From Competition to Conformity: Saints’ Lives, Typika, and the Byzantine Monastic Discourse of the Eleventh Century - job talk
In the century following the Second Iconoclasm Byzantine hagiographers adhered to the ideal of extreme and agonistic asceticism, asserting that even as novices their heroes fasted more than other members of their communities. From the middle of the tenth century onwards we encounter an alternative point of view. Now it was claimed that the saints ate the same food as everybody else because they did not wish to appear vainglorious or prideful. In the tenth century this point of view only appeared in hagiographical texts written at the Stoudios monastery whereas other monastic settings continued to reproduce the traditional template. This was no longer the case in the eleventh and twelfth centuries when the ideal of total conformity found expression in saints' lives and in rules that originated in a variety of monastic milieus. Moreover, even those who remained wedded to the older concept of extreme and agonistic asceticism now felt the need to engage with the new discourse. This evidence suggests that the dynamics of monastic communities were changing and raises questions about social change in Byzantine society at large.
The handout is available at the bottom of the page.
Dirk Krausmüller studied from 1981 to 1987 Latin and Ancient Greek at the Universities of Giessen and Munich, while at the same time attending courses in Byzantine Studies, Turkology and Theology. Then he spent a year in Birmingham where he participated in an M.A. programme in Byzantine History. Finally, in 2001, he completed a PhD thesis about Byzantine monasticism at the University of Belfast. Since then he has been working at the universities of Belfast, Cardiff, and Mardin, Turkey.
Related events:
Alexander Riehle 8 December, 2015 11:00 - 11:40
Aglae Pizzone 9 December, 2015 9:00 - 9:40
