Asketikon of St Basil the Great

The Asketikon of St Basil the Great comprises a new English translation and studies which re-examine the emergence of monasticism in Asia Minor. The Regula Basilii, translated by Rufinus from Basil's Small Asketikon, is closely compared with the Greek text of the longer edition, as a means to tracing the development of ideas. Silvas concludes that the antecedents of the monastic community of the Great Asketikon are best sought not in some kind ofsub-orthodox modus vivendi of male and female ascetics living together and increasingly curbed by an emerging neo-Nicene orthodoxy less favourable to women ('homoiousian asceticism'), but in the local domestic ascetic movement in Anatolia as typified in the developments at Annisa under the leadership ofMakrina.

The book is adorned with some most useful appendices and contains an exciting and persuasive account, based on first-hand reconnaissance, of the chief geographical loci. The resulting map is excellent., 'This volume will represent a landmark in Basilian studies.', This work should be found in all monasteries and noviciates and it would be of interest to all who are interested in monasticism.

Anna M. Silvas is Australian Research Council Fellow, Department of Classics, History, and Religion, University of New England, Australia.