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secular society” (15). The use of the word ‘secular’ here should have
been clarified – since what we deem today as the separation between
religious and secular institutions did not function for the Christian Roman
empire of Byzantium; nevertheless these topics constitute the four main
chapters of the work, the first two of which are prefaced with modern
examples that resemble the issues addressed. For instance, the beginning
of chapter one on ‘Monks in The Meadow: Proving and Improving the
Ascetic Program’ (19-44), which addresses ‘grazer’ monks (or, βοσκοί
at 23, 25), begins with a brief reflection on the renowned American
vagabond and adventurer Christopher McCandless, who tragically died
of starvation in Alaska in 1992 (19), and the second chapter ‘Money in
The Meadow: Coin, Cost and Conversion’ (45-69) begins with the 2008
economic crisis in the United States (45). Whilst it would be unwise to
make an explicit parallel between McCandless and the 2008 financial
crash – insofar as neither the former nor the latter involved explicitly
Christian concerns – with the motivations of some of the holy figures
addressed by Moschos in The Meadow, still these examples are welcome
insofar as they draw the ancient context into conversation with today.
Moreover, each chapter then follows with a brief review of the relevant
scholarly literature on the topics addressed, highlighting thereby the
author’s significant contribution to existing bodies of knowledge.
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gets to give?’ being the primary concern as tensions between giver and
recipient, depending on their respective social classes, could arise (64).
Although many themes related to alms are present in The Meadow,
including “alms grounded in sacrifice, alms as representative of God’s
character (i.e. love and/or compassion for the poor) and alms connected
to punishment and reward” (63), ultimately Ihssen wisely concludes that
“it is not the distribution of alms that is redemptive; the attention to the
ascetic life, a life that provides consistent opportunity for almsgiving, is
redemptive” (69).
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to two specific parties, the solitary ascetic and the monastic institution
(116), thereby bringing to the fore the work’s concern for the dialectic
of ‘authority’ and ‘autonomy’ between the two from the perspective of
social history. This tension carries on into the next section when Ihssen
observes the ‘combative’ dimension to solitaries who, on account of
their inner conflict that ostensibly takes place outside the normative
ecclesiastical system, emerge as individuals beyond the ‘integrative’
process, which happens when the ascetic is transformed within the system
(118). I believe that Ihssen’s assertion that there is an inherent conflict
between the ‘combative’ (autonomous) and ‘integrative’ (authoritative)
experiences imposes too sharp a distinction on a very complex topic; for
whilst these two approaches are indeed distinguishable from each other,
nevertheless the salvation of the solitary – which is a way of life that is
relevant to his or her own personal circumstances and not necessarily
prioritised to the collective – always takes place within the ecclesial
framework which is Christ’s body (1 Corinthians 12:27-31). In any case,
Ihssen tries to prove this thesis in relation to the deceased, autonomous
solitaries who – whilst eschewing community throughout their lives – are
later dug up and transferred to the ‘authoritative’ communities (119-21).
But such an approach does not factor in something that I hinted at above;
namely, that the ecclesial experience is communal, and if certain persons
decided to live more or less on their own for the sake of their salvation,
this does not necessarily mean that they wished to be entirely precluded
– either in this life or the next – from communion with other Christians
who make up the body of Christ.
The last section of this chapter (124-36) maps out the relationship
of Christians with the dead in a very immanent way insofar as it addresses
beneficial tales that involve the Christian dead rising in the here and now,
firstly in relation to say final goodbyes to, in the case of one tale, a dead
monk’s elder, and, in the case of another, a philanthropist Christian who
had prepared the deceased for burial (126-28). Various other types of
‘intermediate’ resurrection experiences are analysed before the chapter
ends with a final tale about a revelation to an elder about his deceased
disciple standing on the head of a bishop in Hades (134-35), thereby
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Mario Baghos
St Andrew’s Greek Orthodox Theological College
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