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Monasticism

Monasticism. Three Periods. Pre Constantine c lassic example: St. Anthony Desert fathers and mothers (Saying of the Fathers and Mothers, ~collected early 5 th c.) Post Imperial Church & Benedict (480-550) Reform ~11-12 centuries; Abbey of Cluny, founded in 910). Contexts. New Testament

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Monasticism

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  1. Monasticism

  2. Three Periods • Pre Constantine • classic example: St. Anthony • Desert fathers and mothers (Saying of the Fathers and Mothers, ~collected early 5th c.) • Post Imperial Church & Benedict (480-550) • Reform • ~11-12 centuries; Abbey of Cluny, founded in 910)

  3. Contexts • New Testament • Martyrdom • Living apart traditions (Greek and Jewish) • Temple traditions - isolated

  4. Antony of Egypt (c. 251–356!!!!) • The symbolic if not factual start of the solitary wilderness life . • Our knowledge of Antony comes from the Life written by Athanasius of Alexandria, around 360, shortly after the death of the hermit. • Praise; model; very influential book • Features: • Demon fighting • “athletes” • Orthodoxy • Austerity • “true”

  5. St. Anthony (in later imagination) The Temptation of St. Antony (Schongauer, d. 1491) Anthony and the Demons (Grunewald, d. 1528)

  6. Desert Mothers

  7. St. Mary of Egypt 18th-century Russian icon

  8. Types and Theories • Hermit • Itinerant • Community – need for “rule” • Emergence? • New kind of martyrdom • Form of social death – radicalness of NT • witness

  9. Monastic Life in Late Antiquity: Distinctive Features & Appeal I. Whom Did It Attract? A. Intellectuals B. Women II. Distinctive Features of Monastic Life A. Asceticism B. Separation from the world C. Meditation D. Mystical Experience E. Voluntary Poverty F. Chastity G. Community

  10. The "Desert Fathers" below Christ and the Apostles

  11. Sixth-Century Monastery in Palestine

  12. Appeal? • Hard for understand, given contemporary scene • In Context: • Venerable Bede, recounting a story on the brevity of human life (History II, 13), commented, “The life of man appears for a short space, but of what went before, or what is to follow, we are utterly ignorant.” Christianity revealed what went before and what came after—above all, what awaited humans after death. • Short time; live in full awareness of “four last things” • Other benefits, too • Today: property; alienation; consumerism

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