The Commendation of Faith: Volume 59 (Cistercian Fathers Series) - Softcover

Archdeacon of Exeter before entering Forde Abbey in 1169, Baldwin was elected abbot in 1175. Six years later he was made bishop of Worcester, and in 1184 became Archbishop of Canterbury. The Commendation of Faith seems to date from his years as abbot.

Baldwin stood on the threshold of scholasticism and did not much like what he saw. Many twelfth-century theologians were becoming impatient with the allegorical scriptural commentaries which had long nourished monastic theologians. Instead they turned to the short snappy scholastic question, in which arguments for and against a proposition led logically to a neat, summary resolution.

David N. Bell is professor emeritus of religious studies at Memorial University and a fellow of the Royal Society of Canada. He retired as head of the department of religious studies at the end of 2011. He has published some two dozen books, more than a hundred articles, and a great number of book reviews. His most recent book, published in 2017, is A Saint in the Sun: Praising Saint Bernard in the France of Louis XIV (Cistercian Publications).