The Love of Learning and The Desire for God: A Study of Monastic Culture

Features

• Cover Type: Paperback with 282 pages
• Published by: Fordham University Press; Rep Sub edition January 1, 1982
• Written in: English
• ISBN 10 Number: 0823204073
• ISBN 13 Number: 978-0823204076
• Book Dimensions: 9 x 6.1 x 0.7 inches
• Weighs: 14.1 ounces

Language Notes
Text: English, French (translation)

About The Author




Reader Reviews
"Read the acts of Sts. Anthony, Macarius, Pachomius..., the Egyptian Monks, of those who lived in the Holy Land or in the Thebaid. ...implant in the darkness of the West and in the cold of Gaul the light of the East and the ancient fervor of Egyptian religious life." Jean Leclerq, Ancient traditional Spirituality, pp. 112,113 Monastic History: Overflowing from Egypt, monasticism has flourished both in the Eastern Orthodox churches from early Christian times to present, and within the Roman Catholic church since the late antiquity to Medieval ages. Christian monasticism was started in the mountainous eastern deserts of Egypt in the fourth century AD, by Saint Anthony the Great, who sought a higher level of spiritual experience and encountered St. Paul of Thebes, the first Egyptian hermit. Cenobetic monastic orders were organized by Saint Pachomius (d. 346), with the first communities of cenobites in upper Egypt. Monastic Vocation: Monasticism refers to a way of life adopted by those early faithful, who have elected to pursue divinization, an ideal of perfection, by deserting the world, through kenotic grace, within cenobetic or solitary schemes of devoted life. The desert fathers have had deep and enduring influence in shaping of Christian ideals, and were the founding and leading abbots in Palestine, Syria, and Mesopotamia. Traditionally, monasticism embraces both the life of the hermit, characterized by progressive state of solitude, and the life of the cenobite, that is, the monk living in a community offering fellowship and a limited space for solitude. Ascetism, was a basic tool for monastic practices, which was based on the tradition of disciplined self-denial, and obedience to the elder. This asceticism could include Silence, fasting, denial of personal possessions, even of books, and a denial of bodily comfort, with vows to poverty, hand work, and celibacy. Athanasius the champion of Orthodoxy, recounting the spiritual struggles of St. Anthony, provided an ideal pattern of the ascetic life. The work became very popular in the West, and sparked intellectuals' attention, contributing greatly to the interest in monastic life in Western Christianity. Pilgrims to the Holy land made trips to the desert including Rufinus and Jerome, whose letters and works catalyzed the move among the educated around the empire (St. Arsenius). Latin Monastic Tradition: Two of the most influential in Spirituality as Evagrius Ponticus, and John Cassian who established the first European monasteries according to the Pachomian ideal, and wrote the first Monastic manuals, the institutes and the Conferences. "If Benedict created the institutional frame of Latin monasticism, then Cassian helped define its inner life, its mystical aspirations," wrote Wm. Harmless, Desert Christians, pp. 373. The Benedictine rule of Saint Benedict of Nursia (6th century), formed the basis of life in most monastic communities until the twelve century. The schema faded out until St. Bernard of Cleurvaux restored it to its original zenith. Among the principal monastic orders that evolved in the Middle Ages were the Carthusians in the eleventh century and the Cistercians in the twelfth; the Mendicant orders, or Friars, Dominicans, Franciscans, and Carmelites arose in the 13th century. Theognosis; Learning Spirituality: Theognosis, the knowing of God, has always been a means for a unity in love which transcends all knowledge. This ultimate end is union with God or, partaking in the nature of God, the theosis of church Fathers Ireneus and Athanasius. The eastern tradition whose masters were Origen, Evagrius, and Dionysius, the pseudo Areopagite, has never made a definite distinction between mysticism and theology; between personal experience of the divine mysteries. In a certain sense all theology is mystical, inasmuch as it shows forth the divine mystery of revelation. On the other hand, mysticism is frequently opposed to theology as an unutterable mystery which surpasses our understanding faculties to any perception of sense or of intelligence, to be lived rather than known. We should, look for a profound change, an inner transformation of spirit, enabling us to experience it mystically, far from being mutually opposed, theology and mysticism support and completement each other. Sacred Learning: Medieval monks pursued their learning from three sources: Holy Scripture, writings of the Fathers, and classical literature. Study of grammar was intended as an `introduction to Scripture.' The monastics used to learn through meditative reading; seeking an appreciation of the ultimate goal as desire for heaven. The scholastics, when studying the text, sought mere knowledge. The monastic Scriptural trio (reading, meditation and prayer) produced a recalling and pondering of Scripture, an early tradition of the Desert Fathers, as exposed in "The Word in the Desert. This intimate knowledge of Scripture offered the ability of mystical pilgrimage of the entire Bible, granting them a pictorial Biblical imagination, which Cyril of Alexandria was its grand master. Early monastics have had the Scriptures on instant mental recall. Monastic exegesis was, according to Origen of a multiple themes that animated Biblical scripture that fostered the desire for heaven. Since Scripture was not a source for knowledge but the message of salvation from God, in reading it became mystical, but stayed literal because of the interest in grammar. The Old Testament was not viewed in its historical perspective, but as history of salvation's first part. The most read and commentated book of Scripture was the Song of Songs, a tradition initiated by Origen. While the scholastics interpretation was abstractly as God's relation to the Church, the monastics saw it as God's intimate personal relationship to the faithful in person; expressing their ultimate goal in life, and representing their whole theology. Leclercq presents his Study: Having declaring himself, a supporter of twelfth-century monastic theology, Dom Leclercq presents his book in ten chapters, grouped in three sections, addressing its formation, sources and its fruits. Right from the beginning, in a concise introduction, Dom Leclercq presents a distinction between monasticism and scholasticism, such distinction is radically clear in the three parts of his study of the monastic Culture. Roman Catholic Monasticism reached its apex in the twelfth century when, an often quoted, scathing condemnation of Byzantine monasticism was launched by Eustathius, bishop of Thessalonica. In Leclercq's eye twelfth-century Latin monasticism reached its apex in Bernard of Clairvaux. Most theological interest, is devoted to the 13th century, whose writers were scholastics, academics of ecclesiastic background. Leclercq keeps isolating monastic from scholastic theology, whose target was to acquire knowledge, pursuing a venue of objective analysis of his inquiry. The monastic, were just eager to know God, in subjective means of his own existence and within Scripture, earning Leclercq support within the two groups. Scholastic theology that stemmed from the University of Paris was debated orally before it was written. Monastic theology, based on patristic writings was literate from the start. Latin Monastic Culture: Benedict prescribed the goal and system of monastic culture: the pursuit of God through the meditated reading of the Scriptures and the Fathers. To this Gregory added an essential doctrine, that of the desire for God and the possession of God which alone satisfies that desire. Though rising to the highest office, Gregory wrote of the Christian life as a life of detachment and desire: detachment from the world and from sin, and an intense desire for God. The Christian who rightly appreciates his own sinfulness and consequent misery experiences a double `compunction': a compunction of fear and a compunction of desire, ending up with a hurting spirit, agitated over the misery of sin, but firm in its desire for God. Himself buffeted by suffering, Gregory saw that man must make himself compassionate and responsive to this caring pressure from God in tears of repentance, the soul commits an eagle like flight reaching a high standard into God to find love and peace. This flight into God has a beneficial service to God. Alas, the soul falls back, weary, but hopeful to recover and soar upward again. Gregory, called the dialoguist in the Eastern Church, because of his outstanding contribution to the experiential monastic tradition. Sources of Monastic Culture: Leclercq definition of the sources of monastic culture, in four headings: devotion to heaven, sacred learning, ancient traditional spirituality, and liberal studies. Defining that experience which "induces the desire to reach the culmination of this experience," Medieval monastic culture depended on two sources, textual literary sources absorbed in meditative reading, and experience. Summarizing the content of monastic culture her pronounced in two words: grammar and spirituality. The most important of the themes which kept the monks faithful to the vision of Gregory, was their devotion to heaven, clearly traced in their writings under the topics of the heavenly Jerusalem of which the monastery is a mundane icon, to which is attached the Old Testament concepts of Temple and Tabernacle, mediaeval monks were fond of dwelling on Christ's ascension and of his Transfiguration, similar to Eastern Orthodoxy. Dom Leclercq Concluding: The learned abbot concludes his work with a brief epilogue on Literature and the Mystical Life. Even though the monasteries were not always centers of spiritual life, there were periods when they were revived, producing an appreciable corpus of literature, that kept alive the Scriptures ancient commentaries and the Fathers writings. It was the writing of mystics who were motivated in learning that stimulated a desire for God, the product of great cultural and of spiritual attainment. Leclercq reminds us in the first sentence of his preface that he is a monk addressing other monks. It is therefore only to be expected that he should present a very favorable history of medieval monasticism. It has become trendy for modern historians, even evangelical historians, to strive for objectivity in the name of academic excellence. This produces church histories devoid of reference to God, something that would have been absurd to Leclercq and his beloved monks alike. The distinction Leclercq draws between monastic theology and scholastic theology could be applied to contemporary studies in church history. Dom Jean Leclercq: "Dom Jean Leclercq, OSB, a monk of Clairvaux Abbey in Luxemburg, died on October 27, 1993 in his monastery. For more than sixty years he resolutely used his great erudition for the service of the future of monasticism. He united together a confidence in monastic tradition which he knew so well and a great hope in contemporary humanity, its bold research and its spiritual possibilities which frequently remained unexplored. He was remarkable in the fact that, without holding any particular official place in the monastic order, yet his influence was definitive in many areas." Fr. de Bethune, In Memoriam A Concise Review: The book is what the subtitle proclaims it to be: a study of monastic culture, in medieval Europe. The reader who is foreign to the main outlines of monastic history is advised to read "Seek Learning and Revive the Love for God,' a Guide by Didskalex. Evolution of the Monastic Ideal from the Earliest Times Down to the Desert Christians: An Introduction to the Literature of Early Monasticism