CHRISTIAN ASCETICISM:  a Webcourse   Fr. Luke Dysinger, O.S.B.

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THE development of Christian asceticism will be studied from the perspective of primary sources, drawn chiefly from the Christian monastic tradition.  Texts will be studied as guides and sourcebooks for models of conversion, growth in human maturity, and spiritual progress.  Special emphasis will be placed on:

1) REPENTANCE  and the call to conversion as the basis for authentic ascetical practice;

2) THE dynamic interrelationship between ascetical practice and contemplative vision;

3) THE contrasting and interdependent asceticism of hermitage and cenobium;

4) ASCETICISM  and the love of learning - implications for monastic reform and the renewal of Christian communities.

5) PHILOSOPHICAL and monastic models of virtue and vice;