Dr. Earl Cairns' "Christianity Through the Centuries: The Cloisters," 16...

14. Christianity of the Cloisters, 163-168. People sometimes renounce society in times of social, intellectual, and political crises. Cloistered Christianity had early beginnings in the 2nd century with developments in the 4th, 6th, 10th-11th and later centuries, including the Jesuits of the Counter-Reformation. Causes: (1) Gnosticism and Neoplatonic influences with flesh v. spirit antithesis. Origen, Cyprian, Tertullian and Jerome commented on celibacy and Pauline passages; (2) Escapism from harsh realities; (3) Corruptions in the “upper classes in Roman society” creating despair of reform (164). Developments in the East: (1) Anthony (250-256) and Simon Stylites the “pole sitter” (386-460) were anchorites; (2) Basil of Caesarea (360-379) fostered communal monasteries that create a hundred monasteries in Eastern Europe. Focus: work, pray, read the Bible and do good deeds. Developments in the West: Athanasius, Augustine, and Benedict of Nursia (480-543) at Monte Cassino Italy. Focus: the Benedictrine rule of work, worship, poverty, chastity and obedience. Almost universal by 7th century in England, France and Germany by the time of Charlemagne. Values: agricultural farms, scholarship, copying manuscripts, education for locals, hospitals, travel inns, sanctuaries, and famous monks like Bede, Einhard, Matthew Paris, Columba, Aidan and others. In the 21st century, we still are heirs to the operational and Biblical values of monastics--education, scholarship, hospitals and medicine, liturgy and prayer, self-disciplines, missions, etc.