Desert Spirituality in Early Christianity

3 credits · Graduate School

This course examines the rise of Christian asceticism in Late Antiquity. Students will study the specific historical and geographic contexts of the development of monasticism in Syria, Egypt, and its spread across the Mediterranean and beyond. The course will be primarily focused on interpreting the large body of ascetic literature which developed from the fourth through sixth centuries. Students will read various genres and monastic theologians including the sayings of the Desert Fathers and Mothers, Athanasius' Life of Anthony, Gerontius' Life of Melania the Younger, the works of Evagrius Ponticus, Isaac of Nineveh, Philoxenos of Mabbug and others. The course will also examine the legacy of desert spirituality for later Christian traditions and for contemporary theology and monastic practice (such as in the work of Roberta Bondi or Thomas Merton) [3]