Dorotheus of Gaza and Ascetic education / Michael W. Champion

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Champion, Michael W., author.

Series:

Oxford Academic

Oxford scholarship online

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Philosophical theology.

Contextualism (Philosophy).

Christian antiquities.

Asceticism.

Dorotheus, of Gaza, Saint, active 6th century.

Asceticism--Early church.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (272 pages)

Edition:

1st ed.

Place of Publication:

Oxford : Oxford University Press, [2022]

Summary:

Dorotheus of Gaza and Ascetic Education approaches fundamental questions about the role and function of education in late antiquity through a detailed study of the thought of Dorotheus of Gaza, a sixth-century Palestinian monk. It illumines the thought of a significant figure in Palestinian monasticism, clarifies relationships between ascetic and classical education, and contributes to debates about how different educational projects related to late-antique cultural change. Dorotheus appropriates and reconfigures classical discourses of rhetoric, philosophy, and medicine and builds on earlier ascetic traditions. Education is a powerful site for the reconfiguration and reproduction of culture, and Dorotheus' educational programme can be read as a microcosm of the wider culture he aims to construct partly through his adaptation and representation of classical and ascetic discourses. Key features of his educational programme include the role of the notion of godlikeness, the governing role of humility as an epistemic virtue intended to organize affective and ethical development, and his notion of education as life-long habituation. For Dorotheus, education is irreducibly affective and transformative, rather than merely informative, at the individual and communal scales. His epistemology and ethics are set within an account of the divine plan of salvation which is intended to provide a narrative framework through which his students come to understand the world and their place in it. His account of ways of knowing and ordering knowledge, ethics and moral development, emotions of education, and relationships between affect, cognition, and ethical action aims towards transformation of his students and their communities.

Contents:

List of Abbreviations

1. Education and Asceticism in Late-Antique Gaza

Thinking about Education

Dorotheus of Gaza

Dorotheus on Ascetic Paideia

2. Rhetoric, Philosophy, Medicine: Internalizing Foreign Teaching

Introduction

Rhetoric

Philosophy

Medicine

Conclusions: Ascetic Paideia and Transformation

3. Education and Epistemology

Introduction: Ways of Knowing and Ordering Knowledge

Philosophical Prolegomena

Hierarchies of Knowing

The Epistemology of Dorotheus' Pedagogy: Humility, Godlikeness, and Knowledge

The Practice of Death and Ascetic Epistemology

Humility as an Epistemic Virtue

Humility and Epistemological Authority

Conclusions: The Goals of Ascetic Education and Epistemology

4. Education, Emotion, and Virtue

Theorizing Emotions in Ascetic Education

Emotional Norms in Dorotheus' Classroom

Emotions in Dorotheus' Psychology

Virtue and Affective Cognition: Attentive Pilgrimage and Vigilance in Excising the Passions

Affective Virtues for Monastic Community

Conclusions: Ethical and Emotional Transformation

5. Education, Habituation, and Moral Development

Habituation and Learning Virtue

Moral Development as a Craft: 'On Building up and Fine-tuning the Virtues of the Soul'

Popular Ethics and Habit Formation in Community

Dramatizing Exemplarity: Habituating Mind and Will

Work

Prayer

Conclusions: Imitation, Temporality, and Moral Development

6. Conclusion: Education and Transformation

Bibliography

Index Locorum

General Index.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index

Description based on Publisher website; title from home page (viewed on May 13, 2022)

ISBN:

0-19-264035-6

0-19-190575-5

0-19-264034-8

OCLC:

1336403357

Publisher Number:

10.1093/oso/9780198869269.001.0001 DOI