Most interesting; however, why not consider the aesthetic practices of St. John the Baptist and the Jewish tradition? Or of our Lord Jesus Christ Himself and His consistent separation to prayer? What of St. Thomas’ travels to India spreading the Gospel there and the probable mingling of traditions? The desert fathers were not the first Christian aesthetics, as you point out, though they gave rise to monastic tradition as we know it.
Hi!, because this was a follow up to a previous article and in the interest of keeping it short, i didn’t want to broaden the scope, so i maintained the same context. wrt St Thomas i think you could perhaps use that more readily if you wanted to show a west to east transmission, i don’t know if him traveling to india and back is enough to imply any east to west transmission- unless there is some tradition that he returned to the west and introduced new monastic practices. i, however, am not aware of any such traditions that could establish a causal connection.
Most interesting; however, why not consider the aesthetic practices of St. John the Baptist and the Jewish tradition? Or of our Lord Jesus Christ Himself and His consistent separation to prayer? What of St. Thomas’ travels to India spreading the Gospel there and the probable mingling of traditions? The desert fathers were not the first Christian aesthetics, as you point out, though they gave rise to monastic tradition as we know it.
Hi!, because this was a follow up to a previous article and in the interest of keeping it short, i didn’t want to broaden the scope, so i maintained the same context. wrt St Thomas i think you could perhaps use that more readily if you wanted to show a west to east transmission, i don’t know if him traveling to india and back is enough to imply any east to west transmission- unless there is some tradition that he returned to the west and introduced new monastic practices. i, however, am not aware of any such traditions that could establish a causal connection.
Thought provoking nonetheless, thanks!