Ascetical Theology

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Classically, ascetical theology has been defined as the branch of theology dealing with the ordinary means of Christian perfection, e.g., the disciplined renunciation of personal desires, the imitation of Christ, and the pursuit of charity. On this level it has been distinguished since the seventeenth century from moral theology (which deals with those duties essential for salvation and thus the avoidance of mortal and venial sins) and mystical theology (which deals with the extraordinary grace of God leading to infused contemplation and is thus a passive reception rather than an active pursuit). The borderline between moral and ascetical theology is hazy at best, while the distinction between it and mystical theology is often denied altogether.

This fact becomes particularly clear when ascetical theology is divided in its usual manner into the purgative, illuminative, and unitive ways. The purgative way, which stresses the cleansing of the soul from all serious sin, clearly overlaps moral theology. The unitive way, which focuses on union with God, can easily include mystical theology. Only the illuminative way, the practice of positive Christian virtue, remains uncontested. Yet this threefold division of ascetical theology has been firmly established since Thomas Aquinas, although its roots can be traced to Augustine and earlier. Thus it is wisest to take ascetical theology in its broadest sense, meaning the study of Christian discipline and the spiritual life.

The basis of ascetical theology is in the NT

It was Jesus who spoke of fasting (Matt. 9:15; Mark 9:29), celibacy (Matt. 19:12), and the renunciation of possessions (Matt. 19:21; Mark 10:28; Luke 9:57 - 62; 12:33). More importantly Jesus called for a general self-renunciation, a "taking up" of one's "cross" in order to follow him (Mark 8:34). The Sermon on the Mount forms the directive for this lifestyle, closing with a call to a disciplined life (Matt. 7:13 - 27). One must also include the call for constant watchfulness (Matt. 24:42; 25:13, or "abiding" in John). Paul picked up this theme with his call for self discipline (1 Cor. 9:24 - 27), his exhortation to put off the "old man" (Eph. 4:22) or to put to death the flesh (Col. 3:5), and his demand that Christians walk by the Spirit (Rom.8; Gal. 5). Similar examples could be discovered in James, John, or Peter. It is the unified witness of the NT that the Christian life is a discipline, a struggle, and that success in this struggle is enabled by the grace of God or his Spirit.

The postapostolic church, beginning, perhaps, with the Shepherd of Hermas, began producing works on how this discipline was to be pursued; that is, how the goal of perfect charity and fellowship with God was to be gained. Spiritual teaching was quickly connected first with martyrdom as its highest good and then, partially under the influence of Neoplatonism, with virginity as a type of living martyrdom. As the church became one with the Roman Empire, it was the monastic movement which took up and defended the rigor of the early period; this was to be the home of ascetical theology for much of the succeeding church history, producing the works of the desert fathers, Basil and the Eastern tradition of spiritual direction, and later the medieval monastic tradition, following in the steps of Augustine.

In the Reformation period ascetical theology split into several different streams, some of which were more influenced by the medieval stress on the meditation on and identification with the human life of Christ and others more by the spiritual internalization of the life of Christ in the Devotio Moderna as seen especially in Thomas a Kempis's Imitation of Christ. The most radical stream was the Anabaptist one, which aimed at a disciplined church with primitive purity: the whole church fulfilled the monastic ideal of imitating Christ. The Catholic stream focused more upon a group of elect "first class" Christians (Francis de Sales, Ignatius's Spiritual Exercises), preserving the tradition of deep meditation on the human sufferings of Christ. Lutheran pietism and especially Calvinist Puritanism mediated ascetical theology to their respective traditions with their stress on holy lives (Richard Baxter, and in some respects William Law's Serious Call). Finally, there is the whole holiness tradition, beginning with John Wesley.

If these are classified as radical, catholic, state church, and holiness, one can find a place within these categories for the Quakers and others who, knowingly or unconsciously, repeat the calls of spiritual directors and writers on ascetical theology down the ages (e.g., Richard Foster, Watchman Nee, or George Verwer).

The common themes of ascetical theology in whatever its clothing are the following:

• (1) a stress on the call of God and thus on God's enabling grace to live the Christian life; ascetical theology is neither Pelagianism nor legalism in its basic forms;
• (2) a demand that one forsake sin, including practices that much of the church might find acceptable for ordinary church people; this demand is usually related to literal following of the NT ethic;
• (3) a call to mortify the flesh and its desires, to discipline oneself, which in its best forms is not connected to a Neoplatonic dualistic anthropology (this theme and the previous one form the purgative way);
• (4) an invitation to follow Christ and apply oneself to those virtues which he commanded;
• (5) a call to self surrender to God's will as an act of radical faith, at times in the form of virtually a conversion experience or a second work of grace (the illuminative way); and
• (6) an expectation that through quiet prayer and meditation one will become closer to God and experience him spiritually as "the living word" (Anabaptist) or even as one's divine spouse (Catholic tradition, e.g., John of the Cross).

This last is the unitive way. While all of this can become a very individualistic seeking of perfection, the best writers of the tradition are aware of the body of Christ and thus formed their own groups to jointly pursue the goal and / or expected that the pursuit of perfection would lead to a deeper service to the whole body of Christ (e.g., Fenelon).

In either its narrower classical sense or its broader sense including a large Protestant tradition ascetical theology is essentially that part of moral and pastoral theology which aims at the renewal of individuals and the church, deeper spiritual experience, and true holiness in primitive simplicity. As such it is a theological discipline indispensable to the proper functioning of the church.

P H Davids
(Elwell Evangelical Dictionary)

Bibliography
P Brooks, Christian Spirituality; O Chadwick, Western Asceticism; E Cothenet, Imitating Christ; K R Davis, Anabaptism and Asceticism; A Devine, Manual of Ascetical Theology; R Foster, Celebration of Discipline; F P Harton, The Elements of the Spiritual Life; U T Holmes, A History of Christian Spirituality; K E Kirk, The Vision of God; J Linworsky, Christian Asceticism and Modern Man; R Lovelace, The Dynamics of Spiritual Life; Orthodox Spirituality; L C Shepherd, Spiritual Writers in Modern Times; M Thornton, English Spirituality; Dictionnaire de spiritualite ascetique et mystique; H von Campenhausen, Tradition and Life in the Church; R Williams, Christian Spirituality; O Wyon, Desire for God.

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