Dr Paul Allen

One of the key founders of monastic communities had no notion of founding anything—he was simply concerned for his own spiritual condition and spent much of his life alone.  Anthony was born in Egypt , probably about 250, to well-to-do parents who died when he was about twenty and left him all their possessions.  A sermon text, Jesus ’ command to the rich young ruler, “If you would be perfect, go and sell all you have,” changed the young man’s life.  The words seemed directed to him, and Anthony took them literally. He gave his lands to his fellow villagers, sold his other property, and donated the money to the poor. He put himself under the care of an elderly Christian who taught him the joys of self-denial. Anthony lived on one meal a day of bread and water and slept on the bare ground. With the conversion of Emperor Constantine in 312, the church’s situation changed drastically . Christians lost their position as a persecuted minority and became members of...

Image via Wikipedia Ever since the New Testament epistles were written, Christians have received advice on how to live the Christian life . How much should we pray? What progress can we expect to make in achieving biblical holiness in this life? Is perfection an attainable goal? Is Christianity best lived out in normal circumstances of family, marriage, and vocation, or in hermit-like isolation from others or in communities specially formed for the purpose of cultivating prayer, worship, and work? As persecution of the early church died out and Christians gained freedom of worship in the Roman Empire , the monastic life originated as a lay movement offering specific answers to these questions. With martyrdom no longer a means by which people could demonstrate the Gospel’s demands of self-sacrifice, many believers found the sinful condition of Roman culture so oppressive that they “dropped out” of society altogether. They sought to express the spirit of ascetic devotion through mo...