Asceticism of the Mind: Forms of Attention and Self-Transformation in Late Antique Monasticism
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2018
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Abstract
Asceticism assumes that it is possible for human beings to profoundly transform themselves through systematic training. In particular, asceticism in the Eastern monastic tradition is based on the assumption that humans 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 mental disposition and cultivate special powers and skills. Contemporary research in cognitive psychology and neuroscience lends support to the optimistic vision of human potential underlying monastic asceticism, thereby confuting older views that emphasized the negative and repressive aspects of asceticism. This study draws on recent developments in these fields in order to offer a new perspective on late antique Christian asceticism and the ascetic process of self-formation. More broadly, by working across the traditional divide between history and cognitive science, it seeks to probe the potential for constructive dialogue and theory refinement across the history, theology and cognitive science.
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Early Christianity, Artes y humanidades