered Image-Building / Wim Verbaal -- Intentions and Conscious Moral Choices in Peter Abelard’s Know Yourself / Taina M. Holopainen -- ‘He who kills himself liberates a wretch’: Abelard on Suicide / Juanita Feros Ruys -- Peter Abelard’s Planctus ‘Dolorum solatium’: A New Song for David / Eileen F. Kearney -- Abelard on the First Six Days / Peter Cramer -- Abelard and the Poetics of Ingenium / Babette S. Hellemans -- Bibliography -- Index.

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Peter Abelard (1079-1142) is one of the most diversely gifted people of the Middle Ages. His letter writing, poetry, theology, logic, and ethics deal with almost every aspect of the trivium. This volume surveys his career to show how his extraordinary versatility enchanted and distressed his public. A selection of international specialists addresses the various aspects of Abelard's literary persona. The topics range from Abelard's personal history to his monastic thinking. There are essays on the letter collection, his views on love, ethical problems such as intention and suicide, his poetry and treatises written for Heloise and her nuns of the Paraclete. With its strong emphasis on interdisciplinary research, Rethinking Abelard opens up new avenues for future scholarship. Contributors are: Michael T. Clanchy, Peter Cramer, Lesley-Anne Dyer, Juanita Feros Ruys, William Flynn, Babette Hellemans, Taina M. Holopainen, Eileen F. Kearney, Constant J. Mews, Eileen C. Sweeney, Ineke Van ‘t Spijker, Wim Verbaal, and Julian Yolles.