Research Catalog

Title

Asceticism of the mind : forms of attention and self-transformation in late antique monasticism / Inbar Graiver.

Author

Graiver, Inbar

Publication

• Toronto, Ontario, Canada : Pontifical Institute of Mediaeval Studies, [2018]
• ©2018

Items in the Library & Off-site

Details

Description

x, 237 pages; 24 cm.

Summary

Asceticism is founded on the possibility that human beings can profoundly transform themselves through training and discipline. In particular, asceticism in the Eastern monastic tradition is based on the assumption that individuals are not slaves to the habitual and automatic but can be improved by ascetic practice and, with the cooperation of divine grace, transform their entire character and cultivate special powers and skills. Asceticism of the Mind explores the strategies that enabled Christian ascetics in the Egyptian, Gazan, and Sinaitic monastic traditions of late antiquity to cultivate a new form of existence. At the book?s center is a particular model of ascetic discipline that involves a systematic effort to train the mind and purify attention. Drawing on contemporary cognitive and neuroscientific research, this study underscores the beneficial potential and self-formative role of the monastic system of mental training, thereby confuting older views that emphasized the negative and repressive aspects of asceticism. At the same time, it sheds new light on the challenges that Christian ascetics encountered in their attempts to transform themselves, thereby lending insight into aspects of their daily lives that would otherwise remain inaccessible. Asceticism of the Mind brings rigorously historical and cognitive perspectives into conjunction across a range of themes, and in so doing opens up new ways of exploring asceticism and Christian monasticism. By working across the traditional divide between the humanities and the cognitive sciences, it offers new possibilities for a constructive dialogue across these fields. -- Dust jacket flap

Series Statement

Studies and Texts ; 213

Uniform Title

Studies and texts (Pontifical Institute of Mediaeval Studies) ; 213.

Alternative Title

Forms of attention and self-transformation in late antique monasticism

Subject

• 30-600
• Asceticism > History > Early church, ca. 30-600
• Monastic and religious life > History > Early church, ca. 30-600
• Attention > Religious aspects > Christianity
• Awareness > Religious aspects > Christianity
• Self-control > Religious aspects > Christianity
• Self > Religious aspects > Christianity
• Discipline > Religious aspects > Christianity
• Ascetics > Psychology
• Asceticism > Early church
• Monastic and religious life > Early church
• Egypt > Church history > Primitive and early church, ca. 30-600
• Palestine > Church history > Primitive and early church, ca. 30-600
• Egypt
• Middle East > Palestine

Genre/Form

• Church history.
• History.

Bibliography (note)

• Includes bibliographical references (pages 198-232) and index.

Contents

Introduction -- The ascetic self -- Control of the self -- The challenges of attentiveness -- The besieged mind -- Removing the blockage -- Conclusion.

Call Number

JFE 19-53

ISBN

• 9780888442130
• 0888442130

OCLC

1054397703

Author

Graiver, Inbar, author.

Title

Asceticism of the mind : forms of attention and self-transformation in late antique monasticism / Inbar Graiver.

Publisher

Toronto, Ontario, Canada : Pontifical Institute of Mediaeval Studies, [2018]

Copyright Date

©2018

Type of Content

text

Type of Medium

unmediated

Type of Carrier

volume

Series

Studies and Texts ; 213

Studies and texts (Pontifical Institute of Mediaeval Studies) ; 213.

Bibliography

Includes bibliographical references (pages 198-232) and index.

Chronological Term

30-600

Other Form:

Graiver, Inbar, author. Asceticism of the mind.: Toronto, Ontario, Canada : Pontifical Institute of Mediaeval Studies, 2018. Studies and texts (Pontifical Institute of Mediaeval Studies) Studies and texts ; (CaOONL)20189026545

Research Call Number

JFE 19-53