Download or read book Ascetics Society and the Desert written by James E. Goehring and published by A&C Black. This book was released on 1999-05-01 with total page 324 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Through rigorous examination of papyrological documentary sources, archaeology, and traditional literary sources, James Goehring gradually forces a new direction in understanding the evolution of monasticism. He ably transforms these sources into a clear narrative, thereby infusing the history of Egyptian monasticism with renewed energy.
Download or read book Ascetics Authority and the Church in the Age of Jerome and Cassian written by Philip Rousseau and published by . This book was released on 2010 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Rousseau presents a survey of asceticism in the western church until about 400, including a selective study of Jerome, and then, moving into the fifth century.
Download or read book Violence and Belief in Late Antiquity written by Thomas Sizgorich and published by University of Pennsylvania Press. This book was released on 2012-03-19 with total page 407 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In Violence and Belief in Late Antiquity, Thomas Sizgorich seeks to understand why and how violent expressions of religious devotion became central to the self-understandings of both Christian and Muslim communities between the fourth and ninth centuries. Sizgorich argues that the cultivation of violent martyrdom as a path to holiness was in no way particular to Islam; rather, it emerged from a matrix put into place by the Christians of late antiquity. Paying close attention to the role of memory and narrative in the formation of individual and communal selves, Sizgorich identifies a common pool of late ancient narrative forms upon which both Christian and Muslim communities drew. In the process of recollecting the past, Sizgorich explains, Christian and Muslim communities alike elaborated iterations of Christianity or Islam that demanded of each believer a willingness to endure or inflict violence on God's behalf and thereby created militant local pieties that claimed to represent the one "real" Christianity or the only "pure" form of Islam. These militant communities used a shared system of signs, symbols, and stories, stories in which the faithful manifested their purity in conflict with the imperial powers of the world.
Download or read book Clothed in the Body written by Hannah Hunt and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2016-05-23 with total page 250 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Hunt examines the apparent paradox that Jesus' earthly existence and post resurrection appearances are experienced through consummately physical actions and attributes yet some ascetics within the Christian tradition appear to seek to deny the value of the human body, to find it deadening of spiritual life. Hunt considers why the Christian tradition as a whole has rarely managed more than an uneasy truce between the physical and the spiritual aspects of the human person. Why is it that the 'Church' has energetically argued, through centuries of ecumenical councils, for the dual nature of Christ but seems still unwilling to accept the full integration of physical and spiritual within humanity, despite Gregory of Nazianzus's comment that 'what has not been assumed has not been redeemed'?
Download or read book The Making of the Self written by Richard Valantasis and published by Wipf and Stock Publishers. This book was released on 2008-03-15 with total page 318 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A leading scholar of ascetical studies, Richard Valantasis explores a variety of ascetical traditions ranging from the Greco-Roman philosophy of Musonius Rufus, the asceticism found in the Nag Hammadi Library and in certain Gnostic texts, the Gospel of Thomas, and other early Christian texts. This collection gathers historical and theoretical essays that develop a theory of asceticism that informs the analysis of historical texts and opens the way for postmodern ascetical studies. Wide-ranging in historical scope and in developing theory, these essays address asceticism for scholar and student alike. The theory will be of particular interest to those interested in cultural theory and analysis, while the historical essays provide the researcher with easy access to a significant corpus of academic writing on asceticism.
Download or read book John Moschos Spiritual Meadow written by Brenda Llewellyn Ihssen and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2016-05-06 with total page 198 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: John Moschos' Spiritual Meadow is one of the most important sources for late sixth-early seventh century Palestinian, Syrian and Egyptian monasticism. This undisputedly invaluable collection of beneficial tales provides contemporary society with a fuller picture of an imperfect social history of this period: it is a rich source for understanding not only the piety of the monk but also the poor farmer. Brenda Llewellyn Ihssen fills a lacuna in classical monastic secondary literature by highlighting Moschos' unique contribution to the way in which a fertile Christian theology informed the ethics of not only those serving at the altar but also those being served. Introducing appropriate historical and theological background to the tales, Llewellyn Ihssen demonstrates how Moschos' tales addresses issues of the autonomy of individual ascetics and lay persons in relationship with authority figures. Economic practices, health care, death and burials of lay persons and ascetics are examined for the theology and history that they obscure and reveal. Whilst teaching us about the complicated relationships between personal agency and divine intercession, Moschos’ tales can also be seen to reveal liminal boundaries we know existed between the secular and the religious.
Download or read book From Nicaea to Chalcedon written by Frances M. Young and published by SCM Press. This book was released on 2013-01-26 with total page 417 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Created as a companion guide to a Patristics textbook, From Nicaea to Chalcedon surveys a variety of writings to have occurred during one of the most significant periods in the formation of the Church, from 265-466. It does not aim to cover the subject as a textbook would, but aims to delve deeper into some of the characters who were involved with the Church or the Councils during this period. Beginning with Eusebius of Caesarea and the first council of the Church at Nicaea, and ending with Theodoret of Cyrrhus, who is thought to have changed his view of Christology after the watershed Council of Chalcedon, this unique text surveys some of the most influential characters to have shaped Church history and the formation of doctrine. Surveying a mixture of significant literary figures, laymen, bishops and heretics this book presents biographical, literary-critical and theological information about each. They are chosen either because they are important to the history of doctrine, or because new material about them has thrown light upon their work, or because they will broaden the reader's understanding of the culture and history of the period or of live issues in the church at the time. Structured in five parts, each part deals with a period of time and a sequence of characters, so the book is easily followed in chronological order. Added to this, is the double bibliography, which in this edition is fully updated. Bibliography A details those texts in English of the original texts of antiquity, whilst Bibliography B provides details of publications in English, French and German which have appeared since 1960-2004 on or about the characters discussed in the body of the text.
Download or read book Ex Auditu Volume 27 written by Klyne Snodgrass and published by Wipf and Stock Publishers. This book was released on 2012-06-01 with total page 231 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Introduction Klyne Snodgrass. A Christian View of Wealth and Possessions: An Old Testament Perspective Hugh G. M. Williamson. Response to Williamson James K. Bruckner. Poverty and Paul's Gospel Bruce W. Longenecker. Response to Longenecker Aaron Kuecker. A Patristic View of Wealth and Possessions /
Download or read book Thorns in the Flesh written by Andrew Crislip and published by University of Pennsylvania Press. This book was released on 2012-09-06 with total page 248 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The literature of late ancient Christianity is rich both in saints who lead lives of almost Edenic health and in saints who court and endure horrifying diseases. In such narratives, health and illness might signify the sanctity of the ascetic, or invite consideration of a broader theology of illness. In Thorns in the Flesh, Andrew Crislip draws on a wide range of texts from the fourth through sixth centuries that reflect persistent and contentious attempts to make sense of the illness of the ostensibly holy. These sources include Lives of Antony, Paul, Pachomius, and others; theological treatises by Basil of Caesarea and Evagrius of Pontus; and collections of correspondence from the period such as the Letters of Barsanuphius and John. Through close readings of these texts, Crislip shows how late ancient Christians complicated and critiqued hagiographical commonplaces and radically reinterpreted illness as a valuable mode for spiritual and ascetic practice. Illness need not point to sin or failure, he demonstrates, but might serve in itself as a potent form of spiritual practice that surpasses even the most strenuous of ascetic labors and opens up the sufferer to a more direct knowledge of the self and the divine. Crislip provides a fresh and nuanced look at the contentious and dynamic theology of illness that emerged in and around the ascetic and monastic cultures of the later Roman world.
Download or read book Asceticism and Society in Crisis written by Susan Ashbrook Harvey and published by Univ of California Press. This book was released on 2024-07-26 with total page 249 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: John of Ephesus traveled throughout the sixth-century Byzantine world in his role as monk, missionary, writer and church leader. In his major work,The Lives of the Eastern Saints, he recorded 58 portraits of monks and nuns he had known, using the literary conventions of hagiography in a strikingly personal way. War, bubonic plague, famine, collective hysteria, and religious persecution were a part of daily life and the background against which asceticism developed an acute meaning for a beleaguered populace. Taking the work of John of Ephesus as her guide, Harvey explores the relationship between asceticism and society in the sixth-century Byzantine East. Concerned above all with the responsibility of the ascetic to lay society, John's writing narrates his experiences in the villages of the Syrian Orient, the deserts of Egypt, and the imperial city of Constantinople. Harvey's work contributes to a new understanding of the social world of the late antique Byzantine East, skillfully examining the character of ascetic practices, the traumatic separation of "Monophysite" churches, the fluctuating roles of women in Syriac Christianity, and the general contribution of hagiography to the study of history. This title is part of UC Press's Voices Revived program, which commemorates University of California Press’s mission to seek out and cultivate the brightest minds and give them voice, reach, and impact. Drawing on a backlist dating to 1893, Voices Revived makes high-quality, peer-reviewed scholarship accessible once again using print-on-demand technology. This title was originally published in 1990.
Download or read book Desert Christians written by William Harmless and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2004-06-17 with total page 513 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In the fourth century, the deserts of Egypt became the nerve center of a radical new movement, what we now call monasticism. Groups of Christians-from illiterate peasants to learned intellectuals-moved out to the wastelands beyond the Nile Valley and, in the famous words of Saint Athanasius, made the desert a city. In so doing, they captured the imagination of the ancient world. They forged techniques of prayer and asceticism, of discipleship and spiritual direction, that have remained central to Christianity ever since. Seeking to map the soul's long journey to God and plot out the subtle vagaries of the human heart, they created and inspired texts that became classics of Western spirituality. These Desert Christians were also brilliant storytellers, some of Christianity's finest. This book introduces the literature of early monasticism. It examines all the best-known works, including Athanasius' Life of Antony, the Lives of Pachomius, and the so-called Sayings of the Desert Fathers. Later chapters focus on two pioneers of monastic theology: Evagrius Ponticus, the first great theoretician of Christian mysticism; and John Cassian, who brought Egyptian monasticism to the Latin West. Along the way, readers are introduced to path-breaking discoveries-to new texts and recent archeological finds-that have revolutionized contemporary scholarship on monastic origins. Included are fascinating snippets from papyri and from little-known Coptic, Syriac, and Ethiopic texts. Interspersed in each chapter are illustrations, maps, and diagrams that help readers sort through the key texts and the richly-textured world of early monasticism. Geared to a wide audience and written in clear, jargon-free prose, Desert Christians offers the most comprehensive and accessible introduction to early monasticism.
Download or read book The Desert Fathers written by and published by Penguin UK. This book was released on 2003-03-27 with total page 240 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Desert Fathers were the first Christian monks, living in solitude in the deserts of Egypt, Palestine, and Syria. In contrast to the formalised and official theology of the "founding fathers" of the church, the Desert Fathers were ordinary Christians who chose to renounce the world and live lives of celibacy, fasting, vigil, prayer and poverty in direct and simple response to the gospel. Their sayings were first recorded in the 4th century and consist of spiritual advice, anecdotes and parables. The Desert Fathers' teachings and lives have inspired poetry, opera and art, as well as providing spiritual nourishment and a template for monastic life.
Download or read book The Cambridge History of Medieval Monasticism in the Latin West written by Alison I. Beach and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2020-01-09 with total page 1244 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Monasticism, in all of its variations, was a feature of almost every landscape in the medieval West. So ubiquitous were religious women and men throughout the Middle Ages that all medievalists encounter monasticism in their intellectual worlds. While there is enormous interest in medieval monasticism among Anglophone scholars, language is often a barrier to accessing some of the most important and groundbreaking research emerging from Europe. The Cambridge History of Medieval Monasticism in the Latin West offers a comprehensive treatment of medieval monasticism, from Late Antiquity to the end of the Middle Ages. The essays, specially commissioned for this volume and written by an international team of scholars, with contributors from Australia, Belgium, Canada, England, France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Spain, Switzerland, and the United States, cover a range of topics and themes and represent the most up-to-date discoveries on this topic.
Download or read book Exhortation to the Monks by Hyperechios written by and published by American University in Cairo Press. This book was released on 2024-07-23 with total page 195 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Hyperechios's Exhortation to the Monks for the first time in English translation Hyperechios is a little-known monk of the fourth to fifth centuries, who is thought to have lived in Roman Palestine, possibly coastal Sinai. He wrote the Exhortation to the Monks, 160 short sayings, much like the apophthegmata, or sayings of the desert fathers and mothers, but also structurally very different—most of the sayings are two lines of poetry that offer instruction. The Exhortation, and early Christian monastic writings in general, teach that a spiritual life requires a life of training and practice, individually and as a neighbor and friend within one’s community. This volume studies Hyperechios’s Exhortation to better understand the moral and spiritual values in a fourth to fifth-century Christian monastic community, while reflecting also on how these are contemporary with the modern day. Drawing on modern works by scholars and placing the Exhortation in conversation with contemporary writers on the spiritual life, Tim Vivian begins with an introduction about Hyperechios, his location, the text, then a lengthy reflection on spiritual matters. He follows this with an English-language translation of the Exhortation and the Greek text, both accompanied by footnotes that offer biblical and patristic cross-references. Exhortation to the Monks by Hyperechios will be of interest to scholars and general readers of early Christianity, early monasticism, and Christian spirituality, both ancient and contemporary.
Download or read book This Monastic Moment written by John W. de Gruchy and published by Wipf and Stock Publishers. This book was released on 2021-07-28 with total page 222 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "Kairos refers to moments in chronological time when all hell is breaking loose and we are called to change our ways before we are dragged into the abyss. Kairos is apocalyptic time, and it is here and now. "Such is the time in which we need to listen again to . . . St Benedict of Nursia. "Far too many of us Christians have either been seduced by the false values of the age and the spirit of Christian triumphalism, or else have been attracted to gnostic forms of spirituality that provide a means of escape from reality and responsibility. Any delay in responding to this kairos moment increases the danger that we fail to change our ways and grasp the opportunity God gives us to receive the coming kingdom in greater fullness now. So, St Benedict, fifteen hundred years after he wrote his Rule, continues to tell us to 'listen,' 'wake up,' and 'run' while there is still light. . . . This is a time for both contemplation and action, prayer and doing justice, a time for mystics and prophets to join hands and hearts for the sake of the world." --From the Prologue
Download or read book Holy Bishops in Late Antiquity written by Claudia Rapp and published by Univ of California Press. This book was released on 2013-05-01 with total page 363 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Between 300 and 600, Christianity experienced a momentous change from persecuted cult to state religion. One of the consequences of this shift was the evolution of the role of the bishop—as the highest Church official in his city—from model Christian to model citizen. Claudia Rapp's exceptionally learned, innovative, and groundbreaking work traces this transition with a twofold aim: to deemphasize the reign of the emperor Constantine, which has traditionally been regarded as a watershed in the development of the Church as an institution, and to bring to the fore the continued importance of the religious underpinnings of the bishop's role as civic leader. Rapp rejects Max Weber’s categories of "charismatic" versus "institutional" authority that have traditionally been used to distinguish the nature of episcopal authority from that of the ascetic and holy man. Instead she proposes a model of spiritual authority, ascetic authority and pragmatic authority, in which a bishop’s visible asceticism is taken as evidence of his spiritual powers and at the same time provides the justification for his public role. In clear and graceful prose, Rapp provides a wholly fresh analysis of the changing dynamics of social mobility as played out in episcopal appointments.
Download or read book Religious Diversity in Late Antiquity written by David Morton Gwynn and published by BRILL. This book was released on 2010 with total page 584 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This volume in the ongoing Late Antique Archaeology series draws on material and textual evidence to explore the diverse religious world of Late Antiquity. Subjects include Jews and Samaritans, orthodoxy and heresy, pilgrimage, stylites, magic, the sacred and the secular.
