Five Models of Spiritual Direction in the Early Church

Five Models of Spiritual Direction in the Early Church
Author: George E. Demacopoulos
Publisher: University of Notre Dame Pess
Total Pages: 288
Release: 2007-11-15
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 0268063087

In late antiquity the rising number of ascetics who joined the priesthood faced a pastoral dilemma. Should they follow a traditional, demonstrably administrative, approach to pastoral care, emphasizing doctrinal instruction, the care of the poor, and the celebration of the sacraments? Or should they bring to the parish the ascetic models of spiritual direction, characterized by a more personal spiritual father/spiritual disciple relationship? Five Models of Spiritual Direction in the Early Church explores the struggles of five clerics (Athanasius, Gregory Nazianzen, Augustine of Hippo, John Cassian, and Pope Gregory I) to reconcile their ascetic idealism with the reality of pastoral responsibility. Through a close reading of Greek and Latin texts, George E. Demacopoulos explores each pastor's criteria for ordination, his supervision of subordinate clergy, and his methods of spiritual direction. He argues that the evolution in spiritual direction that occurred during this period reflected and informed broader developments in religious practices. Demacopoulos describes the way in which these authors shaped the medieval pastoral traditions of the East and the West. Each of the five struggled to balance the tension between his ascetic idealism and the realities of the lay church. Each offered distinct (and at times very different) solutions to that tension. The diversity among their models of spiritual direction demonstrates both the complexity of the problem and the variable nature of early Christianity. Scholars and students of late antiquity, the history of Christianity, and historical theology will find a great deal of interest in Five Models of Spiritual Direction in the Early Church. The book will also appeal to those who are actively engaged in Christian ministry.

Spiritual Direction As a Medical Art in Early Christian Monasticism

Spiritual Direction As a Medical Art in Early Christian Monasticism
Author: JONATHAN L. ZECHER
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Total 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.

Holy Listening

Holy Listening
Author: Margaret Guenther
Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield
Total Pages: 162
Release: 1992
Genre: Spiritual direction
ISBN: 1561010561

Describes the role and practice of a spiritual director as distinct from pastoral care and from psychotherapy. Compares the spiritual director to a midwife for the soul, describing actions of teaching prayer and offering exercise suggestions.

Reading the Christian Spiritual Classics

Reading the Christian Spiritual Classics
Author: Jamin Goggin
Publisher: InterVarsity Press
Total Pages: 337
Release: 2013-06-05
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 0830839976

This new collection of essays edited by Kyle Strobel and Jamin Goggin offers an evangelical hermeneutic for reading the Christian spiritual classics. Addressing the why, what and how of reading these texts, these essays challenge us to find our own questions deepened by the church's long history of spiritual reflection.

A Luminous Life

A Luminous Life
Author: Brock Bingaman
Publisher: Wipf and Stock Publishers
Total Pages: 246
Release: 2021-03-23
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 1498279279

In a culture intrigued by various forms of “spirituality,” this study invites readers to explore the deep, historically rooted resources of the Christian spiritual classics. It is an invitation to seek the transformative presence of God – the kingdom of God within our hearts – through the spiritual classics. These classics, formed in the matrix of meditation on Scripture, are like road maps that provide invaluable wisdom and guidance for the spiritual journey. Illustrating the importance of theologically grounded spirituality, A Luminous Life draws from Catholic, Orthodox, and Protestant classics that stem from rich trinitarian and christological reflection. This book explores key themes in the spiritual classics, including biblical images and historical models of spiritual development, prayer, fasting, solitude and community, the cross and suffering, the desert, spiritual direction, and contemplation and action. This study seeks to bridge the academic and ecclesial, demonstrating that the life of the mind and life in the Spirit are unified, that theological reflection and spiritual formation go together. Considering exemplary writings from diverse traditions, such as the Desert Fathers, Maximus the Confessor, Teresa of Avila, and John Calvin, A Luminous Life draws readers into worshipful reflection on God and formation in Christ. The book concludes with the encouragement to ongoing, prayerful study of the spiritual classics: as fuel for the luminous life.

Christian Inversion of Jewish Nationalist Monotheism, and its Modern Romantic-Narcissist Betrayal

Christian Inversion of Jewish Nationalist Monotheism, and its Modern Romantic-Narcissist Betrayal
Author: Patrick Madigan
Publisher: Cambridge Scholars Publishing
Total Pages: 600
Release: 2023-11-03
Genre: Bibles
ISBN: 1527552659

This is a history of Western culture, divided into two parts. The first concerns the aggressive championing of monotheism by Jewish people as their distinctive national culture (although they only fell into or embraced it late in their development). Jesus offended by proposing an inversion of the divine protocols and an agenda more in harmony with international political realities: the one God proposed to use the Jews to reach (and transform) the entire human race, which was the actual object of His redemptive and creative energies. With the Renaissance widening opportunities for study, travel, learning and discovery, authorities had greater difficulty justifying limitations on individuals’ freedom of expression of heterodox artistic, political, philosophical or religious positions. This book explores the difficult modern psychological adjustment of dealing with a world with diminishing centers of authority – where it often seems as if no one is in charge – while also doing justice to one’s feelings of frustration and lack of fulfillment without becoming a radical narcissist.

The Religious Worlds of the Laity in Late Antique Gaul

The Religious Worlds of the Laity in Late Antique Gaul
Author: Lisa Kaaren Bailey
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
Total Pages: 257
Release: 2016-04-07
Genre: History
ISBN: 1472519043

Christianity in the late antique world was not imposed but embraced, and the laity were not passive members of their religion but had a central role in its creation. This volume explores the role of the laity in Gaul, bringing together the fields of history, archaeology and theology. First, this book follows the ways in which clergy and monks tried to shape and manufacture lay religious experience. They had themselves constructed the category of 'the laity', which served as a negative counterpart to their self-definition. Lay religious experience was thus shaped in part by this need to create difference between categories. The book then focuses on how the laity experienced their religion, how they interpreted it and how their decisions shaped the nature of the Church and of their faith. This part of the study pays careful attention to the diversity of the laity in this period, their religious environments, ritual engagement, behaviours, knowledge and beliefs. The first volume to examine laity in this period in Gaul – a key region for thinking about the transition from Roman rule to post-Roman society – The Religious Worlds of the Laity in Late Antique Gaul fills an important gap in current literature.

Orthodox Christian Perspectives on War

Orthodox Christian Perspectives on War
Author: Perry T. Hamalis
Publisher: University of Notre Dame Pess
Total Pages: 441
Release: 2017-12-15
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 0268102805

Many regions of the world whose histories include war and violent conflict have or once had strong ties to Orthodox Christianity. Yet policy makers, religious leaders, and scholars often neglect Orthodoxy’s resources when they reflect on the challenges of war. Through essays written by prominent Orthodox scholars in the fields of biblical studies, church history, Byzantine studies, theology, patristics, political science, ethics, and biology, Orthodox Christian Perspectives on War presents and examines the Orthodox tradition’s nuanced and unique insights on the meaning and challenges of war with an eye toward their contemporary relevance. This volume is structured in three parts: “Confronting the Present Day Reality,” “Reengaging Orthodoxy’s Tradition,” and “Constructive Directions in Orthodox Theology and Ethics.” Each exemplifies the value of interdisciplinary reflection on “war” and the potential for the Eastern Orthodox tradition to enhance ecumenical and interfaith discussions surrounding war in both domestic and international contexts. The contributors do not advance a single account of “the meaning of war” or a comprehensive and normative stance purporting to be “the Orthodox Christian teaching on war.” Instead, this collection presents the breadth and depth of Orthodox Christian thought in a way that engages Orthodox and non-Orthodox readers alike. In addition to offering fresh resources for all people of good will to understand, prevent, and respond faithfully to war, this book will appeal to Christian theologians who specialize in ethics, to libraries of academic institutions, and to scholars of war/peace studies, international relations, and Orthodox thought. Contributors: Peter C. Bouteneff, George Demacopoulos, John Fotopoulos, Brandon Gallaher, Perry T. Hamalis, Valerie A. Karras, Alexandros K. Kyrou, Aristotle Papanikolaou, Elizabeth H. Prodromou, Nicolae Roddy, James C. Skedros, Andrew Walsh, and Gayle E. Woloschak.

Monasteries and the Care of Souls in Late Antique Christianity

Monasteries and the Care of Souls in Late Antique Christianity
Author: Paul C. Dilley
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Total Pages: 363
Release: 2017-09-07
Genre: History
ISBN: 1316878589

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.