Cassian the Monk

by Stewart, Columba

• ISBN13: 9780195134841
• ISBN10: 0195134842
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 1999-09-02
• 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	p. xv
Cassian the Monk	p. 3
Elusiveness	p. 3
Birthplace and Childhood	p. 4
Monastic Beginnings in Bethlehem	p. 6
Egypt	p. 7
Constantinople and Rome	p. 13
Gaul	p. 15
Legacy	p. 24
A Monk for Others	p. 26
Cassian the Writer	p. 27
Ways of Reading	p. 27
Cassian's Monastic Writings	p. 29
Language and Style	p. 35
Cassian's Sources	p. 35
Cassian's Pedagogy	p. 37
Cassian the Teacher	p. 39
Cassian the Theologian	p. 40
Journeying toward Goal and End: Mapping the Monastic Life	p. 40
The Quest for Purity of Heart	p. 42
Contemplation	p. 47
Heavenly Beatitude and the Vision of God	p. 55
Monks for the World	p. 60
Flesh and Spirit, Continence and Chastity	p. 62
Chastity and Asceticism in Cassian's Works	p. 62
Lust	p. 64
The Body	p. 69
Continence and Chastity	p. 71
Divine Grace and Human Will	p. 76
Nocturnal Emissions	p. 81
Frankness and Freedom	p. 84
The Bible and Prayer	p. 85
Exemplars of Prayer and Biblical Interpretation	p. 86
Spiritual Knowledge	p. 90
Seeing and Knowing Christ	p. 95
Unceasing Prayer	p. 100
The Interplay of Bible and Prayer	p. 100
Bible and Prayer in Egypt	p. 101
Cassian's Appropriation of the Tradition	p. 104
Ways of Unceasing Prayer	p. 105
Experience of Prayer	p. 114
Ecstasy	p. 116
Compunction	p. 122
Teacher of Prayer	p. 129
Afterword	p. 131
Cassian on Monastic Egypt	p. 133
Notes	p. 141
Bibliography	p. 231
Biblical Citations	p. 261
Cassian's Writings	p. 263
Latin and Greek Words	p. 275
General Index	p. 278
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