Monks, Mystics and Martyrs: Abrahamic Traditions Compared

This course explores the process of "standing out" from mainstream society, from traditional kinship relationships, from local practices of community and economic production, undertaken by ascetics and mystics in the three Abrahamic traditions. We will explore monasticism and mysticism in Judaism, Christianity, and Islam, from the period of late antiquity to the high Middle Ages. Using primary sources in translation and scholarship on the phenomena of asceticism and mysticism, we will address the motivations for and manifestations of non-traditional practices of worship and community-building in the Mediterranean and Middle-Eastern world.