Books about Asceticism from Amazon.com

The great philosopher's major work on ethics, along with ECCE HOMO, Nietzche's remarkable review of his life and works. Translated by Walter Kaufmann .
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The Philokalia is a collection of texts written between the fourth and the fifteenth centuries by spiritual masters of the Orthodox Christian tradition First published in Greek in 1782, then translated into Slavonic and later into Russian, The Philokalia has exercised an influence in the recent history of the Orthodox Church far greater than that of any book apart from the Bible. It is concerned with themes of universal importance: how man may develop his inner powers and awake from illusion; how he may overcome fragmentation and achieve spiritual wholeness; how he may attain the life of contemplative stillness and union with God.
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Since its inception in 1947, the Ancient Christian Writers series has become one of the world's premier patristic collections Founded by the renowned scholars Johannes Quasten and Joseph Plumpe at The Catholic University of America, the series has grown to fifty-seven volumes over fifty years. Translations of the works of Augustine, Basil, Theodoret, Palladius, Chrysostom, Tertullian and, most recently, Justin Martyr are found amongst the thirty-six authors whose writings comprise the series. Widely recognized as the authoritative American patristic project, the Ancient Christian Writers series launches its second fifty years with the long-anticipated publication of John Cassian's The Conferences, translated and presented by Boniface Ramsey, O.P.

The first complete translation into English of The Conferences, Ramsey's rendering of Cassian is the only extensively annotated edition since the seventeenth century. Included are introductory essays, notes and a useful series of indexes. Popular for centuries in both the East and West, this work will now be available to a wider audience of scholars, students and spiritual seekers.

Anticipated in the next two years are John Cassian's The Institutes (completing the publication of his monastic and ascetical writings in the Ancient Christian Writers series), never-before-published correspondence of Popes Damasus and Liberius, as well as the catechumenate sermons of the North African, Quodvultdeus. As always, each volume will present the reader with a high quality English translation, notes and a scholarly introduction.

The Ancient Christian Writers series is currently edited by well-known scholar and homilist Walter J. Burghardt, S.J., John Dillon of Washington, D.C. and Dennis McManus of Paulist Press..
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Father George Maloney in his introduction to this volume focuses directly on the special importance of St. Symeon and on how similar the religious situation of his era is to our own. "Concretely, the battle of two opposing views of theology centered around St. Symeon and his mystical apophatic approach of the experiencing of God immanently present to the individual, as opposed to the "head trip" scholastic theology as represented by Archbishop Stephen of Nicomedia, the official theologian at the court of Constantinople. Stephen represented the abstract, philosophical type of theologizing while Symeon strove to restore theology to its pristine mystical tendency as a wisdom infused by the Holy Spirit into the Christian after he had been thoroughly purified through a rigorous asceticism and a state of constant repentance."

This great spiritual master of Eastern Christianity was an abbot, spiritual director of renown, theologian and important church reformer. These Discourses which form the central work of his life were preached by St. Symeon to his monks during their morning Matins ritual. They treat such basic spiritual themes as repentance, detachment, renunciation, the works of charity, impassiblity, remembrance of death, sorrow for sins, the practice of God's commandments, mystical union with the indwelling Trinity, faith and contemplation..
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Five Models of Spiritual Direction in the Early Church explores the struggles of five clerics—Athanasius, Gregory Naziansen, 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..
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Supplements eight folk narratives with discussion of audience participation and response as well as relevant Hindu themes.

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Written for lay persons living in the world, this is an excellent resource for daily meditation, spiritual guidance and a revitalized religious life. Succinct yet profound extracts from the Fathers, with commentary..
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