Monasteries and the Care of Souls in Late Antique Christianity: Cognition and Discipline
Cambridge University Press, 9/7/2017
EAN 9781107184015, ISBN10: 1107184010
Hardcover, 360 pages, 23.5 x 15.8 x 2.3 cm
Language: English
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.
Part I. Evaluating Postulants
Introduction to Part I
1. Discerning motivation I
status and vocation
2. Discerning motivation II
trials of commitment
Part II. Cognitive Disciplines
Introduction to Part II
3. Scriptural exercises and the monastic soundscape
writing on the heart
4. Learning the fear of God
5. Prayer and monastic progress
from demonic temptation to divine revelation
Part III. Collective Heart-Work
Introduction to Part III
6. The lives (and minds) of others
hagiography, cognition, and commemoration
7. Shenoute and the heart of darkness
rituals of collective repentance
Conclusion.