The Evolution of the Monastic Ideal From the Earliest Times Down to the Coming of the Friars: A Second Chapter in the History of Christian Renunciation

by Herbert B. Workman

Excerpt from The Evolution of the Monastic Ideal From the Earliest Times Down to the Coming of the Friars

The reader will notice that I have called this study, A Second Chapter in the History of Christian Renuncia tion. Some explanation is due for this sub-title. Some ten years ago, in the enthusiasm of youth and ignorance, I set out to write a short history of Christian Renuncia tion, intending, if I remember rightly, to compress it into one volume. But as I wrote the matter grew, and I was driven to alter my plans. In August 1906 I published a First Chapter in the History of Renuncia tion, 1 in a book entitled Persecution in the Early Church. The favour with which critics of all schools, in di?erent countries, received this work led me to hope that a similar welcome might be given to a further instalment of the original scheme. After six years of work, sadly broken by the ever-increasing pressure of official duties, during the most part of which the manuscript has lain upon my desk, oftentimes, alas! Reproaching me for my unavoidable neglect, I have ventured to publish A Second Chapter in the History of Christian Re nunciation. If it meets from the critic the favour which was bestowed upon my Persecution in the Early Church I shall feel that the delay has not been in vain. It has certainly enabled me to make use of some valu able works oi but recent publication. The Third Chapter of my original design — the history of early missions — will shortly be published, in an abbreviated form, by the Student Volunteer Christian Union....

394 pages, Hardcover

First published July 9, 2006

About the author

Herbert Brook Workman

Reviews

[Michael Joosten · Rating 4 out of 5]

Workman's turn-of-the-century prose is lucid and personable in ways modern academic writing typically shirks from, but this book is still, at its heart, a scholarly tome. A believer, albeit a Methodist and not a monk, Workman has the advantage over a more dispassionate writer, though his work is thoroughly footnoted, betraying a breadth of familiarity with the original sources and the scholarship on them (even if it is a century old now) that is fully credentialed and laid at the reader's disposal.

[J. · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is an obscure, older book but is one of my favorite books of all time. This is a thorough look at the history of monastic movements that is an important read for anyone interested in the history of Christianity and Western civilization. Know the past and you will have more insight to navigate our cultural present.

[Pat Loughery]

The Evolution of the Monastic Ideal by Herbert Workman (1962)