Discourses of Holiness and the Perfecting of the Soul in Late Antique Christian Monasticism

With the rise and proliferation of monasticism during Late Antiquity, Christian ascetics shared the common goal of perfecting themselves in union with God, yet they often had divergent conceptions of what specifically holiness consists in and how exactly to attain it. The fourteen original contributions to this volume explore, from a broad cross-disciplinary perspective, the rich multiplicity of models and discourses of holiness that animated late antique Christian monasticism. The case studies coalesce around these topical clusters: the practical strategies that monks devised to cultivate holiness for themselves; the models of holiness that they implemented in communal Christian contexts; and the formative influence of the Greco-Roman heritage on the development of the monastic ethos.

Andrew Cain is Professor of Classics at the University of Colorado–Boulder. A specialist in patristic literature, he has published eight single-author books, including Athanasius’ Life of Antony: A Commentary with Introduction, Text and Translation, 3 volumes (Oxford, 2025). Daniel Lemeni is Associate Professor of Eastern Spirituality at the West University of Timișoara. His publications include Illness, Sainthood, and Spiritual Healing in Early Antique Monasticism (Brill, 2023) and “It Is Enough for Me to See You”: The Saintly Body in Late Antique Monasticism (Peeters, 2022). Contributors are: David M. Gwynn, Kyle A. Schenkewitz, Nathan D. Howard, Andrew Cain, Daniel Lemeni, Ilaria L.E. Ramelli, Ingvild Sælid Gilhus, Zachary B. Smith, Fabrizio Vecoli, Frederick D. Aquino, Michael Glowasky, Kevin M. Clarke, Samuel Kaldas, Byron MacDougall, Hallie Luther, Nathaniel Clayton