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{"id":4845,"date":"2009-06-25T13:52:06","date_gmt":"2009-06-25T13:52:06","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/leithart.level2d.com\/?p=1845"},"modified":"2017-09-07T00:10:15","modified_gmt":"2017-09-06T18:10:15","slug":"monastic-conformism","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/leithart\/2009\/06\/monastic-conformism\/","title":{"rendered":"Monastic conformism"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\n<\/head>

<\/p>

In reaction to the lax respectability of the majority church, many hardy souls retreated to the desert or the frontier. So the story goes. <\/p>\n

Only the monastery was another form of cultural conformity. RA Markus ( The End of Ancient Christianity <\/a> $\"\"$ ) says that \u201cthe ideal of the philosophical life was among the most important of the sources which nourished Christian monasticism . . . . In contrast to Judaism, where asceticism played only a minor role and one confined to the fringes of orthodox circles, the whole Hellenistic and Roman philosophical tradition offered a rich store-house of commonplaces extolling the ascetic life.\u201d Christian monks \u201cwere not the first to combine the notions of self-denial and of the life of contemplation; even communal dedication to these ideals had been anticipated in Antiquity.\u201d Athanasius was on the right track in describing Antony\u2019s as a \u201cphilosophic\u201d life. <\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"