Assessment

Class Preparation, Participation, and Presentation: 30%; Final Essay (5,000 words): 70%

Module Aims

The aim of this module is to familiarize students with the roots of Christian monasticism in the Desert of Ancient Egypt. The contribution of the Desert Fathers, St. Anthony and St. Pachomiou will be examined.

Learning Outcomes

• — A familiarity with the sources of early Egyptian monasticism.
• — An ability to approach these sources from a scholarly perspective and to form a synthesis of the disparate material in the different sources.
• — A renewed understanding of this epoch of Christian history and a critical appreciation of its relevance in the twenty-first century.

Bibliography

• — Harmless, William. Desert Christians: An Introduction to the Literature of Early Monasticism. Oxford: New York, 2004
• — Athanasius, The Life of Anthony
• — Pachomian Koinonia
• — The various collections of the Apophthegmata Patrum
• — The Oxford handbook of Christian monasticism / edited by Bernice M. Kaczynski ; advisory editor, Thomas Sullivan., New York, New York, United States of America :, Oxford University Press, 2020.
• — The T&T Clark History of Monasticism Author / Editor: John Binns, Edinburgh, T.& T. Clark Ltd, 2021.
• — Burton-Christie, Douglas. The Word in the Desert: Scripture and the Quest of Holiness in Early Christian Monasticism. New York: Oxford University Press, 1993.
• — Chitty, Derwas. The Desert a City: Introduction to the Study of Egyptian and Palestinian Monasticism Under the Christian Empire Yonkers, NY: St. Vladimir’s Press, 1977.