mountainman

ascetic authority Results 1 - 100 of about 562 for "ascetic authority". (0.56 seconds)

Toto

Most of these seem to refer to the authority of certain bishops, based on their ascetic practice, but most are not available to non-subscribers.

This one is: Review of Holy Bishops of Late AntiquitySo I gather that the author has defined "ascetic authority" as a religious leader's authority (in terms of cultural anthropology) that derives from certain holiness practices, such as fasting and celibacy.

I don't see what there is to understand about this (other than an example of psychopathology), or why you think it is a key to understanding the apocryphal Acts.

mountainman

Have you ever been to India Toto? I managed to get there in the 70's for a while and in that time I understood that the land and its traditions - especially in relation to its religious traditions (both Buddhism and Hinduism) were very ancient, a fact that has been described by many writers. The ascetic practices of India, the various traditions of yoga, and the lengths and disciplines to which they are subscribed by its practitioners are often extreme, but this is India.

The terms you have retrieved are adequate to provide in essence what I mean when I use the term "ascetic authority". In fact, the word "religion" need not at all be used, since "ascetic authority serves as a "vital link" to various areas and domains of intellectual (even theological) pursuits. Think of the word "guru" or "master" perhaps applied to the practice of Hatha Yoga, or any yoga --- it need not be associated outwardly with religion. For example, the ascetic Pachomius (though to be involved with Nag Hammadi) followed a spiritual master named Palamon, to gain strength in his asceticism. The authority of the ascetics was not necessarily in repect of any outwardly confessed "religion". Ascetic masters were always sought out - for their perceived authority in that domain. The practice is way ancient.

Its authority may need to be seen to be believed. That's why I asked if you'd travelled to India, like the Beatles went to Rishikesh for example, to see how some of these people spend the days of their lives.

Unless you understand the Eastern empire (particularly Alexandria - see Philo), and the priesthoods of the network of Hellenic cults in their BCE established temple structure such as Asclepius (and indeed most of the so-called Neopthagorean "philosophers" in the lineage back to Pythagoras himself), consisted of ascetic adepts, who possessed an authority based on their practices, it will be difficult to understand the times of antiquity.

The apocryphal acts are full of references to asceticism, as distinct from the canonical gospels and acts - where asceticism is downplayed to the activities of your man Jesus H. gnawing on the bones of dead animals as if vegetarianism had no tomorrow, and as if drinking wine after work was a religious ritual. The Christian canon was not assembled by authors who had any great respect for the tradition and authority of the ascetics.

I hope this helps to explain what this "ascetic authority" means (well, at least the way I am attempting to use it), and its importance and respect (wholly apart from, yet vitally linked to, any religious aspects) in the ancient world, and even in today's modern world.

Best wishes,



Pete Brown

Toto

I have never been to India, but I studied yoga under Indians and people who had studied in India for a considerable period of time. I know this: that in our culture, everything is called "new and improved" to give it value, but Indians will claim that things they discovered yesterday were handed down from ancient traditions to give them value. I have learned to be skeptical of all of those claims of ancient traditions preserved by monks in caves in Tibet.

In any case, the authority belongs to the person. The claim of following ascetic practices (which I would distinguish from the actual reality of following them) was part of the mystique of the office. I have some doubts that the actual ascetic practices gave any advantage.

In the Jewish religion, there are ascetic practices mixed in with a general enjoyment of the world that god created. The Christian canonical works are consistent with this.

Christianity itself incorporates many ascetic practices. We are now in the period of Lent (the Christian Ramadan), and there are many Christian ascetic communities, and saints who have lived on a few blades of grass while meditating. (Or so they claim.)

I am not sure what conclusion you would draw from this. Uta Ranke-Heineman (or via: amazon.co.uk) decided that these Christian ascetic practices were imported from the non-Jewish gnostic tradition which rejected the reality of the world, as opposed to the Jewish tradition which embraced the world, and did not belong in True Christianity.

mountainman

I am presently studying the fourth century ascetic movements, and they were numerous. Here I mean the establishment of monastic communities (such as the Pachomian one) in a number of locations. It is an intriguing picture, starting with Origen (for the moment) and leading through to the formal anathemetising of Origen's works in the fifth century, that incorporates the last of the major controversies/heresies that I am investigating - the Origenist controversies.

The explosion of ascetic retirement to desert retreats, the giving-away of lands and possessions and the retirement to monastic life is very marked in the Roman empire with effect from the year 324 CE. COnstasntine's prohibition of pagan temple services meant these often ascetic priesthoods were dispossed of their heritage, and had nowhere to go but elsewhere. Savage taxation and oppression, extortion and the presence of Bishops also forced entire families "elsewhere" (See the ROman treasure haul in Briton dated to this time). Men and women were involved. There were just as many women ascetics as their were men, and at some locations, far more. Some interesting characters will turn up along this story, such as another Eusebius, one of "The Tall Brothers", who were ascetic adepts, and the traditional followers of the (non-christian) doctrines of the (IMO neopythagorean) ascetic and third century author Origen.

Best wishes,


Pete Brown

schilling.klaus

This underlines that the NT is a watering and perversion and corruption of Christianity, for sociopolitical purposes, i.e. for flattering the ignoble masses.
The original Christian writing are rigorously
True Christians like Satornil of Antioch know that this enjoyment is the worst of all sins and base ascetism on this superior insight.
Thus Schopenhauer correctly said that Clement of Alexandria, who justifies marriage, is better called a Jew than a Christian.


[/quote]

The gnostic ascetic tradition is the very heart of Christianity,
and the rebuttal of it is the corruption and degeneration of Christianity into a political art.

True Christianity rigorously opposes to the Jewish blunder of embracing the world, and Ranke-Heinemann is a deceiver of mankind by denying this.

Klaus Schilling

Chili

That is not a lie but a necessary truth to make conversion known wherein Saul here was 'running away from God' to be the lost sheep in retrospect. It is kind of like Jonah who was running away from God to the end of his world which is not found until metanoia did it's 180 in Jonah's mind. . . who was feeling guilty for the turmoil around him while asleep at the bottom of a ship while on a paid trip = pure involutional melancholy.

Metanoia is a 180 and not 90 or 270 to say that Peter must be the faith of Paul who strategically leads the believer West and due West so that the sacraments that are placed and counted as milestones of faith on the way out will serves as beacons of light that lead the believer righ back into Eden after religion has been abandonned when metanoia identified them as hypocrates and liars to boot.

So both Paul and Peter represent the image of heroes which in its turn is the idol of knights.

Chili

Hmm, I think that the author must have felt like a prune when she wrote that.

mountainman

From here