athanasius and the politics of asceticism

7/29/2019 Athanasius and the Politics of Asceticism

1/3

Athanasius and the Politics of Asceticism by David BrakkeReview by: Richard ValantasisThe Journal of Religion, Vol. 77, No. 2 (Apr., 1997), pp. 292-293Published by: The University of Chicago PressStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/1205781 .

Accessed: 27/08/2013 13:01

Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at .

http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp

.JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of

content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms

of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact [email protected].

.

The University of Chicago Press is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to The

Journal of Religion.

http://www.jstor.org

This content downloaded from 74.217.196.173 on Tue, 27 Aug 2013 13:02:02 PMAll use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
http://www.jstor.org/action/showPublisher?publisherCode=ucpresshttp://www.jstor.org/stable/1205781?origin=JSTOR-pdfhttp://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsphttp://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsphttp://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsphttp://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsphttp://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsphttp://www.jstor.org/stable/1205781?origin=JSTOR-pdfhttp://www.jstor.org/action/showPublisher?publisherCode=ucpress


2/3

The Journal of Religioning thoughts or practices and ideology, such as "rooted in" (p. xv), "ruled by"(p. 167), "stemmed from" (p. xvii), and "was due to" (p. 129), often seems to beliethis. One would have welcomed more direct attention to this crucial theoreticalissue undergirding the study. Further, while Martin defines his ideological analy-sis as a "way"of looking at things, not a quest for "an objectively true alternative"to other interpretations (p. xv), his thesis is indeed a claim about what was reallygoing on in the church at Corinth, thus apparently reifying his perspective into ahistorical assertion. There is also some ambivalence in the book about intentional-ity (see, e.g., pp. 244-45, where he denies that authorial intention is the goal ofinterpretation but then goes on to make a claim about Paul's"purpose").These concerns do not negate the manifold contributions of this imaginative,serious book. In a time in which the social positions of New Testament writings,and with a particularly burning urgency those of the apostle Paul, are being sub-jected to hyperactive, even panicked, scrutiny and debate, Martin's study offersnumerous fine insights and methodological improvements. His sophisticated andsubtle analysis of how the apostle's social teachings were based on his underlyingacceptance of ancient ideologies (or scraps of ideologies) of the body provides amost useful corrective to recent, overly simplistic attempts to brand Paul either achampion of liberation or a single-minded propagator of patriarchal privilege. AsMartin valuably demonstrates and richly documents, "the situation is more com-plex than either position allows" (p. 251).MARGARET. MITCHELL, McCormickTheologicalSeminary.BRAKKE, AVID. Athanasius and the Politics of Asceticism.Oxford Early ChristianStudies. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1995. xviii+356 pp. $65.00 (cloth).David Brakke's study of Athanasius is a moderate account of a theologian andascetic immoderately portrayed in scholarship. Brakke avoids the facile scholarlycaricatures of Athanasius as lordly bishop or pious ascetic, and as politicized patri-arch or humble man of prayer,in order to lay out carefully, diligently, and (for me)convincingly the problems and challenges that faced Athanasius in his building ofthe Christian commonwealth. Stealthily, Brakke has exploited the late-antiquemeaning ofpoliteia as politics, neither ignoring the imposition of power that Atha-nasius proposed nor circumventing his serious theological and ascetical creativity.Brakke's Athanasius works diligently to focus the Alexandrian church in the localparish around the bishop by gathering the widely diverse and often disparatecommunities of individual ascetics, monks, virgins, and lay people into one holy"commonwealth" (apoliteia) consisting of a multiplicity of manners of living (po-liteiai).Athanasius's "politics"are those at the heart of his building a comprehen-sive and catholic church.Athanasius's promotion of the catholic commonwealth emerges from a specificcontext in Egypt. Brakke thoroughly explores the issues of Melitians and Ariansin Egypt, not simply to indicate the theological and ecclesiastical differences butto point toward a major transition in Athanasius's writings and thought from edu-cational to episcopal models of Christian living in Egypt. Brakke explicates Atha-nasius's rejection of the educational model of Melitians and Arians with theirsmall circles of intellectual readers, as well as Athanasius's departure from theeducational model of theology presented in Clement and Origen, whose theologycomplements the modality of the Melitians and Arians, with a careful expositionof the reorientation toward the social function of Christian exegesis, asceticism,292

http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsphttp://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsphttp://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp


3/3

Book Reviewsand living. Imitation of the saints and the ascetical figures of the Scriptures re-placed the personal charisma of teacher and ascetic. The diversity of peoples inthe church revolves not about ontological status (the physical, the spiritual, andthe perfect) but rather about the ascetical development of virtue accessible toevery Christian (whether married or celibate) who begins the ascent toward God.Virtue replaces intellect as the basis of Christian living so that every variety ofChristian may find a place in the episcopally based catholic church.Brakke achieves this synthetic perspective through four detailed analyses ineach of four chapters. First, Brakke explains Athanasius's attempt to regulate fe-male virgins and to bring them solidly under episcopal authority. Second, Brakkeexplores the relationship of Athanasius to desert monasticism under three head-ings: the social and religious function of bishop and monk, the specific relation-ship of Athanasius to the Pachomian communities, and the specific alliance ofbishops and monastics in the anti-Arian crisis of Athanasius's third exile. In eachof these two chapters Brakke focuses on the richly complex theological, ascetical,philosophical, and political dynamics of the relationship of ascetics to ecclesiasti-cal authority. Third, Brakke gathers the observations from his previous two chap-ters and develops Athanasius's ascetical theology. While historians will find thefirst two chapters interesting, theologians will find this chapter essential reading.Athanasius develops the Christian life as an ascetical one capable of embracing awide diversity of particular religious vocations (virgin, hermit, cenobite, laity)within a common ecclesiastical system, a Christian commonwealth. Brakke showshow (especially through the FestalLetters)Athanasius develops an asceticism of thelay Christian. Fourth, Brakke explains the Life of Anthonyin the context of thistheological and ecclesiastical project by linking the pervasive processes of imita-tion to Athanasius's theological asceticism and his ecclesiastical commonwealth.There is much to commend in this fine book. Brakke uses sources generallyignored in Athanasian studies because they survived only in Syriac or Coptic; hetakes seriously the intellectual and socially elite character of Egyptian Christiansociety, with its long tradition of intellectual excellence and achievement; he ex-plains the theological frame with a plausible social, intellectual, and political his-tory; and he provides translations from Syriac, Coptic, and Armenian of im-portant Athanasian ascetical texts in an appendix (two letters to virgins, threetreatises, and four festal letters). Brakke's method of analysis includes the use ofrecent critical theory and traditional historical method, the recovery of "nonca-nonical" historical sources, and attention to marginal figures (the intellectualelite, female virgins, the laity). Most of all, however, Brakke does not succumbto the reductionist tendency of Athanasian studies: he presents a theologicallyarticulate, often misunderstood, ascetically oriented, ecclesiastically dedicated, vi-sionary, and well-educated theologian whose agenda was to create a church inwhich all could have easy access and full status. Brakke has presented us with aportrayal of Athanasius that can be believed and trusted.RICHARDVALANTASIS,aint Louis University.WILLIAMS,D. H. Ambroseof Milan and theEnd of theArian-NiceneConflicts.OxfordEarly Christian Studies. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1995. xi+259 pp. $59.00(cloth).Daniel Williams's book has three tasks: to reveal the existence of a vigorous Latinanti-Nicene theology in the second half of the fourth century, to show that

293

http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsphttp://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsphttp://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp

athanasius and the politics of asceticism

Documents