Title
Renouncing the World yet Leading the Church : The Monk-Bishop in Late Antiquity / Andrea Sterk.
ISBN
9780674044012
Published
Cambridge, MA : Harvard University Press, [2021]
Copyright
©2004
Language
English
Language Note
In English.
Description
1 online resource (368 p.)
Item Number
10.4159/9780674044012 doi
Call Number
BR195.L42 S74 2004eb
Dewey Decimal Classification
262/.12/09015
Summary
Although an ascetic ideal of leadership had both classical and biblical roots, it found particularly fertile soil in the monastic fervor of the fourth through sixth centuries. Church officials were increasingly recruited from monastic communities, and the monk-bishop became the dominant model of ecclesiastical leadership in the Eastern Roman Empire and Byzantium. In an interesting paradox, Andrea Sterk explains that "from the world-rejecting monasteries and desert hermitages of the east came many of the most powerful leaders in the church and civil society as a whole." Sterk explores the social, political, intellectual, and theological grounding for this development. Focusing on four foundational figures--Basil of Caesarea, Gregory of Nyssa, Gregory of Nazianzus, and John Chrysostom--she traces the emergence of a new ideal of ecclesiastical leadership: the merging of ascetic and episcopal authority embodied in the monk-bishop. She also studies church histories, legislation, and popular ascetic and hagiographical literature to show how the ideal spread and why it eventually triumphed. The image of a monastic bishop became the convention in the Christian east. Renouncing the World Yet Leading the Church brings new understanding of asceticism, leadership, and the church in late antiquity. Table of Contents: Introduction I. Basil of Caesarea and the Emergence of an Ideal 1. Monks and Bishops in the Christian East from 325 to 375 2. Asceticism and Leadership in the Thought of Basil of Caesarea 3. Reframing and Reforming the Episcopate: Basil's Direct Influence II The Development of an Ideal 4. Gregory of Nyssa: On Basil, Moses, and Episcopal Office 5. Gregory of Nazianzus: Ascetic Life and Episcopal Office in Tension 6. John Chrysostom: The Model Monk-Bishop in Spite of Himself III The Triumph of an Ideal 7. From Nuisances to Episcopal Ideals: Civil and Ecclesiastical Legislation 8. Normalizing the Model: The Fifth-Century Church Histories 9. The Broadening Appeal: Monastic and Hagiographical Literature Epilogue: The Legacy of the Monk-Bishop in the Byzantine World Abbreviations Notes Frequently Cited Works Index
Access Note
Access limited to authorized users.
System Details Note
Mode of access: Internet via World Wide Web.
Digital File Characteristics
text file PDF
Source of Description
Description based on online resource; title from PDF title page (publisher's Web site, viewed 24. Mai 2022)
Frontmatter
Acknowledgments
Contents
Introduction
I BASIL OF CAESAREA AND THE EMERGENCE OF AN IDEAL
1 Monks and Bishops in the Christian East from 325 to 375
2 Asceticism and Leadership in the Thought of Basil of Caesarea
3 Reframing and Reforming the Episcopate: Basil's Direct Influence
II THE DEVELOPMENT OF AN IDEAL
4 Gregory of Nyssa: On Basil, Moses, and Episcopal Office
5 Gregory of Nazianzus: Ascetic Life and Episcopal Office in Tension
6 John Chrysostom: The Model Monk-Bishop in Spite of Himself
III THE TRIUMPH OF AN IDEAL
7 From Nuisances to Episcopal Ideals: Civil and Ecclesiastical Legislation
8 Normalizing the Model: The Fifth-Century Church Histories
9 The Broadening Appeal: Monastic and Hagiographical Literature
Epilogue: The Legacy of the Monk-Bishop in the Byzantine World
Abbreviations
Notes
Frequently Cited Works
Index
