Asceticism and Monasticism in Early Christianity

1 credits · Divinity School

The impulse towards asceticism - towards distinguishing oneself as a 'spiritual athlete' - has been part of Christianity's DNA since its very beginnings. Both the gospels and the Pauline epistles emphasize the benefits of self-denial, and the heavenly treasures that such self-denial would lay up for believers. By the fourth century, these ascetic beginnings flowered into a widespread, locally and regionally diverse set of monastic and ascetic practices, varying in kind as well as in degree, but all designed to draw Christians closer to God and, on occasion, to draw down the heavenly Jerusalem to the temporal plane