Sacrifice in the Desert

Autorentext

Father Mark Gruber, O.S.B., a Benedictine monk of Saint Vincent Archabbey in Latrobe, is Associate Professor, Department of Sociology & Anthropology, Saint Vincent College.

Klappentext

The desert fathers of ancient Egypt are an inherently fascinating, historical phenomenon. Sacrifice in the Desert is an anthropological study of the contemporary spiritual descendents of these monks as they live out their lives in some of the most primitive and remote monasteries of the Sahara Desert.

Inhalt

Chapter 1 Foreword
Chapter 2 Apologia: Author's Preface
Chapter 3 Introduction: The Monastery as an Enclosed Society; The Copts in Egypt; How the Moslems View the Copts and Their Monks; The Fieldwork
Chapter 4 Sacrifice in a Historical Perspective: Non-Western Rituals; Biblical/Coptic Sacrifice
Chapter 5 Desert Spirituality and Its Symbolic Location: The Monasteries in the Desert; Where Angels Led Them; Desert Asceticism
Chapter 6 The Origins of Coptic Monasticism: Byzantine Exploitation and the Emergence of Desert Monks; Coptic Monasticism as Cultural Opposition
Chapter 7 Monasticism in Egypt's Modern Era: British Influence; Contemporary Monastic Revival; The Patriarch Enthroned in Exile
Chapter 8 Deir Dwellers: A Moment in the Deir; The Monks; In Their Own Words
Chapter 9 Forming the Monastic Persona: The Spiritual Father
Chapter 10 Behavioral Embodiments of Value: Desert Poetics; The Monastic Regimen
Chapter 11 Coptic Culture and Monasticism: The Orientation of Prayer; The Validation of Worship; Coptic Liturgy; Monastic Prayer and Sacrifice; The New Adam
Chapter 12 Transcendence of Time and Space: Times Sanctified by Fasting; The Space of Sacrifice
Chapter 13 Conclusion
Chapter 14 Epilogue: Ethiopian Monasticism: The Issue of Numbers; Grim History; Asceticism; The Ark of the Covenant
Chapter 15 Notes
Chapter 16 Glossary of Coptic and Liturgical Terms; Bibliography: Cited and Consulted Works
Chapter 17 Author Index
Chapter 18 Subject Index