Books : John Cassian: Conferences (Classics of Western Spirituality)
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from: Paulist Press
List Price: $21.95Amazon.com's Price: $14.93 You Save: $7.02 (32%)Prices subject to change. Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours
Binding: Paperback
Dewey Decimal Number: 255
EAN: 9780809126941
ISBN: 080912694X
Label: Paulist Press
Manufacturer: Paulist Press
Number Of Items: 1
Number Of Pages: 224
Publication Date: 1985-11
Publisher: Paulist Press
Sales Rank: 535655
Studio: Paulist Press
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Product Description:
At the turn of the sixth century the Mediterranean world was witnessing the decline of Roman rule that had formed the bedrock of its civil order. During the chaos of those years, there arose in the deserts of Egypt and Syria monastic movements that offered men and women a radical God-centered alternative to the present society. Among the most eloquent interpreters of this new movement to western Europe was John Cassian (c. 365-c.435). Drawing on his own early experience as a monk in Bethlehem and Egypt, he journeyed to the West to found monasteries in Marseilles and the region of Provence.
Included in this volume is Cassian's masterpiece, the Conferences, which is a study of the Egyptian ideal of the monk.
The new translation by Colm Luibheid is coupled with an insightful introduction by the distinguished Regius Professor Emeritus of Modern History, Cambridge University, Owen Chadwick, who writes of Cassian's achievement: 'Like the Rule of St. Benedict, his work was a protection against excess and a constant recall to that primitive simplicity where eastern spirituality met western.'
Customer Reviews
Average Rating: 
Rating:  - christian wisdom from the fourth century monastic
Like many early Christian writers, the life of John Cassian (c. 360-c 435) remains shrouded in the mists of forgotten history. He was probably born in present day Romania (Dacia). When he was about twenty he traveled with his friend Germanus to Bethlehem where he joined a monastery. From Bethlehem Cassian and Germanus made at least two extended visits to the famous monastics down in Egypt (by some estimates they spent ten years there), and from there moved on to Constantinople. In Constantinople ... Read More
Rating: - Introducing an Essential Christian Witness
This is one of the best volumes in the Classics of Western Spirituality series, combining a well-translated and shrewdly chosen essence of the 4th century writer, combined with excellent editorial apparatus.
An abbot at the end of his life, Cassian wrote of his youthful spiritual search among desert solitaries for his monks. The recollection is so fresh that it performs a neat trick; you overlook the young Cassian as a character in his own work, lost in rapture. His cooler traveling ... Read More
Rating:  - Good, but surpassed
The Classics of Western Spirituality edition of Cassian's Conferences seemed extremely appealing, but it is inevitably disappointing to read out-takes from a work as majestic as the Conferences. Admittedly, the Conferences can be daunting: the standard critical edition runs to three volumes, and the recent English translation is a hefty tome of nearly 1000 pages. But (and I say this advisedly) there is no substitute for mulling over the work as a whole. So I would suggest that instead of waiting ... Read More
Rating: - Still speaks today
As with all the books I have read from "The Classics of Western Spirituality" series, John Cassian's "Conferences" is both important and insightful. Cassian is, via the value placed on his writings by St. Benedict, a major figure in the history of western monasticism.
This volume contains nine of Cassian's twenty-four conferences. The conferences cover such topics as prayer, perfection, and purity of heart. By using the device of interviewing famous Egyptian monks and hermits, Cassian deftly ... Read More
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