Spiritual Direction As a Medical Art in Early Christian Monasticism
Title | Spiritual Direction As a Medical Art in Early Christian Monasticism PDF eBook |
Author | JONATHAN L. ZECHER |
Publisher | Oxford University Press |
Pages | 394 |
Release | 2022-10-06 |
Genre | |
ISBN | 0198854137 |
What expectations did the women and men living in early monastic communities carry into relationships of obedience and advice? What did they hope to achieve through confession and discipline? To explore these questions, this study shows how several early Christian writers applied the logic, knowledge, and practices of Galenic medicine to develop their own practices of spiritual direction. Evagrius reads dream images as diagnostic indicators of the soul's state. John Cassian crafts a nosology of the soul using lists of passions while diagnosing the causes of wet dreams. Basil of Caesarea pits the spiritual director against the physician in a competition over diagnostic expertise. John Climacus crafts pathologies of passions through demonic family trees, while equipping his spiritual director with a physician's toolkit and imagining the monastic space as a vast clinic. These different appropriations of medical logic and metaphors not only show us the thought-world of late antique monasticism, but they would also have decisive consequences for generations of Christian subjects who would learn to see themselves as sick or well, patients or healers, within monastic communities.
Spiritual Direction in the Early Christian East
Title | Spiritual Direction in the Early Christian East PDF eBook |
Author | Irénée Hausherr |
Publisher | Burns & Oates |
Pages | 480 |
Release | 1990 |
Genre | Religion |
ISBN |
Awakening the Creative Spirit
Title | Awakening the Creative Spirit PDF eBook |
Author | Christine Valters Paintner |
Publisher | Church Publishing, Inc. |
Pages | 255 |
Release | 2010-02 |
Genre | Religion |
ISBN | 0819223719 |
The resource is designed to help spiritual directors and others use expressive arts in the context of spiritual direction. It is the latest book in the unique SDI series, designed for professional spiritual directors, but also useful for clergy, therapists, and Christian formation specialists. The Spiritual Directors International Series – This book is part of a special series produced by Morehouse Publishing in cooperation with Spiritual Directors International (SDI), a global network of some 6,000 spiritual directors and members.
The Importance of Spiritual Apprenticeship in Early Christian Monasticism
Title | The Importance of Spiritual Apprenticeship in Early Christian Monasticism PDF eBook |
Author | Stanley L. Buglione |
Publisher | |
Pages | 202 |
Release | 2000 |
Genre | Monks |
ISBN |
Desert Christians
Title | Desert Christians PDF eBook |
Author | William Harmless |
Publisher | Oxford University Press |
Pages | 513 |
Release | 2004-06-17 |
Genre | Religion |
ISBN | 0198036744 |
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.
From Monastery to Hospital
Title | From Monastery to Hospital PDF eBook |
Author | Andrew Todd Crislip |
Publisher | University of Michigan Press |
Pages | 250 |
Release | 2005 |
Genre | Church history |
ISBN | 9780472114740 |
Brings to light for the first time the innovative healing practices of monasteries and their role in the development of Western medical tradition
Christianity
Title | Christianity PDF eBook |
Author | Linda Woodhead |
Publisher | |
Pages | 130 |
Release | 2014 |
Genre | Christianity |
ISBN | 9780191780943 |
This is a short, accessible analysis of Christianity that focuses on its social and cultural diversity as well as its historical dimensions.