Asceticism and Its Critics by Oliver Freiberger

Author:Oliver Freiberger
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Oxford University Press

As the chapters on western asceticism in this volume illustrate, asceticism existed before, during, and after the age of martyrdom both in Greek philosophical circles and in Christian circles, but especially amongst the desert monastics of the fourth century. Augustine and Gregory provide western examples of how later ascetics linked themselves to the martyrs. This connection is evident in the literature of the eastern ascetics who also assert a claim of relation between asceticism and martyrdom. Origen (185-254 C.E.), the eastern father, ascetic, and great martyr emulator, strives to give the ascetic the status of martyr when he writes: "just as those who endure tortures and suffering demonstrate in martyrdom an excellence more illustrious than those not tested in this way, so also those who by using their great love for God have broken and torn apart such worldly bonds as these in addition to their love of the body and life [. . .]—these have been able to return like an eagle to the house of their master."5 He undercuts his assertion of equivalence, however, through his own actions that seem to prefer martyrdom over asceticism. As a young man he was so eager to be martyred along with his father that he was only prevented from doing so when his mother hid his clothes.6 As an older man, Origen finally succeeds in being martyred, but only after he has imposed upon himself the most extreme of tortures in the name of asceticism.7

In the context of this volume, that of criticizing asceticism, the greatest challenge to a search for dialogue between martyrdom and western monastic asceticism is that martyr literature neither explicitly addresses nor criticizes asceticism despite the ascetics' claim of relation. In this chapter, I shall challenge this assertion of connection by placing the two traditions into dialogue with one another at their points of intersection. The main point of intersection between the two is the assumption that the endurance of suffering is a performance of imitatio Christi (imitation of Christ) that sanctifies. In martyrdom, this is especially true in relation to the speed and certainty of salvation. In order to effectively compare the two, I shall first briefly detail the history of both martyrdom and asceticism in the West. Second, I shall construct a dialogue between martyrdom and asceticism on the topic of imitatio Christi, by comparing the underlying assumptions and references of the two. Because the underlying differences are so great, my constructed dialogue will make of martyrdom a critique of asceticism. Third, by adopting a modern gender-studies perspective, I shall briefly explore some of the potential motives at play in this intellectual sleight of hand that makes asceticism the son and heir of the martyr tradition. Specifically, I will argue that underlying notions of androgyny and gender ambiguity were edited out of the tradition by the ascetic fathers, who reinterpreted martyrdom to fit a bifurcated understanding of ascetic spirituality, where femininity and masculinity are in tension with one another.

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