[Asceticism and Mystical Theology.doc]

Two ascetical practices, lifelong celibacy and simplification of life became especially prominent with the rise of Christian monasticism.  In Christianity as well as in other world religions the concept of asceticism is so closely associated with the institution of monasticism  that the term “ascetic” is often a synonym for “monk”.  It is thus appropriate to briefly recount the origins and variety of early monastic ascetical practice. The origins of Christian monasticism are obscure.  In the first century BC Philo of Alexandria described celibate communities of Jewish men in Palestine, and of both Jewish men and women in Egypt dedicated to moral improvement and meditation on sacred scripture. Communities of Christian women, “widows and virgins” existed in some form by the late first century A.D., and are mentioned in both the Pastoral Epistles and in early patristic texts.  Extant texts attest only to their existence, however; the story of their evolution and relationship with the developing Christian church as well as possible influence by pre-Christian precursors is conjectural.  What is certain is that communities of nuns (parthenoi/virgins) were well-established by the late third and early fourth centuries when their more famous male counterparts, the abbas Antony, Paul, Amoun, and Pachomius began to practice asceticism in the deserts of Egypt.  At roughly the same time Syrian “Sons and Daughters of the Covenant” enthusiastically embraced lifelong celibacy and committed themselves to service in the local church, living either in small groups or with their families.

        Common to the programs of all these ascetical pioneers was some form of simplicity of life, often taking the form of common ownership of goods or the reduction to an absolute minimum of the availability and use of such goods.  Sexual activity ranked highly among these goods.  Abstinence from sexual intercourse had frequently been associated with ritual purity in late antiquity, both in Judaism and in some pagan cults.  Christianity assimilated this association with varying emphases during different eras. In some early communities, most notably among the third- and fourth-century Syrian “Daughters and Sons of the Covenant” celibacy was considered a necessary level of spiritual maturity; and among the so-called enkratites or “chaste ones” celibacy was considered a prerequisite for baptism.  Although this extreme was eventually condemned as heretical, the notion of celibacy as a “higher” calling (i.e superior to marriage) persists in both Orthodox and Roman Catholic doctrine today. As Peter Brown has described, the practice of celibacy, together with the more widely-practiced asceticisms of fasting and frequent prayer were believed by the early monks and nuns to have the power to transform, to “spiritualize” the human body.  Reducing food, water, and sleep  to the absolute minimum necessary for life was thought to facilitate restoration of the original state of the human body before the fall: “the ascetic slowly remade his body … [effecting] the long return of the human person, body and soul together, to an original, natural and uncorrupted state.” (Brown 1998: 223). Stories of the early abbas and ammas occasionally allude to this mystical transformation:

Abba Lot went to Abba Joseph and said: “Abba, as far as I can, I keep a moderate rule, with a little fasting, and prayer, and meditation, and quiet: and as far as I can I try to cleanse my heart of evil thoughts. What else should I do?” Then the old man rose, and spread out his hands to heaven, and his fingers shone like ten candles: and he said: “If you will, you could become a living flame.”

(The Sayings of the Desert Fathers, The Latin Systematic Collection 12.8; Chadwick 1958:142)

The moral and spiritual transformation wrought by monastic asceticism might thus be manifested in the ascetic’s physical appearance.  Athanasius of Alexandria (d.373) wrote that “God became human so that human beings might be divinized” (On the Incarnation 54.3; Thomson 1971: 268-269); and in his biography of the monk Antony, Athanasius described both the ascetical regime that effects transformation and the changes that may become visible.  In his very popular and widely-disseminated Life of Antony Athanasius created what undoubtedly became the most influential verbal portrait of the early Christian ascetic.  According to Athanasius, Antony’s first teachers and models of virtue were members of his local Christian community.  However after several years of supervised ascetical effort Antony felt called to protracted solitude in an abandoned fort. (Life of Antony 3, 11-13; Gregg 1980: 32, 39-42).  He spent twenty years alone, eventually coming forth, 

... as if from a shrine, like one initiated in sacred mysteries  and filled with the Spirit of God. [...] his body had its habitual appearance, neither fat from lack of exercise, nor withered from fasting and fighting with demons [...] The state of his soul was pure, neither contracted as if by grief, nor relaxed by pleasure, possessed by neither laughter nor dejection. For he was neither troubled when he saw the crowd nor ecstatic at being acclaimed by so many. Instead he was wholly balanced, as if governed by reason, and established in accordance with nature.

(Athanasius, Life of Antony 14; Gregg 1980: 42, trans. modified)

Athanasius here provides a vivid depiction of the goal of Christian asceticism: a soul restored to its primordial natural state (kata fusin) completely balanced, (holos isos), in a body rendered vigorous and fit through the avoidance of excess.  Thus monastic asceticism came to be understood not primarily as a wholehearted rejection of the present world, as in the earlier apocalyptic asceticism; but rather as a means of positively transforming or “transfiguring” the body and abilities of the ascetic.  Like the martyr, the ascetic was a living reminder of the world to come, but the transformed ascetic was also a counselor and teacher, capable of ministering to the spiritual needs of others.

This Webpage was created for a workshop held at Saint Andrew's Abbey, Valyermo, California in 2003....x....  ’ “”.