Course · 6 lectures · 222 min
Christian Asceticism Through the Centuries
A historical tour of the Christian ascetic tradition, from the Desert Fathers to the modern revival of contemplative practice.
Taught by Ashby Neterer
Saint Francis in Meditation, Francisco de Zurbarán, 1635–9
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Long before "spirituality" became a marketing word, Christians were going into the desert, fasting for weeks, keeping silence for years, owning nothing. Why?
This course traces the ascetic tradition: the Desert Fathers and Mothers of Egypt; the rise of Benedictine monasticism; the medieval mystics; the Carmelite reformers; the Russian hesychasts; the twentieth-century rediscovery of contemplation.
We treat asceticism not as a curiosity but as a serious answer — one of the church's main answers — to the question of what a human life is for.
Ashby Neterer is Tutor of Theology at Oriel College, Oxford, where he is completing his DPhil under Mark Edwards. His research examines how the Greek Christian poem Christus Patiens uses classical mythology to contrast Christian and Greek theology. He teaches Greek mythology, Church history, and music theory.