Cassian the Monk

303 Pages·1998·19.266 MB·English

by  Columba Stewart

Cassian the monk
OXFORD STUDIES IN HISTORICAL THEOLOGY
SERIES EDITOR
David C. Steinmetz, Duke University
EDITORIAL BOARD
Irena Backus, Universite de Geneve
Robert C. Gregg, Stanford University
George M. Marsden, University of Notre Dame
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Gerhard Sauter, Rheinische Friedrich-Wilhelms-Universitat Bonn
Susan E. Schreiner, University of Chicago
John Van Engen, University of Notre Dame
Geoffrey Wainwright, Duke University
Robert L. Wilken, University of Virginia
PRIMITIVISM, RADICALISM, AND THE LAMB'S WAR
The Baptist-Quaker Conflict in Seventeenth-Century England
T. L. Underwood
THE GOSPEL OF JOHN IN THE SIXTEENTH CENTURY
The Johannine Exegesis of Wolfgang Musculus
Craig S. Farmer
CASSIAN THE MONK
Columba Stewart
Cassian the Monk
Columba Stewart
New York Oxford
OXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS
1998
Oxford University Press
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Copyright © 1998 by Columba Stewart
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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Stewart, Columba.
Cassian the monk / Columba Stewart.
p. cm. —(Oxford studies in historical theology)
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 0-19-511366-7
I. Cassian, John, ca. 36o~ca. 435. 2. Monastic and religious
life —History of doctrines —Early church, ca. 30-600. I. Title.
II. Series.
BR65.C33S74 1998
271'.0092—dc2i 97-12127
I'B]
1 3 5 7 9 8 6 42
Printed in the United Slaies of America
on acid-free paper
For my parents,
and in memory of my grandparents.
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Preface
I WRITE AS A MONK ABOUT A MONK. But it is not that simple. John Cassian was a
monk of his own time and place, shaped by cultures and encounters we can
never know as he did. My affinity with him lies not in shared experience but in
a shared commitment to the monastic life. I find Cassian's teaching to be often
stunningly relevant for modern monastic Christians who take monasticism seri-
ously as a way of life for the world and not against it, but simply to repristinate
his understanding of the monastic life would be to deny the very Spirit which
gave it birth. I am most intrigued not by the details of monastic observance Cas-
sian describes, but by his fundamental convictions. Only they can explain the
daring scope of his project: a comprehensive monastic theology. His achievement
is unique.
It is impossible in one book to explore the vast landscape of Cassian's monas-
tic writings. I focus primarily on the issues to which my monastic experience and
interest naturally lead me. Even so I have had to choose, and therefore have
selected what I have judged to be the most central and distinctive aspects of
Cassian's monastic theology. As a result, important topics such as the discernment
of thoughts, Cassian's consideration of the traditional eight principal faults and
many other aspects of his ascetical theology receive little direct attention in this
study. Cassian's teaching on those topics, accessible to us elsewhere in the litera-
ture of early monasticism, requires comparatively little exploration here.
This book begins with an overview of Cassian's life and work. Cassian is
elusive, yet establishing what we know about him allows us to relate his writings
to his own experiences and to the places and events that shaped what he wrote.
He was a man of many lands and roles; the constant in his extraordinary life was
a monastic vocation lived in service to the church. "Cassian the Monk," the title
of chapter 1, appropriately serves as the title for the whole book.
Chapter 2, "Cassian the Writer," explores the nature and scope of Cassian's
monastic writings, the Institutes and Conferences. There I suggest that one must
recognize the various (and concurrent) intentions and meanings those texts bear
so as to avoid reductionist interpretations of them.
Chapter 3, "Cassian the Theologian," sketches Cassian's fundamental theol-
ogy of the monastic life. He described a trajectory toward a proximate goal of
viii PREFACE
"purity of heart" and an ultimate destination of the "reign of God." His eschato-
logical orientation was central to his intention and therefore must be so to our
understanding of his theology. His goal of purity of heart meant a contemplative
stance toward all human experience, including human experience of God. His
teaching on the interplay of contemplation and action speaks directly to a peren-
nial challenge in the monastic life. Finally, there is the question of the end: is
heavenly beatitude somehow possible in this life, or is it a purely eschatological
reality?
Chapter 4, "Flesh and Spirit, Continence and Chastity," probes Cassian's
ascetical teaching as given to us in his writings about lust and chastity. Given that
I could not adequately explore all eight principal faults and their corresponding
virtues, I chose the theme that most fully integrates and represents Cassian's un-
derstanding of human development. Because he always presented his controver-
sial teaching on grace and free will within discussions about chastity, I shall study
it where he did.
Chapters 5 and 6, "The Bible and Prayer" and "Unceasing Prayer," explore
the interplay of the Bible and prayer in Cassian's theology. Because Bible and
prayer converge in the monastic encounter with Christ, Cassian's reading of the
Bible and his teaching on imageless prayer were inseparable from his Christology
(chapter 5). His ways of prayer, especially his method of unceasing prayer, were
all based on biblical models and texts (chapter 6). Cassian's teaching on prayer is
faithful to earlier monastic tradition but distinctive in scope and depth: his presen-
tation of a method of prayer based on a continually repeated biblical phrase is
the most thorough in early monastic literature.
Chapter 7, "Experience of Prayer," considers the most intriguing aspect of
Cassian's theology of prayer, his emphasis on experiences of ecstasy and tears.
Here Cassian's teaching has remarkable affinities with that of Diadochus of Pho-
tike, who, like Cassian, integrated the spiritual theology of Evagrius Ponticus with
the kataphatic spiritual tradition exemplified by the writings of Pseudo-Macarius.
Cassian may, then, have been the bridge to the Latin West not only for Evagrian
spirituality but also for the affective, experiential mysticism typical of the Syrian
tradition. His creative synthesis would bear great fruit in the spirituality of Greg-
ory the Great and the medieval theologians inspired, in turn, by Gregory.
This book has been written for two audiences that partly overlap: on the one
hand, monastic men and women and those who are drawn to monastic spiritual-
ity; on the other, scholars and students of the early Christian era. As I wrote I
always kept in mind those who regard Cassian primarily as a teacher in the mo-
nastic life. They may wish to concentrate on chapters 3-7. Despite the heavy
burden of notes in this book, its narrative line does not depend on the notes, and
they may safely be left aside by those uninterested in the details. I have, however,
included abundant references both to Cassian's writings and to other early monas-
tic texts so that a reader's interests can be pursued in the sources themselves.
Cassian has long deserved thorough study. I hope that my colleagues in the study
of early Christian monastieism will find the details as intriguing and enriching as
I have.
A detailed list of acknowledgments appears elsewhere. Here I must acknowl-
PREFACE ix
edge two debts. My confreres of Saint John's Abbey sustain me daily with their
love and their prayers. With and from them I have learned what I know about
the monastic life, and they have given me the opportunity to teach and to write.
I owe a scholarly debt to previous students of early monastic history and spiritual-
ity. I feel obliged to recognize particularly the great French scholars of this cen-
tury whose names are so evident in the notes and bibliography. Their work has
been a constant source of inspiration and edification.
I dedicate this book to my parents, especially my mother, Lorraine Mackay
Stewart, for her seventieth birthday; and to the memory of my grandparents, espe-
cially Frances Isabella Stewart, whose generosity supported my undergraduate ed-
ucation.
Columba Stewart OSB Saint John's Abbey and University
Collegeville, Minnesota
Gaudete Sunday 1996