St john cassian biography of william

Christian monk and theologian

John Cassian, also known as John the Ascetic and John Cassian the Roman (Latin: Ioannes Eremita Cassianus, Ioannes Cassianus, or Ioannes Massiliensis;^[2]Greek: Ίωάννης Κασσιανός ό Ερημίτης; c.&#;AD&#; – c.&#;), was a Christian monk and theologian celebrated in both the Western and Eastern churches for his mystical writings. Cassian is noted for his role in bringing the ideas and practices of early Christian monasticism to the medieval West.

Biography

Cassian was born around , most likely in the region of Scythia Minor (now Dobruja, a historical region shared today by Romania and Bulgaria), although some scholars assume a Gallic origin. The son of wealthy parents, he received a good education: his writings show the influence of Cicero and Persius.^[13] He was bilingual in Latin and Greek.^[14]

Cassian mentions having a sister in his first work, the Institutes, with whom he corresponde

•

Desert Christians: An Introduction to the Literature of Early Monasticism

In the fourth century, the deserts of Egypt became the nerve center of a radical new movement, what we now call monasticism. Groups of Christians-from illiterate peasants to learned intellectuals-moved out to the wastelands beyond the Nile Valley and, in the famous words of Saint Athanasius, made the desert a city. In so doing, they captured the imagination of the ancient world. They forged techniques of bön and asceticism, of discipleship and spiritual direction, that have remained central to Christianity ever since. Seeking to map the soul's long journey to God and plot out the subtle vagaries of the human heart, they created and inspired texts that became classics of Western spirituality. These Desert Christians were also brilliant storytellers, some of Christianity's finest. This book introduces the literature of early monasticism. It examines all the best-known works, including Athanasius' Life of

•

Chapter 8 John Cassian as an Agent of Change

1 Introduction

In the early fifth century CE, an early Christian author by the name of John Cassian (ca. –c. CE) made a remarkable contribution to the shaping and reshaping of western monasticism, which he envisioned as an expression of Platonic-Origenistic and well-regulated asceticism rooted in the world of the Egyptian desert. In the year , Malcolm Gladwell published what was to become a highly popular and influential analysis of ‘social epidemics’: The Tipping Point.¹ In this book, written for a broad audience, the author asks which factors contribute to the rapid and exponential distribution of products, behaviors, and ideas. Based on the model of diffusion of innovations developed by Everett Rogers,² Gladwell answers this question bygd identifying a number of essential elements: the type of communicators involved and the various roles they play, the ‘stickiness’ of the message, and contextual aspects