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"Monastic and religious life History Early church, ca. 30-600."
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Jonas of Bobbio and the legacy of Columbanus : sanctity and community in the seventh century
\"Jonas of Bobbio's life mirrored many of the transformations of the seventh century, while his three saints' Lives provide a window into the early medieval Age of Saints and the monastic and political worlds of Merovingian Gaul and Lombard Italy\"-- Provided by publisher.
Book
Desert Christians
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 Fathers were also brilliant storytellers, some of Christianity’s finest. This book introduces the literature of early Christian monasticism, examining all the best-known works, including Athanasius’ Life of Antony, the Lives of Pachomius, and the Sayings of the Fathers (Apophthegmata Patrum). 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 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.
eBook
Wandering, Begging Monks
An apostolic lifestyle characterized by total material renunciation, homelessness, and begging was practiced by monks throughout the Roman Empire in the fourth and fifth centuries. Such monks often served as spiritual advisors to urban aristocrats whose patronage gave them considerable authority and independence from episcopal control. This book is the first comprehensive study of this type of Christian poverty and the challenge it posed for episcopal authority and the promotion of monasticism in late antiquity. Focusing on devotional practices, Daniel Caner draws together diverse testimony from Egypt, Syria, Asia Minor, and elsewhere-including the Pseudo-ClementineLetters to Virgins,Augustine'sOn the Work of Monks,John Chrysostom's homilies, legal codes-to reveal gospel-inspired patterns of ascetic dependency and teaching from the third to the fifth centuries. Throughout, his point of departure is social and cultural history, especially the urban social history of the late Roman empire. He also introduces many charismatic individuals whose struggle to persist against church suppression of their chosen way of imitating Christ was fought with defiant conviction, and the book includes the first annotated English translation of the biography of Alexander Akoimetos (Alexander the Sleepless).Wandering, Begging Monksallows us to understand these fascinating figures of early Christianity in the full context of late Roman society.
eBook
Demons and the Making of the Monk
Demons--whether in embodied form or as inward temptation--make vivid appearances in early Christian monastic literature. In this finely written study of demonology and Christian spirituality in fourth- and fifth-century Egypt, David Brakke examines how the conception of the monk as a holy and virtuous being was shaped by the combative encounter with demons.
Brakke studies the \"making of the monk\" from two perspectives. First, he describes the social and religious identities that monastic authors imagined for the demon-fighting monk: the new martyr who fights against the pagan gods, the gnostic who believes he knows both the tricks of the demons and the secrets of God, and the prophet who discerns the hidden presence of Satan even among good Christians. Then he employs recent theoretical ideas about gender and racial stereotyping to interpret accounts of demon encounters, especially those in which demons appear as the Other--as Ethiopians, as women, or as pagan gods.
Drawing on biographies of exceptional monks, collections of monastic sayings and stories, letters from ascetic teachers to their disciples, sermons, and community rules, Brakke crafts a compelling picture of the embattled religious celibate. Demons and the Making of the Monk is an insightful and innovative exploration of the development of Christian monasticism.
eBook
Holy Man versus Monk-Village and Monastery in the Late Antique Levant: Between Hagiography and Archaeology
In this essay I set out to offer a new interpretation of rural monasticism in Late Antiquity. The commonsensical understanding of the monk is of a holy man who played a key role in shaping the rural landscapes of Late Antique Levant. I want to suggest a distinction between the holy man, usually presented as a living saint in hagiographic literature, and the monk, who was a product of rural society and an integral part of the human landscape in the countryside. As a result, I offer a fresh look at monasticism as an organic component of the rural landscape and at the rural monk as a domestic villager rather than a revered role model for society.
Journal Article
Monasteries, Monks, and Villages in Western Galilee in Late Antiquity
Former studies on monasticism in Late Antiquity overlooked the Western Galilee. Due to the lack of literary data and the misinterpretation of archaeological finds, very little—if anything—was known about this monastic landscape. Recent excavations and surveys conducted in Western Galilee, together with a comparative study that takes into account a close analysis of monastic landscapes in Syria and Palestine, offer a new look at the relation between monastery and village and suggest a new perspective on the place of monasticism in rural society in Late Antiquity.
Journal Article
Cassian the monk
This book is a study of the life, monastic writings and spiritual theology of John Cassian (c.365-430). Cassian's writings were the bridge between eastern monasticism and the developing Latin monasticism of Southern Gaul, and exerted a major influence on the Rule of Benedict and the theology of Gregory the Great.
eBook
Evagrius of Pontus
Evagrius of Pontus (c.345–99) was one of the most prominent figures among the monks of the desert settlements of Nitria, Sketis, and Kellia in Lower Egypt. Through the course of his ascetic writings he formulated a systematic presentation of the teaching of the semi-eremitic monks of these settlements. The works of Evagrius had a profound influence on Eastern Orthodox monastic teaching and passed to the West through the writings of John Cassian (c.365–435). This book provides an English translation of Evagrius' Greek ascetic writings, based on modern critical editions, where available, and, where they are not, on collations of the principal manuscripts. Two appendices provide variant readings for the Greek texts and the complete text of the long recension of Eulogios. The translations are accompanied by a commentary to guide the reader through the intricacies of Evagrian thought by offering explanatory comments and references to other Evagrian texts and relevant scholarly literature. Finally, detailed indexes are provided to allow the reader to identify and study the numerous themes of Evagrian teaching.
eBook
Contextualizing Cassian : aristocrats, asceticism, and reformation in fifth-century Gaul
This book examines the attempt by the 5th-century ascetic writer John Cassian to influence and shape the development of Western monasticism. The book's close analysis of Cassian's earliest work (The Institutes) focuses on his interaction with the values and preconceptions of a traditional Roman elite, as well as his engagement with contemporary writers. By placing The Institutes in context, the book demonstrates just how revolutionary this foundational work was for its time and milieu.
eBook
The real Cassian revisited : monastic life, Greek paideia, and Origenism in the sixth century
Following the discovery of a new Greek Father, namely, Cassian the Sabaite, who, by means of Medieval forgery, has been heretofore eclipsed by a figment known as 'John Cassian of Marseilles', this book casts new light on the Late Antique interplay between Hellenism and Christianity, sixth century Origenism, and Christian influence upon Neoplatonism.
eBook