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"This book asks how early Christian monastic writers conceived of, represented, and experienced spiritual direction, and its central argument is that they did so medically. Late antique monastic formation took place through asymmetrical relationships of governance and submission worked out in confession, discipline, and advice. This study situates those practices against the cultural and intellectual world of the late antique Mediterranean. In conversation with a biopsychosocial models of health and Urie Bronfenbrenner's "bioecological" model of development, the first chapter explores the logic of Galenic medicine (2nd c.): the goal of good health, a widely ranging theory of human nature, diagnostic strategies, and therapeutic techniques. The next four chapters show how this logic operates in Evagrius Ponticus' (4th c.) interpretation of dream imagery and demonic attack, in John Cassian's (5th c.) analysis of wet dreams, in Cassian's nosology of vices, and in John Climacus' (7th c.) demonic pathologies of passions. The second half of the book engages Paul Ricoeur's theory of metaphor to show that spiritual directors claim trust and obedience by cultivating expertise along medical lines. This begins with a study of self-representation and popular perceptions of physicians as experts over human bodies and souls and applies it to Basil of Caesarea's (4th c.) advice on when and whether ascetic Christians should seek medical assistance, to Cassian's tales of spiritual direction in Egyptian monasticism and the Apostle Paul's therapeutic hierarchy, and to John Climacus' multiple metaphors of spiritual direction in a monastery reconceived as clinic"--

Monasticism and religious orders --- Spiritual life --- Medicine --- History --- Religious aspects&delete& --- Christianity --- Life, Spiritual --- Religious life --- Spirituality --- Church history --- Religious aspects --- Health Workforce --- Spiritual direction. --- Christianity. --- History of doctrines --- 254.32 --- 271 "00/06" --- 271.6 --- 271.6 Congregaties. Kloostercongregaties:--algemeen --- Congregaties. Kloostercongregaties:--algemeen --- 271 "00/06" Kloosterwezen. Religieuze orden en congregaties. Monachisme--?"00/06" --- 271 "00/06" Ordres religieux. Congregations religieuses. Monachisme--?"00/06" --- Kloosterwezen. Religieuze orden en congregaties. Monachisme--?"00/06" --- Ordres religieux. Congregations religieuses. Monachisme--?"00/06" --- 254.32 Priester als geestelijke leider --- Priester als geestelijke leider

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Using contemporary theories drawn from health humanities, this volume analyses the nature and effects of disability, medicine, and health discourse in a variety of early Christian literature. In recent years, the "medical turn" in early Christian studies has developed a robust literature around health, disability, and medicine, and the health humanities have made critical interventions in modern conversations around the aims of health and the nature of healthcare. Considering these developments, it has become clear that early Christian texts and ideas have much to offer modern conversations, and that these texts are illuminated using theoretical lenses drawn from modern medicine and public health. The chapters in this book explore different facets of early Christian engagement with medicine, either in itself or as metaphor and material for theological reflections on human impairment, restoration, and flourishing. Through its focus on late antique religious texts, the book raises questions around the social, rather than biological, aspects of illness and diminishment as a human experience, as well as the strategies by which that experience is navigated. The result is an innovative and timely intervention in the study of health and healthcare, that bridges current divides between historical studies and contemporary issues. Taken together, the book offers a prismatic conversation of perspectives on aspects of care at the heart of societal and individual "wellness" today, inviting readers to meet or revisit patristic texts as tracings across a map of embodied identity, dissonance, and corporal care. It is a fascinating resource for anyone working on ancient medicine and health, or the social worlds of early Christianity.

Médecine --- Médecine et religion --- Santé --- Christianisme --- Doctrines religieuses --- Religion. --- Medicine in literature --- Christian literature --- Medicine --- History and criticism. --- Religious aspects --- Christianity --- History of doctrines