| Description |
1 online resource |
| Contents |
Evaluating postulants -- Discerning motivation I: status and vocation -- Discerning motivation II: trials of commitment -- Cognitive disciplines -- Scriptural exercises and the monastic soundscape: writing on the heart -- Learning the fear of God -- Prayer and monastic progress: from demonic temptation to divine revelation -- Collective heart-work -- The lives (and minds) of others: hagiography, cognition, and commemoration -- Shenoute and the heart of darkness: rituals of collective repentance |
| Summary |
In Monasteries and the Care of Souls in Late Antique Christianity, Paul C. Dilley explores the personal practices and group rituals through which the thoughts of monastic disciples were monitored and trained to purify the mind and help them achieve salvation. Dilley draws widely on the interdisciplinary field of cognitive studies, especially anthropology, in his analysis of key monastic 'cognitive disciplines', such as meditation on scripture, the fear of God, and prayer. In addition, various rituals distinctive to communal monasticism, including entrance procedures, the commemoration of founders, and collective repentance, are given their first extended analysis. Participants engaged in 'heart-work' on their thoughts and emotions, which were understood to reflect the community's spiritual state. This book will be of interest to scholars of early Christianity and the ancient world more generally for its detailed description of communal monastic culture and its innovative methodology |
| Bibliography |
Includes bibliographical references and index |
| Notes |
Online resource; title from PDF title page (EBSCO, viewed October 16, 2017) |
| Subject |
Monastic and religious life -- History -- Early church, ca. 30-600.
|
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RELIGION -- Institutions & Organizations.
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Monastic and religious life -- Early church
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| Genre/Form |
History
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| Form |
Electronic book
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| ISBN |
9781316875094 |
|
1316875091 |
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9781316881910 |
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1316881911 |
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