Authority and Asceticism from Augustine to Gregory the Great

Abstract

This book examines the formation of the Christian ascetic tradition in the western Roman Empire during the period of the barbarian invasions, c.400–600. In an aggressively competitive political context, one of the most articulate claims to power was made, paradoxically, by men who had renounced ‘the world’, committing themselves to a life of spiritual discipline in the hope of gaining entry to an otherworldly kingdom. Often dismissed as mere fanaticism or open hypocrisy, the language of ascetic authority, the book shows, was both carefully honed and well understood in the late Roman and early medieval Mediterranean. It charts the development of this new moral rhetoric by abbots, teachers, and bishops from the time of Augustine of Hippo to that of St Benedict and Gregory the Great.

The wartime and post‐war reception of Caesarius of Arles

“…167 A decade later, Conrad Leyser drew on Markus's work to show how subtly the rhetoric of ascetic writing needs to be interpreted in order to make sense of Caesarius's reception of Cassian and Pomerius, and the 'pure speech' that he cultivated in himself and sought to instil in others. 168 In 2005, Albrecht Diem built on the work of Rousseau, Markus, Leyser, and others to argue that Caesarius played a crucial role in the transition from late antique asceticism to early medieval monasticism. 169 By creating a cloistered institution under Caesaria, visible to everyone in the city but at the same time closed off from view, Caesarius made it possible for the sisters to embody a purity of life not individually, as with ascetic laymen and clerics in the world, but corporately, as a specialized part of the larger community for whose protection it generated perpetual prayers.…”

Apontamentos sobre poder, autoridade e ascetismo: uma breve comparação entre Agostinho e João Cassiano

“…Os bispos que antes eram taxados, presos, torturados e executados, passaram a receber isenções, presentes do tesouro imperial, prestígio e influência na corte. Agostinho teria escrito então, em um momento no qual os cristãos eram livres pra seguirem sua fé e neste sentido, ao defender a degeneração humana e a servidão que obrigava os homens a serem submissos, ele teria justificado a obediência a leis que passaram a ser 15 É neste aspecto que Paul Ricouer situa a aporia do conceito de pecado ao mesmo tempo em que afirma que ao lidar com a gnose e com a necessidade de lhe combater, Agostinho formulou um conceito quase-gnóstico do mal. 16 "De uma parte, o argumento jurídico não cessa de se comprimir e de se endurecer: a inculpação em massa da humanidade é a justificativa de Deus.…”

Evangelic Provocation: Location of Anger in Medieval Conversion Narratives

“…The margin for slippage was tiny, and pressures of faith intense. Conversion to monastic life was in itself instrumental to another, cognitive transformation, as Karl Morrison, Conrad Leyser and Talal Asad have described monastic discipline (Morrison, Understanding Conversion , 81–84; Asad, 153–159; Leyser, 12–13). It was an education in love and fear, which had to be replayed every time the bonds of monastic community were strained.…”