Monastic Tradition Research Articles

Imagination, Meditation and Cognition in the Middle Ages by Michelle Karnes (review)

Reviewed by: Imagination, Meditation and Cognition in the Middle Ages by Michelle Karnes Michael G. Sargent Michelle Karnes. Imagination, Meditation and Cognition in the Middle Ages. University of Chicago Press, 2011. Pp. 280. $50.00 cloth. Michelle Karnes has written a thought-provoking argument for the elevation of the role of the imagination in our perception of late medieval contemplative and devotional thought. Specifically, she argues that a synthesis of elements of Scholastic and Augustinian psychology achieved by Bonaventure led to the promotion of the power of imagination from its lower role (as it is usually conceived) in the memory and projection of sense impressions into the cognitive faculty, so that it came to have a function in the higher cognition of those ideas that are eternally in the mind of God: that it is through the functioning of the power of imagination that we know the highest truths that the human mind is capable of knowing. This synthesis worked out in Bonaventuran psychology, [End Page 320] Karnes goes on to point out, characterizes Bonaventure’s authentic works of devout, imaginative meditation, and further influences the circle of works attributed to him in the later Middle Ages, like the Stimulus amoris and the Meditationes vitae Christi. But it was dismissed by later medieval English writers like Walter Hilton (if it was indeed he who wrote the Prickynge of Love) and Nicholas Love, in whose vernacular versions of these pseudo-Bonaventuran works imagination was reduced once more to the lower rank that it had held in the monastic tradition as a helpful but problematically illusory aspect of sensuality. Karnes’s study is divided into six chapters: the first provides an overview of classical and early medieval thought on the imagination, beginning with Plato and the Neoplatonists; focusing on Aristotle; and continuing through the medieval Aristotelian/Scholastic tradition, including Avicenna, Averroes, and Aquinas. The second chapter treats first of Augustinian thought on imagination (particularly in De Trinitate) before proceeding to deal with Bonaventure’s philosophical writings. The third shows how the Bonaventuran philosophical position on imagination expressed itself in the devotional writings that were assuredly written by him; the fourth follows this emanation of influence into the most prominent Latin devotional writing in the “Bonaventuran” tradition, the Stimulus amoris and the Meditationes vitae Christi, as well as Suso’s Horologium sapientiae and Ludolph of Saxony’s Vita Christi. The sixth chapter follows directly on from this, demonstrating what happened to the Bonaventuran strand of imaginative contemplation in the two prominent Middle English versions of the Stimulus and the Meditationes, the Prickynge of Love and Nicholas Love’s Mirror of the Blessed Life of Jesus Christ. The fifth chapter interrupts the flow of this argument, in an excursus on “Imaginatif” in Piers Plowman that demonstrates the usefulness of this study to those other than specialists in contemplative and devotional literature. The crux of Karnes’s argument lies in her observation that Bonaventure synthesized the late medieval Aristotelian conceptualization of the operation of the agent intellect in illuminating the intelligible species abstracted from common sense perception as phantasmata by a higher-level form of imagination, with Augustine’s trinitarian psychology, according to which reason illuminates the intelligible species that reside eternally in memory. For Augustine, as Karnes demonstrates with admirable lucidity, the soul is a created trinity made in the image and likeness [End Page 321] of the uncreated Trinity: memory in the individual human soul is the image of the Father, in whom eternal truth resides; reason is the image of the Son, the Word in whom/which eternal truth expresses itself; and will is the image of the Holy Spirit, the love that flows from this truth to this truth. For Bonaventure, as Karnes argues, the Son, the Word of the Augustinian Trinity—through which we know the ideas (“verba” or “species”) that reside properly in the Mind, the Father (to the limited extent that we do know them)—functions in the individual human soul in the same way as the Aristotelian/Scholastic agent intellect in illuminating the intelligible species. I am not certain that I am convinced by this, but I will admit that my undergraduate study of medieval...

La figure de Guillaume de Gellone d’après la Vita sancti Willelmi (v. 1125) : quelques remarques sur ses modèles hagiographiques

In the Vita Willelmi, William presents the figure of a warrior monk who offers an original synthesis of the two sides of caritas, the military service for Christ and the withdrawal from the world. This Vita fits into the context of the late-eleventh century conflict between the abbey of Gellone and its neighbour Aniane. The purpose of this paper is to focus upon the literary dimension of this text in order to situate the conflict between the two neighbouring institutions on the field of writing. We thus see that by using different hagiographic models, the author of the Vita engages in a “battle of writing” both to surpass the Vita Benedicti of Ardon and to place his text and his hero in a monastic tradition in which Martin and Hilarion are the preeminent examples.

Theravada Buddhism: The View of the Elders by Asanga Tilakaratne (review)

Reviewed by: Theravada Buddhism: The View of the Elders by Asanga Tilakaratne Donald K. Swearer and Sid Brown THERAVADA BUDDHISM: THE VIEW OF THE ELDERS. By Asanga Tilakaratne. Honolulu. University of Hawai‘i Press, 2012. 186 pp. Theravada Buddhism: The View of the Elders is primarily a descriptive, comprehensive study of the Theravāda Buddhist tradition in Sri Lanka and Southeast Asia. The book’s eight chapters begin with a brief general account of the life of the Buddha and the beginnings of the tradition in India, four chapters on the basic teachings of Theravāda (“The Triple Gem,” “The Basic Teachings of the Buddha,” “Karma and Its Results,” and “The Social Teachings of the Buddha”), two chapters that contextualize the tradition in Sri Lanka and Southeast Asia, and a concluding chapter on diaspora Theravāda that highlights two topics—meditation and the Bhikkhuni order. The book’s broad scope is both its strength and weakness; however, it successfully negotiates a middle ground between those books that provide only a brief introduction to Theravāda, on the one hand, and more comprehensive, in-depth studies. The author characterizes Theravāda as a spiritual practice guided by the monastic tradition based on an “interpretation of the words of the Buddha adopted and developed by the tradition.” From this normative perspective, the author’s description and analysis of Theravāda doctrine includes generous quotations from the Pali Suttas. Tilakaratne “respects modern historical and philological scholarship”; however, he follows the tradition of Theravāda monastic interpretation that accepts the Suttas as the Buddavacanam (words of the Buddha) as organized by the early disciples, and characterizes the communal act of chanting as signifying “undivided allegiance to the word of the Buddha as approved by the leaders of the community.” From this perspective, the author deems Theravāda to be “remarkably homogeneous” (p. xxvi). Although in general terms Theravāda can be seen as more homogeneous than Mahayāna and Tantrayāna textual and doctrinal traditions, in more localized contexts—not noted by the author—it is also marked by varying degrees of diversity. For example, one thinks of the Thai monk Buddhadasa Bhikkhu (d. 1993), who was accused of being a “Mahayanist” for highlighting the doctrine of Emptiness (śunyatā), a central Mahayāna concept but of relatively minor importance in Theravāda. A former monk, Tilakaratne, professor of Pali and Buddhist studies at the University of Colombo, brings an understandable normativity to his description and analysis. Furthermore, the author’s background gives the volume a direct firsthand flavor. For example, in discussing the Pali formula extoling the virtues of the sangha that all Theravāda Buddhists learn by heart and repeat within a daily ritual context, the author observes that even though lay practitioners continue to use the formula throughout their lives, they may not comprehend its meaning. In his discussion of the basic teachings of Buddhism, the author addresses the common misinterpretation of the fundamental Buddhist teachings of not-self (anattā) and nirvāṇa as negative concepts. The teaching that an individual does not [End Page 219] exist independently affirms the phenomenology of the dynamic, interdependent nature of all things, and, more importantly from the standpoint of spiritual practice, affirms that with this realization (i.e., nirvāṇa) “one’s thirst in all forms becomes extinct” (p. 44). The author structures the basic teachings of the Buddha in terms of the traditional categories of the three trainings: morality (sīla), concentration (samādhi), and understanding (paññā). Apropos of the contextual flavor of the book, the author’s discussion of sīla for the laity situates the five precepts (abstaining from taking life, from stealing, from sexual misconduct, from telling lies, and from alcohol and intoxicants) within the ritual of taking the precepts as a daily practice at home, the temple, or at pubic ceremonies. Paññā or “seeing things as they are” addresses the fundamental Theravāda teachings of suffering (dukkha), impermanence, and not-self: “Suffering alone exists, not a sufferer; action alone exists, not an actor; extinguishment alone exists, not one who is extinguished; path alone exists, not one who treads on it” (Buddhaghosa) (p. 55). Given the prominence of the concept of...

Religion Compass: A Survey of Current Researches on India’s Nāth Yogīs

AbstractThe Nāth or Kānphaṭā Yogīs belong to a Hindu Shaiva ascetic and monastic tradition which had a lot of influence on the religious and literary landscape of precolonial India and is still counted among the important sectarian movements of modern India. This survey offers a brief overview of scholarship on three key areas: first, the relationship to Yoga and the link with Gorakhnāth as the supposed author of Sanskrit treatises on Haṭha Yoga; second, the interpretation of the vernacular literature of the Nāth Yogīs, their legends, their strong relationship to power and their convergence with the bhakti milieu; and third, the Nāth Yogīs as constituting a modern sectarian organization, and recent developments relating to their organisation and rituals.

Visions of Beatitude in Santa Maria Novella’s Paradise. The Ultimate Goal of Human Endeavor in Monastic Tradition and Dominican Thought

While in the monastic tradition visio dei was expressed through Maiestas Domini images based on John’s Book of Revelations, developments in scholastic thought from the mid 13th century onward have caused some significant changes in visualization of this dogma. In the chapel of Mary Magdalen in Bargello and the Strozzi Chapel in Santa Maria Novella, Paradise and Hell are majestic images depicting deserving citizens among saints enjoying their face-to-face encounter with God before the Last Judgment and the general resurrection of the body. The article claims that the visual prominence and conceptual independence of Paradise and Hell from the Last Judgment as well as the lack of apocalyptic motifs in the Strozzi chapel is a consequence of Pope Benedict’s XII Benedictus Dei constitution of 1336 which defines the time of ultimate reward and eternal punishment at human death, and not Last Judgment.

Ann W. Astell and J. A. Jackson, Levinas and Medieval Literature: The “Difficult Reading” of English and Rabbinic TextsLevinas and Medieval Literature: The “Difficult Reading” of English and Rabbinic Texts. Edited by Ann W. Astell and J. A. Jackson. Pittsburgh: Duquesne University Press. Pp. x+374.

<i>Ann W. Astell and J. A. Jackson</i>, Levinas and Medieval Literature: The “Difficult Reading” of English and Rabbinic Texts<i>Levinas and Medieval Literature: The “Difficult Reading” of English and Rabbinic Texts</i>. Edited by Ann W. Astell and J. A. Jackson. Pittsburgh: Duquesne University Press. Pp. x+374.

Monasticisms Medieval and Early Modern

The very word monasticism brings to mind images of walls and enclosures, suggests qualities of isolation and separation. As recent work on both medieval and early modern monastic foundations has demonstrated, though, the convent wall was actually quite permeable. In this special issue of JMEMS, essays explore the ways in which monastic foundations are complexly imbricated in their local communities as well as in far-reaching political, economic, and textual systems. One of the aims of this issue is thus to use the topic of monasticism to rethink a variety of boundaries that have long shaped studies of medieval and early modern history, literature, and religion. The essays in this volume consider monastic traditions, institutions, texts, and practices comparatively and internationally. They also consider early modern English monastic communities in their Continental environments.

Book Review: The Life of the Vows: Initiation into the Monastic Tradition 6 by Thomas Merton

Book Review: The Life of the Vows: Initiation into the Monastic Tradition 6 by Thomas Merton

Spiritual Formation as an Art

In the Eastern Orthodox tradition, the spiritual formation of a Christian is the art of seeking holiness and union with God through the ministry of spiritual fatherhood (and motherhood), whereby the spiritual guide rekindles and keeps alive the baptismal grace of the disciple through the mysteries (sacraments) of the Church, God-inspired words and personal example. This article evinces some quintessential aspects of the ancient Christian practices of spiritual direction and formation and their current bearing on adult faith formation in the Eastern Orthodox tradition, the focus being on spiritual formation carried out through a Spirit-led spiritual father – spiritual son/daughter relationship. An overview of the tradition is provided, from St Paul through to the monastic tradition, closing with the example of a contemporary model.

Hospitality in the benedictine monastic tradition

Hospitality in the benedictine monastic tradition

“What We Have to Be Is What We Are”: Re-Discovering an Ontology of Unity in The Asian Journal of Thomas Merton

I argue in this article that due to its unique composition and structure,The Asian Journal of Thomas Merton offers readers an opportunityto take part in the monastic tradition of lectio divina. Such meditativereading of the text, besides giving a glimpse into Merton’s insights aboutinterfaith living and how monastic identity encourages such a pursuit,also offers the reader an opportunity to reflect on the ontology of unityat the heart of his contemplative theology. I thus wish to suggest thatthe “ground of openness” that Merton names and exhorts in his workis not simply confined to monastics. My claim is that anyone who hasthe confidence to read his journal as lectio divina might also come toexperience a leaning towards such unity and openness.

‘Take Heed What Ye Hear’: Listening as a Moral, Transcendental and Sacramental Act

ABSTRACTThis paper aims to demonstrate that listening is not only a highly complex sensory-perceptive phenomenon, but also an activity that invites considerations of its moral, political and religious dimensions. Drawing from the perspective of an early monastic tradition that understood theology as a sounding practice rather than a primarily cognitive one, the author draws attention to the fact that the biblical tradition itself prioritized hearing over seeing in its portrayal of the human being as ‘all ear’ when communicating with and responding to a God that addresses her from the first. Analyses of Martin Luther's account of the new creation in Christ as one that will be awakened to hearing afresh, thus becoming attentive to the ‘address of creation through creation’, and of his theology of the psalter, in which the reformer presents an excitingly different hermeneutics of scriptural interpretation based on the sensory perception of hearing/chanting the text, prepare for concluding remarks on the inevitably communicative and quasi-sacramental character of listening.

Creating the Sacred Space Within: Enclosure as a Defining Feature in the Convent Life of Medieval Dominican Sisters (13th–15th c.)

The introduction of strict female enclosure was one of the main interests of the monastic reform movements of the fifteenth century which promulgated the return to a stricter observance. Those who tried to introduce strict enclosure into the convents encountered both enthusiastic assent and violent rejection. This article concentrates on the Dominican interpretation of the concept and practice of enclosure. The concept did not originate in the reform movement. It was the result of an amalgamation of ancient monastic traditions and the Dominican preoccupation with obedience. The author explores the ideas of the Order’s fifth master general, Humbert of Romans, and their transformation by the fifteenth-century reformers. Thus she illustrates how the concept of the reformers was enacted: only meticulous observation of the rules could achieve the aim of the religious life—to create the sacred space within, to make room for the encounter between God and the soul.

The Spirituality of st Bruno of Querfurt

This article analyses the spirituality of St. Bruno of Querfurt, as expressed in his writings. In his Life of the Five Brethren he presents the plan of Otto III to send some of St Romuald’s most zealous disciples to the Slavonic countries to build a monastery near the pagan lands. In this way the ‘three obligations’ seeking the Lord’s path, namely: for the new arrivals – the community life they desire, for those mature and seeking the Living God – golden solitude, for those desiring to be free and with Christ – preaching the Gospel to the pagans. We note the following symbols of spiritual life: community life – the monk’s habit, golden solitude – the hermitage, preaching the Gospel to the pagans – martyrdom. According to established monastic tradition, before becoming a hermit it is necessary to pass through the stage of community life. The Rule of St. Benedict states that the hermits are ‘no longer in the first fervour of their reformation, but after long probation in a monastery, having learned by the help of many brethren how to fight against the devil, go out well armed from the ranks of the community to the solitary combat of the desert. They are able now, with no help save from God, to fight single-handed against the vices of the flesh and their own evil thoughts’. The second component of his life is his time as a hermit. For some while St Bruno followed the teaching of St. Romuald, who provided a rule for hermits. First of all, he offered them St. Benedict’s Rule, but the Life of the Five Brethren includes the so-called ‘Little Rule’, which describes the ideal hermit life compactly. The third component is preaching the Gospel – martyrdom. St. Bruno keeps mentioning two things: the preaching of the Gospel and martyrdom. It is thought that his primary goal was martyrdom, and he understood the preaching of the Gospel as a method to attain this goal. With complete sacrifice he begins to preach the Gospel to the pagan nations until finally in 1009 he meets a martyr’s death on the border of Lithuania and Rus’.

Na pograniczu języków, kultur i religii: uwagi o tłumaczeniu dzienników Thomasa Mertona

The fact that translating classics is both difficult and inevitable is exemplified in the copious translations of Thomas Merton’s works worldwide. In the Polish context, the challenge of translating Merton is additionally amplified by the existence of translations produced by prominent writers and scholars (e.g. Miłosz, Tabakowska). In the article, the translator of A year with Th omas Merton. Daily meditations from His Journals provides an overview of peculiar diffi culties encountered while working on the Polish version. In particular, he focuses on the influence of the earlier Polish translations of parts of the Journals as well as Merton’s distinctive style (often manifested in excessive repetitiveness and lexical simplicity paired with the richness of thought). However, most translational challenges seem to have arisen in relation to Merton’s command and abundant use of multiple languages, his fascination by various cultures, and rootedness in the Christian – particularly Roman Catholic – heritage and the monastic tradition. The discussion of the actual translational challenges is accompanied by personal comments of the translator.

Der Dienst Am Kranken: Krankenversorgung zwischen Caritas, Medizin und Okonomie vom Mittelalter bis zur Neuzeit (review)

Reviewed by: Der Dienst Am Kranken: Krankenversorgung zwischen Caritas, Medizin und Okonomie vom Mittelalter bis zur Neuzeit Alisha Rankin Gerhard Aumüller, Kornelia Grundmann, and Christina Vanja, eds. Der Dienst Am Kranken: Krankenversorgung zwischen Caritas, Medizin und Okonomie vom Mittelalter bis zur Neuzeit. Veröffentlichungen der Historischen Kommission für Hessen 68. Marburg: N. G. Elwert Verlag, 2007. xv + 383 Ill. €24.00 (978-3-7708-1315-5). This collection of essays comprises papers given at a 2007 conference at the Hessian State Archive in Marburg, Germany, honoring the eight-hundredth anniversary of the death of St. Elisabeth of Thuringia. The volume focuses on the development of institutionalized medical care, mainly in German-speaking lands, from the Middle Ages to the twenty-first century. Many essays particularly emphasize charitable care of the sick poor, for which St. Elisabeth was known. As a whole, the collection gives a fascinating survey of hospital care through the ages, illustrated by numerous high-quality images. Elisabeth of Thuringia herself appears chiefly in the introductory and concluding essays to the volume: Klaus Niehr’s study of the changing iconography of St. Elisabeth and Helmut Siefert’s survey of four very different leading figures in charitable care, beginning with Elisabeth and ending with Cicely Saunders. The links among institutional medicine, charity, and religion form the focus of three essays on the Middle Ages. Kay Peter Jankrift challenges the nearly exclusive emphasis on monastic medicine as a source of medical care in the early Middle Ages. Hubert Kolling provides an overview of institutionalized care of the sick in medieval Europe from its early medieval roots in the monastic tradition to the founding of hospitals by knights’ orders, lay confraternities, and civic authorities. He notes the importance of female healers to the charitable hospital tradition. Finally, Peter Dilg surveys the development of the apothecary trade in the Middle Ages, which he relates to the early medieval monastic tradition as well as to the regulation of apothecaries in European towns from the twelfth century. The next two sections focus on the institutionalization of hospitals in the Renaissance and Enlightenment. Using the example of Augsburg, Claudia Stein disputes the thesis that newly founded institutions for the “French disease” in the sixteenth century were forerunners of late-eighteenth-century medical clinics, and Gerhard Aumüller provides a careful study of the organization of the hospital in the Hessian town of Haina. Frank Hatje examines the diverse types of institutional care in eighteenth-century northern Germany, demonstrating that differentiation did not always entail a systematic division of labor. Heiko Droste studies the increasing professionalization in hospitals, which took place within the framework of existing strict hierarchies. Irmtraut Sahmland contrasts the cloister-like statutes in the eighteenth-century Merxhausen hospital, which required that pregnant female carers be banned from the institution, with the more lenient treatment of pregnant carers in practice. [End Page 600] The essays on nineteenth-century hospitals return in part to the theme of charity. Gunnar Stolberg surveys the development of hospitals as institutions and their handling of the “laboring poor,” and Norbert Friedrich examines the continuing connection between deacons and deaconesses and medical care. Christina Vanja focuses on the care provided by sanatoria, which relied on the ideals of aesthetic living and self-discipline. The final three essays examine the modern hospital: they include Martin Dinges’s study of homeopathy in the hospital from the eighteenth to the twenty-first century; Kornelia Grundmann’s portrayal of the Marburg Surgical Clinic in the early twentieth century as an example of the increasing acceptance of hospitals (despite a continuing surplus of poor patients); and Michael Lingenfeder’s probing of the conflict between modern hospital management and health services. The essays are of notably high quality and provide a substantial survey of the salient themes regarding institutional care and the development of the modern hospital. However, the book lacks a strong introduction or conclusion tying the essays together, which leaves the reader without a clear overview of the shifting meanings of the hospital or the changing relationship between hospitals and charitable healing. An essay specifically related to women and charity would have provided a nice link to Elisabeth of Thuringia. Nevertheless, this...

The Central Position of the Shan/Tai Buddhism for the Socio-Political Development of Wa and Kayah Peoples

This paper concerns work I have done on the China-Burma border between 2001 and 2007, with background of work with Shan both in Burma and in North Western Thailand. It will be about the place of the Shan and their Buddhism in the network of ethnic and trade relations on this border. It will raise questions about Shan Monastic traditions. On the one hand I have worked on the nature of Wa (Pirok) Theravada Buddhism and the history of the Wa ‘kingdom’ of Ban Hong, and the Shan have played a central role as source of knowledge about Buddhism and of kingship, providing models of both for these Wa. A number of interesting questions arise about the Shan sources of models of Buddhist monastic organisation here; and it is quite clear that Wa ‘kingship’ was based upon the Shan notion of a Caofa or Cao Mang. The second focus (during most of 2003, mostly at Ruili/Meng Mao) has been the cross-border, inter-ethnic trade system chiefly in gemstones and jade. In this context the Shan have played a central role as what anthropologists have called ‘cultural brokers’. The Shan uniquely have been in a position to mediate between conflicting Burmese, Chinese and Thai conceptions about precious stones, making this trade network work smoothly. Since the Shan on these borders know how to ‘be Chinese’ (as Tai Noe), to ‘be Burmese’ (as Tai Mao and/or Tai Tay), and even to ‘be within the Thai cultural ambience’.

Thomas Merton, Initiation into the Monastic Tradition, Vols. 1–3 (review)

Thomas Merton, Initiation into the Monastic Tradition, Vols. 1–3 (review) Mark DelCogliano Thomas Merton Cassian and the Fathers: Initiation into the Monastic Tradition . Edited with an Introduction by Patrick F. O’Connell. Foreword by Patrick Hart, OCSO. Preface by Columba Stewart, OSB. Monastic Wisdom Series 1 (Kalamazoo, Michigan : Cistercian Publications , 2005 ), pp . lxvi + 304 . ISBN 978‐0‐87907‐001‐4 ( paperback). $29.95 . Thomas Merton Pre‐Benedictine Monasticism: Initiation into the Monastic Tradition 2 . Edited with an Introduction by Patrick F. O’Connell. Preface by Sidney H. Griffith. Monastic Wisdom Series 9 (Kalamazoo, Michigan : Cistercian Publications , 2006 ), pp . lxix + 391 . ISBN 978‐0‐87907‐073‐1 ( paperback). $24.95 . Thomas Merton An Introduction to Christian Mysticism: Initiation into the Monastic Tradition 3 . Edited with an Introduction by Patrick F. O’Connell. Preface by Lawrence C. Cunningham. Monastic Wisdom Series 13 (Kalamazoo, Michigan : Cistercian Publications , 2008 ), pp . lviii + 416 . ISBN 978‐0‐87907‐013‐7 ( paperback). $39.95 . These three Merton volumes are among the initial offerings of the new Monastic Wisdom Series published by Cistercian Publications. In each, Patrick F. O’Connell has expertly edited and annotated lecture notes prepared by Merton during his term as novice master at the Abbey of Gethsemani (1955‐1965) for various courses on Christian monastic and mystical traditions. Premiere scholars of the subjects treated in each volume have written Prefaces that help the reader understand just how pioneering Merton’s interests were for the late 1950s and early 1960s. O’Connell’s ample Introductions explain the historical context of the lectures and discuss Merton’s personal engagement with and indebtedness to the figures and traditions he is teaching. He often finds pertinent passages from Merton’s letters and journals that demonstrate his reflections on the courses as they were being taught. O’Connell provides a survey of the topics treated in each course and offers synthetic remarks on Merton’s approach and teaching. Each Introduction also describes the surviving witnesses to the texts of the lectures and in Appendix A of each volume O’Connell has supplied abundant textual notes. He is to be commended for his meticulous attention to detail in the editing of these texts. Besides those interested in learning more about the monastic and mystical traditions treated by Merton, scholars and others interested more generally in his thought and personality will find in these books a hitherto largely inaccessible aspect of the man which complements and at times contrasts with the “public” Merton found in his works written for publication, the “interpersonal” Merton revealed in his letters, and the “intimate” Merton unveiled in his recently published journals. These works thus constitute a unique perspective for those engaged in the retrieval of Merton’s ideas and in the reconstruction of his monastic and personal identity. The breadth of the topics covered in these lectures reveals the scope of Merton’s wide‐ranging interests. In Cassian and the Fathers, O’Connell presents Merton’s lecture notes for two courses given to novices on multiple occasions from around 1955 to 1962. The first course is called the “Prologue to Cassian” and consists of a review of ascetic and monastic spirituality from the apostolic fathers onward, with the emphasis on the fourth century. The second course is the “Lectures on Cassian.” Here, Merton begins by summarizing Cassian’s life and teaching and then examines key sections of both the Institutes and Conferences. A brief survey of the contents of these two courses follows. The “Prologue to Cassian” is largely derived from others’ scholarship, particularly in the earlier sections which summarize pre‐fourth‐century spirituality. There are four topics covered in these early sections: martyrdom and virginity in the first and second century, aberrant movements (Encratism, Montanism, Neoplatonism, and Gnosticism), Clement of Alexandria, and Origen. Once he turns to the monastic figures of the fourth century, Merton depends more on his own reading of the primary texts and secondary scholarship. He deals with Antony the Great, Pachomius, Basil of Caesarea, Gregory of Nazianzus, Gregory of Nyssa, Palestinian monasticism, including Jerome, Mesopotamian and Syrian monasticism, the desert fathers of Nitria and Scete and their apophthegmata, and Evagrius Ponticus. As a whole, these sections are better than...

Thomas Merton, Initiation into the Monastic Tradition, Vols. 1-3

CrossCurrentsVolume 58, Issue 4 p. 616-620 Thomas Merton, Initiation into the Monastic Tradition, Vols. 1–3 Mark DelCogliano, Mark DelCoglianoSearch for more papers by this author Mark DelCogliano, Mark DelCoglianoSearch for more papers by this author First published: 16 March 2009 https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1939-3881.2009.00053.xRead the full textAboutPDF ToolsRequest permissionExport citationAdd to favoritesTrack citation ShareShare Give accessShare full text accessShare full-text accessPlease review our Terms and Conditions of Use and check box below to share full-text version of article.I have read and accept the Wiley Online Library Terms and Conditions of UseShareable LinkUse the link below to share a full-text version of this article with your friends and colleagues. Learn more.Copy URL Share a linkShare onFacebookTwitterLinkedInRedditWechat Volume58, Issue4Winter 2008Pages 616-620 RelatedInformation

Five Models of Spiritual Direction in the Early Church (review)

Reviewed by: Five Models of Spiritual Direction in the Early Church John Chryssavgis George Demacopolous. Five Models of Spiritual Direction in the Early Church. Notre Dame, IN: University of Notre Dame Press, 2007. Pp. 274. $30.00. Originally a doctoral dissertation at the University of North Carolina on the pastoral strategies of Pope Gregory I, this book explores the struggles of five patristic authorities (Athanasius of Alexandria, Gregory the Theologian, Augustine of Hippo, John Cassian, and Gregory I of Rome) to reconcile their ascetic principles with their pastoral responsibilities. With the exception of John Cassian, the authors were bishops of important medieval churches. All of them, however, sought to balance the tension between spiritual idealism and secular realism in diverse geographical and cultural contexts throughout early Christendom. The subtle varieties among their models of spiritual direction demonstrate both the complexity of the issue as well as the variable nature of Christianity during the foundational and formative decades of monasticism. In late antiquity, the rising number of Christians entering the priesthood faced a profoundly spiritual and pastoral dilemma: whether to adhere to a more traditional approach to church life, or to advocate a more monastic model of spiritual direction. The dilemma was between the more institutional or administrative approach and the more inspirational or charismatic approach. The truth is that the early Church never fully reconciled these two ways, even if, in the hands of individual bishops or charismatic leaders, it tended toward one or another direction. From the age of Constantine until late antiquity, the formal (or more "hierarchical") ecclesiastical institution and the charismatic (or more "lay") monastic tradition continued to be regarded as complementary and essential to [End Page 611] the integrity of the gospel and the church. Neither the church in the world nor the flight to the desert was without its respective weaknesses: monastics reminded the church of its unadmitted temptation toward complacency, while the church reminded monastics of their unrelenting tendency toward isolation (169). Over time, however, a gradual shift in ecclesiastical priority regarding spiritual direction—" from Athanasius' ambivalence to Gregory's systematic integration of the ascetic and the clerical traditions" (166)—would harden into a difference in practice with regard to ecclesiastical leadership. Demacopoulos explores spiritual direction in its social and political dimensions. Yet, out of the five ecclesiastical and monastic leaders examined in this book, Athanasius and Augustine alone are said to have "offered little (if any) endorsement of the spiritual father/spiritual disciple model of supervision. Athanasius described Antony as a spiritual father, but he never developed the model for himself; Augustine seems to have ignored it altogether. Perhaps this is because both Athanasius and Augustine spent much of their episcopacy in the throes of theological conflict" (167). While both bishops certainly display similarities in terms of the doctrinal pressures that shaped their ministries, and although Augustine clearly regarded himself as indirectly influenced by Athanasius, nevertheless there is surely something to be said about the way that Athanasius revered the "father of monasticism." For, if Athanasius does not explicitly articulate a theology of asceticism in his works, which are primarily shaped by the controversy and conflict that he addressed and refuted, yet he certainly incarnated the ascetic model of spiritual direction. Even if the ascetic pattern of spiritual formation was "not yet fully developed" (81), the great Alexandrian visionary was surely able to reconcile the ascetic and the clerical models within himself. Were it not for the activity of certain exceptional leaders, such as Athanasius and Basil, monasticism might well have devolved into a para-ecclesiastical movement, as it frequently both tended and threatened to do. Although Demacopoulos recognizes that "some readers will question [his] selection of authors" (20), his study would have benefited from comparison with the unique model of spiritual direction proposed by the renowned elders of Gaza, Barsanuphius the Great and John the Prophet. These charismatic monastics struggled to achieve and promote an extraordinary reconciliation between the establishment of the hierarchy (there are a number of letters to and about bishops), the experience of the desert in a secular world, and the formation of the laity (numerous letters are addressed by and directed to lay Christians). This book will appeal...