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The Rich and the Pure
"As the Roman Empire broke down in western Europe, its stability and prosperity moved decisively to the east, producing history's first truly affluent, multi-faceted Christian society, in what is now known as the Byzantine Empire. What united the twenty-four million people living in this vast realm--Roman citizens all, but as diverse as the landscape itself--was a shared conviction in the Christian ideal of philanthrōpia. In this sweeping cultural and social history of Christian philanthropy, Daniel Caner shows this practice involved more than simply a love of humanity; it required living up to Jesus's injunction to 'Give to all who ask of you' by offering mercy and material aid to every hu...
Wandering, Begging Monks
An apostolic lifestyle characterized by total material renunciation, homelessness, and begging was practiced by monks throughout the Roman Empire in the fourth and fifth centuries. Such monks often served as spiritual advisors to urban aristocrats whose patronage gave them considerable authority and independence from episcopal control. This book is the first comprehensive study of this type of Christian poverty and the challenge it posed for episcopal authority and the promotion of monasticism in late antiquity. Focusing on devotional practices, Daniel Caner draws together diverse testimony from Egypt, Syria, Asia Minor, and elsewhere—including the Pseudo-Clementine Letters to Virgins, Aug...
Breaking the Mind
This collection of sixteen new critical essays offers fresh perspectives on the Book of Steps, adding greater detail and depth to our understanding of the work's intriguing picture of early Syriac asceticism as practiced within the life of a local church and community.
The Library of Paradise
Contemplative reading is a spiritual practice developed by Christian monks in sixth- and seventh-century Mesopotamia. The Library of Paradise tells the story of this Syriac tradition in three phases: its establishment as an ascetic practice, the articulation of its theology, and its maturation and spread.
The Life of Our Sacred Father, Hypatius of the Rufinianae
The life of Hypatius offers a precious witness to the timeless perspectives, values, and virtues of the former fifth-century abbot and saint. Better known by its short title, the Life of Hypatius was written in the mid-fifth century by Callinicus, the second abbot of the monastery that Hypatius (ca. 366–446) founded across the Bosporus Strait from Constantinople. Saint Hypatius was known for his ascetic regimen, unflagging rigor, and spiritual wisdom, and he challenged his disciples to resist careless Christianity and eliminate the influence of paganism. In this monastic hagiography, readers encounter a stark vision where monks are spiritual enforcers working with zeal and vigilance to pro...
Stories Between Christianity and Islam
Storytelling in late antique Christianity -- "How is Muhammad a better storyteller than I?" -- Narrating the Quran with Christian saints -- Christian saints in Islamic literature -- From Paul and John to Fīmyūn and Ṣāliḥ -- Stories between Christianity and Islam.
The Wandering Holy Man
Barsauma was a fifth-century Syrian ascetic, archimandrite, and leader of monks, notorious for his extreme asceticism and violent anti-Jewish campaigns across the Holy Land. Although Barsauma was a powerful and revered figure in the Eastern church, modern scholarship has widely dismissed him as a thug of peripheral interest. Until now, only the most salacious bits of the Life of Barsauma—a fascinating collection of miracles that Barsauma undertook across the Near East—had been translated. This pioneering study includes the first full translation of the Life and a series of studies by scholars employing a range of methods to illuminate the text from different angles and contexts. This is the authoritative source on this influential figure in the history of the church and his life, travels, and relations with other religious groups.
The Wandering Mind: What Medieval Monks Tell Us About Distraction
A revelatory account of how Christian monks identified distraction as a fundamental challenge—and how their efforts to defeat it can inform ours, more than a millennium later. The digital era is beset by distraction, and it feels like things are only getting worse. At times like these, the distant past beckons as a golden age of attention. We fantasize about escaping our screens. We dream of recapturing the quiet of a world with less noise. We imagine retreating into solitude and singlemindedness, almost like latter-day monks. But although we think of early monks as master concentrators, a life of mindfulness did not, in fact, come to them easily. As historian Jamie Kreiner demonstrates in...
Humble Aspiration
"Explores various concepts of Christian humility in late antiquity, looking closely at some of the ways humility has operated as a relational value in specific contexts involving ascetic women"--
Jewish, Christian, and Muslim Travel Experiences
Travel and pilgrimage have become central research topics in recent years. Some archaeologists and historians have applied globalization theories to ancient intercultural connections. Classicists have rediscovered travel as a literary topic in Greek and Roman writing. Scholars of early Judaism, Christianity, and Islam have been rethinking long-familiar pilgrimage practices in new interdisciplinary contexts. This volume contributes to this flourishing field of study in two ways. First, the focus of its contributions is on experiences of travel. Our main question is: How did travelers in the ancient world experience and make sense of their journeys, real or imaginary, and of the places they visited? Second, by treating Jewish, Christian, and Islamic experiences together, this volume develops a longue durée perspective on the ways in which travel experiences across these three traditions resembled each other. By focusing on "experiences of travel," we hope to foster interaction between the study of ancient travel in the humanities and that of broader human experience in the social sciences.
