Authority and Asceticism from Augustine to Gregory the Great (review)

Conrad Leyser. Authority and Asceticism from Augustine. to Gregory the Great. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 2000. Pp. xii + 221. $65.00.

This is a study of the writings of the "later Latin Fathers" (by which Leyser means, principally, Augustine, John Cassian, Caesarius of Arles, Benedict of Nursia, and Gregory the Great) on the "language of moral authority." In the author's own words, "An analysis of the ethical relation between speaker and listener, rather than a concern with the institutional authority of bishops or abbots, seems to me to characterize ascetic thought and practice in this period." Leyser wishes to explore, in other words, the ways in which these ancient writers approached the question of how an ascetic who comes to power, as a bishop, abbot, or even pope, should use his moral authority to lead his community.

The book is not, however, a general survey of the topic in late antiquity. Rather, the organization and discussion form an argument which subtly culminates in the synthesis by Gregory the Great of his fifth- and sixth-century predecessors on this subject. The volume begins by presenting two alternate views of the problem of moral authority in ascetic circles: that of Augustine and that of John Cassian. It then moves on to sixth-century writers like Pomerius, Caesarius of Arles, and the authors of early monastic Rules, who tried to synthesize, reconcile, or in some way deal with the arguments of Augustine and Cassian. Oftentimes, the result is no more than simply calling upon Augustinian authority without actually adopting the heart of his message.

In the third section of the book, Leyser makes his greatest contribution to scholarship, in my opinion, by showing how Gregory the Great was finally able "to resolve many of the tensions that had beset the ascetic movement from its inception." Gregory was able to do this by abandoning the strict conceptions of community earlier writers had used and by focusing not on the cloister or the desert community of ascetics, but rather on the Church as a whole—the body of the faithful. He sought not to recreate a community modeled on the Jerusalem community of the New Testament, which had excited Augustine and others, but to create "a language of authority to be used across the whole ecclesial community." Leyser's analysis of Gregory's writings adds a new dimension to our understanding of Gregory of Great as an ascetic and a ruler. However, the author's detailed exploration of texts and writers reveals that there is much more to this book than a very brief summary can portray.

For a topic of such density, Leyser has created a very readable account with his lively and brisk prose. One does not generally get bogged down in a mire of philosophical rhetoric, which a topic of this nature might entail. Although this fact makes a short volume even shorter, the book's brevity is also a disadvantage. There is only one paragraph of actual introduction in the preface before the author starts into the study of Augustine and no real conclusion besides the epilogue-like last two pages on Gregory the Great. Thus, the book is for the initiated; it is not a "neat and tidy" thesis-driven introduction to the topic.

Quite often, the author's conclusions about a particular ancient writer were left a bit vague in the main discussion, becoming clearer only as Leyser sum-marized them in subsequent chapters when he discussed later reactions to an earlier work. Thus, it is only as one concludes the book that the full import of all the arguments and discourses on ascetic authority prior to Gregory the Great becomes clear, a reality which does make for a satisfactory culmination to the book. Despite potential drawbacks, this is a very interesting and informative book that scholars interested in the development of asceticism in Late Antiquity, or more specifically in the...