Athanasius and the Politics of Asceticism

Description

It is often assumed that early Christian asceticism drew its devotees completely away from worldly interests into the etherial realms of spirituality. This book, which focuses on the life and thought of Athanasius, Bishop of Alexandria (AD 328-73) - one of the key figures of the church in his time - shows on the contrary just how deeply political ascetic theology could be. Dr Brakke examines how Athanasius joined with other fourth century bishops in determining to create a unified and dominant church of Egypt in the Roman Empire, and organized both the monks of the desert and female ascetics based in the cities into auxiliaries of the emerging local parishes. He integrated ascetic values into a comprehensive vision of the church as a heavenly commonwealth, made up of people practising diverse versions of a single discipline. This new and illuminating study of the turmoils and vicissitudes of fourth century Christianity also includes an invaluable appendix with the first English translations of many of Athanasius' ascetic and pastoral writings [PDF pp. 292-353].

1. pp. 277-9 (PDF pp. 296-98): First Letter to Virgins , "Mary the image of virginity" reminds me of the mystics' visions of the details of her personal life.
2. p. 279 (PDF p. 298): "perhaps Paul learned about her [Mary's] lifestyle, for when he had received a pattern [example] in her, he brought forth this opinion (γνώμη?) about virginity. Therefore, he wrote to the Corinthians, saying: 'Concerning the virgins I have no command of the Lord, but I offer an opinion (γνώμην, consilium , counsel) as one who by the Lord's mercy is trustworthy' (1 Cor. 7:25)."
3. pp. 308-9 (PDF pp. 329-30): "Virginity beyond human understanding" (reminds me of Bourassa La virginité chrétienne, who said that in order to understand marriage and virginity, it is necessary to understand the relation between grace and nature: Nature → Virginity → God.)
4. p. 315 (PDF p. 334): Brakke's heading: "Allegory on Lot's ascent: Moderate and advanced virtue" (i.e., choosing/doing the lesser good vs. greater good):
   Gen. 19:15-30: God tells Lot to save himself by fleeing to the mountain, but Lot was afraid of the arduousness of doing such a greater good; he, as St. Athanasius explains, "hesitated to go up because he was tired and he feared when he saw the fire" and "was afraid also of the angels, lest he die because he did not flee to the mountain as they had said to him." "Therefore, since he hesitated with respect to great things, he asked for a little (city) [Segor] instead", i.e., a lesser good.
5. p. 320 (PDF p. 339) quotes Jer. 15:17 ("I sat alone"), Prov. 16:29 ("An unjust man allureth his friend: and leadeth him into a way that is not good."; ∴, 'a single righteous person is greater than a large unjust crowd'), Prov. 11:10-11 ("By the blessing of the just the city shall be exalted: and by the mouth of the wicked it shall be overthrown."; ∴, 'a city is made populous by one righteous person, but it is overturned by a foolish crowd') as supporting the good of an individual being greater than an unjust or foolish crowd.
6. p. 330 (PDF p. 349): St. Athanasius accepts this apocrypha: "the Wisdom of Solomon, the Wisdom of Sirach, Esther, Judith, Tobit, the book called Teaching of the Apostles, and the Shepherd." (no Machabees?)
7. pp. 332,4 (PDF pp. 353,350) gives dates for Easter and Lent, prescribed by St. Athanasius; I think this was before the date of Easter was standardized.

cf.:

• David Brakke, “The Authenticity of the Ascetic Athanasiana,” Orientalia 63, no. 2 (1994): 17–56.
• Teresa M. Shaw, “5. Pseudo-Athanasius: Discourse on Salvation to a Virgin,” in Religions of Late Antiquity in Practice , ed. Richard Valantasis (Princeton University Press, 2000), 82–99.