Beter dan het origineel: Kartuizeridealen en de vroege Moderne Devotie

Past and present-day scholars have viewed the relations between the monastic order of the Carthusians and the reform movement of the Modern Devotion in the Later Middle Ages primarily as passive, one-way traffic of Carthusians influencing the modern devout (at a distance). This dissertation abandons this path by describing these interactions as an active cross-fertilization (in proximity). In order to get a better understanding of the role of the Carthusians in the early development of the Modern Devotion, this doctoral dissertation looks at the reality of later-medieval Carthusian life and the evolutions within the Carthusian Order from the angle of three “border conflicts” or “dialectical relationships”: between the Carthusian and the outside world (e.g., in socioeconomic interactions, in dealings with benefactors); within the Carthusian world (e.g., the relations between monks and lay brethren); in the “inner” Carthusian world (e.g., the relations with the divine and the neighbor).