"Rather than write another of the countless studies in the Weberian tradition, Lutz Kaelber has attempted nothing less than to be Max Weber"s ghost writer and to produce one of the great studies he did not live to undertake-The Christianity of the Occident. The result is a fascinating and engrossing work that adds immensely to our understanding of both then and now." -Rodney Stark, University of Washington Max Weber argued that medieval religious movements were an important source for the distinctive rationality of Western civilization. He intended to study precisely this theme but died before he could do so. In Schools of Asceticism, Lutz Kaelber builds on Weber"s ideas by presenting a fresh historical and theoretical analysis of orthodox and heretical religious groups in the Middle Ages. He explores how doctrine and social organization shaped ascetic conduct in these groups from the twelfth century on. Kaelber first examines monastic and mendicant groups, correcting common...