Five Models of Spiritual Direction in the Early Church - read free eBook in online reader or directly download on the web page. Select files or add your book in reader. Download and read online ebook Five Models of Spiritual Direction in the Early Church write by George E. Demacopoulos. This book was released on 2007-11-15. Five Models of Spiritual Direction in the Early Church available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. In late antiquity the rising number of ascetics who joined the priesthood faced a pastoral dilemma. Should they follow a traditional, demonstrably administrative, approach to pastoral care, emphasizing doctrinal instruction, the care of the poor, and the celebration of the sacraments? Or should they bring to the parish the ascetic models of spiritual direction, characterized by a more personal spiritual father/spiritual disciple relationship? Five Models of Spiritual Direction in the Early Church explores the struggles of five clerics (Athanasius, Gregory Nazianzen, Augustine of Hippo, John Cassian, and Pope Gregory I) to reconcile their ascetic idealism with the reality of pastoral responsibility. Through a close reading of Greek and Latin texts, George E. Demacopoulos explores each pastor's criteria for ordination, his supervision of subordinate clergy, and his methods of spiritual direction. He argues that the evolution in spiritual direction that occurred during this period reflected and informed broader developments in religious practices. Demacopoulos describes the way in which these authors shaped the medieval pastoral traditions of the East and the West. Each of the five struggled to balance the tension between his ascetic idealism and the realities of the lay church. Each offered distinct (and at times very different) solutions to that tension. The diversity among their models of spiritual direction demonstrates both the complexity of the problem and the variable nature of early Christianity. Scholars and students of late antiquity, the history of Christianity, and historical theology will find a great deal of interest in Five Models of Spiritual Direction in the Early Church. The book will also appeal to those who are actively engaged in Christian ministry.
A Luminous Life
A Luminous Life - read free eBook in online reader or directly download on the web page. Select files or add your book in reader. Download and read online ebook A Luminous Life write by Brock Bingaman. This book was released on 2021-03-23. A Luminous Life available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. In a culture intrigued by various forms of “spirituality,” this study invites readers to explore the deep, historically rooted resources of the Christian spiritual classics. It is an invitation to seek the transformative presence of God – the kingdom of God within our hearts – through the spiritual classics. These classics, formed in the matrix of meditation on Scripture, are like road maps that provide invaluable wisdom and guidance for the spiritual journey. Illustrating the importance of theologically grounded spirituality, A Luminous Life draws from Catholic, Orthodox, and Protestant classics that stem from rich trinitarian and christological reflection. This book explores key themes in the spiritual classics, including biblical images and historical models of spiritual development, prayer, fasting, solitude and community, the cross and suffering, the desert, spiritual direction, and contemplation and action. This study seeks to bridge the academic and ecclesial, demonstrating that the life of the mind and life in the Spirit are unified, that theological reflection and spiritual formation go together. Considering exemplary writings from diverse traditions, such as the Desert Fathers, Maximus the Confessor, Teresa of Avila, and John Calvin, A Luminous Life draws readers into worshipful reflection on God and formation in Christ. The book concludes with the encouragement to ongoing, prayerful study of the spiritual classics: as fuel for the luminous life.
Spiritual Direction As a Medical Art in Early Christian Monasticism
Spiritual Direction As a Medical Art in Early Christian Monasticism - read free eBook in online reader or directly download on the web page. Select files or add your book in reader. Download and read online ebook Spiritual Direction As a Medical Art in Early Christian Monasticism write by JONATHAN L. ZECHER. This book was released on 2022-10-06. Spiritual Direction As a Medical Art in Early Christian Monasticism available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. What expectations did the women and men living in early monastic communities carry into relationships of obedience and advice? What did they hope to achieve through confession and discipline? To explore these questions, this study shows how several early Christian writers applied the logic, knowledge, and practices of Galenic medicine to develop their own practices of spiritual direction. Evagrius reads dream images as diagnostic indicators of the soul's state. John Cassian crafts a nosology of the soul using lists of passions while diagnosing the causes of wet dreams. Basil of Caesarea pits the spiritual director against the physician in a competition over diagnostic expertise. John Climacus crafts pathologies of passions through demonic family trees, while equipping his spiritual director with a physician's toolkit and imagining the monastic space as a vast clinic. These different appropriations of medical logic and metaphors not only show us the thought-world of late antique monasticism, but they would also have decisive consequences for generations of Christian subjects who would learn to see themselves as sick or well, patients or healers, within monastic communities.
Orthodox Paradoxes
Orthodox Paradoxes - read free eBook in online reader or directly download on the web page. Select files or add your book in reader. Download and read online ebook Orthodox Paradoxes write by . This book was released on 2014-03-27. Orthodox Paradoxes available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. The contemporary Russian Orthodox Church (ROC) is in a paradoxical situation: On all levels of Church life, new practices and concepts are considered to belong to Orthodox tradition, yet at the same time Orthodoxy is regarded as the most “unchangeable” and normative of the Christian confessions. So what makes tradition? The nineteen contributions in this volume examine the ambiguities and complexities created by the dynamic between tradition and innovation within the ROC in relation to the fundamental tenets of Orthodoxy. By this focus, the volume offers new insights and highlights the question how to define (Orthodox) Tradition. It addresses “unorthodox” topics of Orthodox paradoxes. Contributors include: Tatiana Artemyeva, Alexei Beglov, Wil van den Bercken, Per-Arne Bodin, Page Herrlinger, Nadieszda Kizenko, Anastasia Mitrofanova, Stella Rock, and Alexander Verkhovsky.
Free to Run the Race
Free to Run the Race - read free eBook in online reader or directly download on the web page. Select files or add your book in reader. Download and read online ebook Free to Run the Race write by Gary V. Ventimiglia. This book was released on 2016-09-22. Free to Run the Race available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Free to Run the Race describes the living out of our life in Christ (Hebrews 12:1). It speaks of running "with endurance the race that is set before us." This can be done by fixing our "eyes on Jesus." "Undoing the Burden of Parental Disregard," speaks to a specific encumbrance that weighs the runner down making it harder to keep focus and finish the race. The burden is called "parental disregard." It is not being allowed to "be oneself," to pursue one's inner direction, or natural proclivity in one's life. It is the experience of developmental woundedness that says being oneself in temperament, aptitudes, natural talents, and the expressing of this is prohibited. Prov 22:6 says, "train up a child according to his own way." The burden of parental disregard is the emotional pain in living out an identity that is not based on any expression of one's natural "way(s)" or bent(s). This makes the development of trust in a heavenly Father (parent) difficult. The relieving of this burden takes a ruthlessly honest focus on this woundedness and its working out its implications honestly that allows a more truthful understanding of God's love for our lives.
