Cassian the Monk

by Stewart, Columba

• ISBN13: 9780195113662
• ISBN10: 0195113667
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 1998-02-12
• Publisher: Oxford University Press

Summary

This book is a study of the life, monastic writings, and spiritual theology of John Cassian ( c ., 360-435). His Institutes and Conferences are a remarkable synthesis of earlier monastic traditions, especially those of fourth-century Egypt, informed throughout by Cassian's awareness of the particular needs of the Latin monastic movement he was helping to shape. Sometimes portrayed as simply an advocate of the sophisticated spiritual theology of Evagrius of Ponticus (360-435), Cassian was actually a theologian of keen insight, realism, and creativity. His teaching on sexuality is unique in early monastic literature in both its breadth and its depth, and his integration of biblical interpretation with the ways of prayer and teaching on ecstatic prayer are of fundamental importance for the western monastic tradition. The only Latin writer included in the classic Greek collections of monastic sayings, Cassian was the major spiritual influence on both the Rule of the Master and the Rule of Benedict , as well as the source for Gregory the Great's teaching on capital sins and compunction. Columba Stewart's book is the first major study of Cassian to be published in twenty years. It begins by establishing Cassian's credibility as a teacher on the basis of his own experience as a monk and his familiarity with the fundamental literary sources. Stewart then turns to Cassian's spiritual theology, paying particular attention to Cassian's view of the monastic journey in eschatological perspective, his teaching on continence and chastity, the Christological basis of biblical interpretation and prayer, his method of unceasing prayer, and his integration of ecstatic experience with an Evagrian theology of prayer.

Author Biography

Columba Stewart is a Benedictine monk of Saint John's Abbey in Collegeville, Minnesota, and Associate Professor of Theology at Saint John's University

Table of Contents

Note on Citations	xv
CHAPTER ONE Cassian the Monk	3	(24)
Elusiveness	3	(1)
Birthplace and Childhood	4	(2)
Monastic Beginnings in Bethlehem	6	(1)
Egypt	7	(6)
Constantinople and Rome	13	(2)
Gaul	15	(9)
Legacy	24	(2)
A Monk for Others	26	(1)
CHAPTER TWO Cassian the Writer	27	(13)
Ways of Reading	27	(2)
Cassian's Monastic Writings	29	(6)
Language and Style	35	(1)
Cassian's Sources	35	(2)
Cassian's Pedagogy	37	(2)
Cassian the Teacher	39	(1)
CHAPTER THREE Cassian the Theologian	40	(22)
Journeying toward Goal and End: Mapping the Monastic Life	40	(2)
The Quest for Purity of Heart	42	(5)
Contemplation	47	(8)
Heavenly Beatitude and the Vision of God	55	(5)
Monks for the World	60	(2)
CHAPTER FOUR Flesh and Spirit, Continence and Chastity	62	(23)
Chastity and Asceticism in Cassian's Works	62	(2)
Lust	64	(5)
The Body	69	(2)
Continence and Chastity	71	(5)
Divine Grace and Human Will	76	(5)
Nocturnal Emissions	81	(3)
Frankness and Freedom	84	(1)
CHAPTER FIVE The Bible and Prayer	85	(15)
Exemplars of Prayer and Biblical Interpretation	86	(4)
Spiritual Knowledge	90	(5)
Seeing and Knowing Christ	95	(5)
CHAPTER SIX Unceasing Prayer	100	(14)
The Interplay of Bible and Prayer	100	(1)
Bible and Prayer in Egypt	101	(3)
Cassian's Appropriation of the Tradition	104	(1)
Ways of Unceasing Prayer	105	(9)
CHAPTER SEVEN Experience of Prayer	114	(17)
Ecstasy	116	(6)
Compunction	122	(7)
Teacher of Prayer	129	(2)
Afterword	131	(2)
Appendix: Cassian on Monastic Egypt	133	(8)
Notes	141	(90)
Bibliography	231	(30)
Biblical Citations	261	(2)
Cassian's Writings	263	(12)
Latin and Greek Words	275	(3)
General Index	278