To Govern Is to Serve by Jacques Dalarun

To Govern Is to Serve by Jacques Dalarun

To Govern Is to Serve explores the practices of collective governance in medieval religious orders that turned the precepts of the Gospels—most notably that "the first will be last, the last will be first"—into practices of communal deliberation and the election of superiors. Jacques Dalarun argues that these democratic forms have profoundly influenced modern experiences of democracy, in particular the idea of government not as domination but as service. Dalarun undertakes meticulous textual analysis and historical research into twelfth and thirteenth-century religious movements—from Fontevraud and the Paraclete of Abelard and Heloise through St. Dominic and St. Francis—that sought their superiors from among the less exalted members of their communities to chart how these experiments prefigured certain aspects of modern democracies, those allowing individuals to find their way forward as part of a collective. Wide ranging and deeply original,To Govern Is to Serve highlights the history of the reciprocal bonds of service and humility that underpin increasingly fragile democracies in the twenty-first century.

A rich and stimulating essay

* Annales: Histoire, Sciences Sociales *

Jacques Dalarun delivers a reflection, personal and subtly argued, on the exercise of authority in certain medieval religious communities, a point of view which leads to an analysis of power relations in society. The style is fluid, the thought is sharp, and the dialectic quite formidable in its rigorous chain of thinking.

* Journal of Medieval and Humanistic Studies *

Jacques Dalarun is Member of the Académie des Inscriptions et Belles-Lettres and a Corresponding Fellow of the Medieval Academy of America. Among his books are The Misadventure of Francis of Assisi and Robert of Arbrissel.
Sean L. Field is Professor of History at the University of Vermont, a Fellow of the Medieval Academy of America, and the author of several books, including Courting Sanctity.

SKU	Unavailable
ISBN 13	9781501768354
ISBN 10	1501768352
Title	To Govern Is to Serve
Author	Jacques Dalarun
Series	Medieval Societies Religions And Cultures
Condition	Unavailable
Binding Type	Paperback
Publisher	Cornell University Press
Year published	2023-02-15
Number of pages	258
Prizes	Short-listed for French-American Foundation and the Florence Gould Foundation Translation Award 2024 (United States)
Cover note	Book picture is for illustrative purposes only, actual binding, cover or edition may vary.