N. Kamimura, (2016) ‘Christian Identity and the Construction of Spiritual Training in the Writings of Tertullian, Cyprian, and Lactantius.’ In Universitas: Monthly Review of Philosophy and Culture, No. 504 (Vol. 43 no. 05): 119-154.
A part of this paper was presented at the 33rd conference of Australasian Society for Classical Studies on 7 February 2012 in Melbourne and the other part was delivered at North America Patristic Society annual meeting on 22 May 2014 in Chicago.
- Abstract
- The tradition of the spiritual training in late antiquity has received frequent scholarly attention. Pierre Hadot, a French classical scholar, defines it as a “metamorphosis of our personality.” While taking into consideration of the purely intellectual training of the mind, Hadot examines spiritual discipline in its more holistic manifestation: the purgation of the soul by exercising all facets of human behaviour and thought. It is interesting to note that the spiritual training in question varied according to the circumstances of the Greco-Roman tradition. Justin Martyr maintained that philosophical investigation could guide Christians to the understanding of divine truth. Tertullian understood Christian martyr acts as an indispensable vehicle for the articulation of the Christian identity. After the rapid expansion of Christianity in North Africa during the second century, the issue of spiritual training appears to be a guiding thread of the making of the Christian identity of North Africans. How did Tertullian and his successors express the significance of the spiritual discipline in the community of faith? In this paper, I shall ask how Tertullian, Cyprian, and Lactantius understood the concept of spiritual training. I shall consider it from the viewpoint of its significance and limits in constructing the Christian identity, thereby exploring it as part of a Christian programme of self-cultivation in its ascetic, intellectual, and exegetical aspect
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