Segni in cerca di significato. Ambiguità, inganni e fraintendimenti nelle fonti monastiche

In the variegated panorama of monastic sources, the mechanism of misunderstanding is well attested and often constitutes much more than a simple rhetorical or narrative stylistic device. Although it is difficult to abstract a completely summarising general rule from the protean casuistry examined, it is nevertheless possible to affirm that misunderstanding, far from necessarily having a solely negative or purely positive connotation, created a sort of grey area in which it was possible - if I may say so - to act towards evil, as in the case of the doctrines of heretics and Muslims, or towards the good, for example by foiling the devil's initiatives, reaffirming the prerogatives and centrality of an institution, and confirming the value of certain life choices and visions regarding the world and salvation.