Monasticism and the City in Late Antiquity and the Early Middle Ages (Elements in Religion in Late Antiquity)

This Element will reevaluate the relationship between monasticism and the city in late antiquity and the early Middle Ages in the period 400 to 700 in both post-Roman West and the eastern Mediterranean, putting both of those areas in conversation. Building on recent scholarship on the nature of late antique urbanism, the authors can observe that the links between late antique Christian thought and the late and post-Roman urban space were far more relevant to the everyday practice of monasticism than previously thought. By comparing Latin, Greek and Syriac sources from a broad geographical area, the authors gain a birds' eye view on the enduring importance of urbanism in a late and post-Roman monastic world. Cover 1 Title page 3 Copyright page 4 Monasticism and the City in Late Antiquity and the Early Middle Ages 5 Contents 6 Introduction 7 1 Monasticism as a Genre of Society 12 2 The Monastery as a City 17 Monastic Euergetism 18 Economy and Law 22 The Built Environment 30 A Better City 33 3 Monks and Nuns in the City 34 Eremitism and Its Audiences 35 Your Neighbour, the Nun 39 Monasticism Coming to Terms with the City 41 Gangs of New Jerusalem 48 4 Monastic Learning 52 We Don’t Need No Education? 53 Civic and Monastic Frames of Education 55 Monastic Education with and without the City 59 5 Monasticism as an Afroeurasian Phenomenon 64 Conclusions 70 Appendix 75 Bibliography 78 Acknowledgements 93