Heloise (1100–1163) and the Formation of Religious Identity

Abstract

Heloise has become known to posterity primarily as Abelard's partner and as philosopher. However, her letters to Abelard testify to the formation of religious identity unique to the twelfth century, and aspect of her work which has not been studied before. Research done recently by this author on the contemporary formation of religious identity, has revealed that this formation is primarily influenced by three factors: (1) the losses suffered by a person; (2) the person's social need to shift between religious and other identities, and (3) the gender stylisation imposed on a person by his/her socio-religious context. Taking its point of departure from these modern insights into the formation of religious identity, this article will identify and describe aspects of religious identity in Heloise's letters to Abelard, and compare them to the characteristics of religious identity present in Abelard's Historia calamitatum.