The Word in the Desert: Scripture and the Quest for Holiness in Early Christian Monasticism

I read this book when it first came out in the early nineties, and I've probably reread it three or four times. The heart and soul for me are to be found in the last third when Burton-Christie gets into the nitty gritty of desert praxis. This is the book that led me to contemplative Christian monasticism and--many years ago now--spurred me to become a vowed oblate of a monastic community.

The gap between the New Testament and today's multi-faceted church. It's possible to learn from the experiences of the early church fathers and get a better understanding of the faith. This is a good book that offers an interesting take on the history of early Christianity.

Douglas Burton-Christie is a professor of Christian Spirituality at Loyola Marymount University specializing in monastic studies. This book is a reworking of his doctoral dissertation. As such, "The Word in the Desert," is extremely throrough, scholarly, and keeps the central thesis in mind throughout.Burton-Christie's purpose in writing is to examine "how the use and interpretation of Scripture shaped the quest for holiness amongst the desert monks of early Christianity (4)." But before he begins examining the role of Scripture and Sprituality, he devotes significant space to the formation of and life in early monastic communities (and why not? This is a doctoral dissertation). While this section was interesting and provided some necessary foundations, this section was the most frustrating to read as I was anxious for Burton-Christie to actually get into the meat of his thesis.Once the backgound of monstacism was firmly in place, Burton-Christie moved into monstic ideals of the Holy Life and the role Scriputre played in this life. The interplay between these two ideas made for an informative and enjoyable read. The illustrations were excellent and made the weighty subject matter entertaining. As a result of reading this book, my knowledge of and respect for the monastic lifestyle has grown.I would recommend this book, but those who have had some historical and/or theoligical training would benefit most from reading it.

Douglas Burton-Christie has produced an excellent, readable work of scholarship that reveals the seminal value of biblical text for the Christian monastics of fourth-century Egypt. Burton-Christie explores the spirituality of these early monks within the three major divisions of the book: The Desert Hermeneutic in Its Setting, Approaches to the Word in the Desert, and The Word Realized. I particularly enjoyed his chapter on "The Humble Way of Christ", which explores the virtue of humility as an essential monastic spiritual trait. He also tackles the often misunderstood concept of monastic renunciation as rightly understood to be a spiritual tool to develop an inner freedom for the monk, which finds its parallels in monastic traditions of other faiths.I would recommend this book for anyone interested in delving more fully into the spirituality of early Christian monasticism as well as for those who wish to see how the primitive roots of Christian monasticism touch other, non-Christian, spiritual traditions. It is particularly gratifying to see how the early monks, while devoted to the study and memorization of Scripture, allowed the Word to work deeply towards a profound expression of Christian love.

The book was presented as a great source to watch the "vine" as it grew and branched out. It gave me a glimpse into the conditions that called these men and women to discard all and become a "quietist". A brief glimpse of the beauty of Koine Greek has me searching for more.

Difficult reading but worth pushing on