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 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 Roman Empire at Bay AD 180 395 written by David S. Potter and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2014-01-03 with total page 986 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Roman Empire at Bay is the only one volume history of the critical years 180-395 AD, which saw the transformation of the Roman Empire from a unitary state centred on Rome, into a new polity with two capitals and a new religion—Christianity. The book integrates social and intellectual history into the narrative, looking to explore the relationship between contingent events and deeper structure. It also covers an amazingly dramatic narrative from the civil wars after the death of Commodus through the conversion of Constantine to the arrival of the Goths in the Roman Empire, setting in motion the final collapse of the western empire. The new edition takes account of important new scholarship in questions of Roman identity, on economy and society as well as work on the age of Constantine, which has advanced significantly in the last decade, while recent archaeological and art historical work is more fully drawn into the narrative. At its core, the central question that drives The Roman Empire at Bay remains, what did it mean to be a Roman and how did that meaning change as the empire changed? Updated for a new generation of students, this book remains a crucial tool in the study of this period.

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 276 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 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 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.

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 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 T T Clark Handbook of the Early Church written by Ilaria L.E. Ramelli and published by Bloomsbury Publishing. This book was released on 2021-12-16 with total page 745 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Exploring the key documents, authors and themes of Early Christian traditions, this volume traces the vital trajectories of emerging distinctive Christian identity in the Graeco-Roman world. Special attention is given to the coherent growth of Christian faith in connection with worship, alongside the crucial transformation of Christian life and doctrine under the Christian Emperors. As well as offering a chronological development of the Early Church, the book examines the interaction between Christian worship and faith. In addition, readers interested in systematic theology can refer to chapters on the roots of some significant theological notions in Christian Antiquity, also with reference to ancient philosophy. Issues addressed include: · Distinctiveness of the Christian identity during the first centuries · Diversity of communities and their theologies · Connection between faith and worship · Transition from the persecuted minority to triumphant Church with Creeds · History of early Christian thought and modern systematic theology

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 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 African Sun Media. This book was released on 2021-10-30 with total page 234 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, __een hundred years a_er he wrote his Rule, continues to tell us to ‘listen,’ ‘wake up,’ and ‘run’ while there is still light. . . . _is 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 Medieval Monasticism written by C.H. Lawrence and published by Taylor & Francis. This book was released on 2023-09-28 with total page 426 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Medieval Monasticism traces the Western Monastic tradition from its fourth-century origins in the deserts of Egypt and Syria through the many and varied forms of religious life it assumed during the Middle Ages. It explores the relationship between monasteries and the secular world around them. For a thousand years, the great monastic houses and religious orders were a prominent feature of the social landscape of the West, and their leaders figured as much in the political as on the spiritual map of the medieval world. In this book many of them, together with their supporters and critics, are presented to us and speak their minds to us. We are shown, for instance, the controversy between the Benedictines and the reformed monasticism of the twelfth century and the problems that confronted women in religious life. A detailed glossary offers readers a helpful vocabulary of the subject. This fifth edition has been revised by Janet Burton to include an updated bibliography and an introduction which discusses recent trends in monastic studies, including reinterpretations of issues of reform and renewal, new scholarship on religious women, and interdisciplinary and multidisciplinary approaches. This book is essential reading for both students and scholars of the medieval world.

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 The Oxford Handbook of Early Christian Studies written by Susan Ashbrook Harvey and published by Oxford Handbooks Online. This book was released on 2008-09-04 with total page 1049 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Provides an introduction to the academic study of early Christianity (c. 100-600 AD) and examines the vast geographical area impacted by the early church, in Western and Eastern late antiquity. --from publisher description.