Five Models of Spiritual Direction in the Early Church (review)

Several recent studies have analyzed the relationship among asceticism, authority, and episcopal leadership in late antiquity, but George Demacopoulos pushes the conversation a step further. Given the trend toward asceticization of the episcopate in the fourth to sixth century, he asks, "what happened when monks became bishops?" (p. 2). How did ascetic traditions of pastoral care affect the lay church? In Five Models of Spiritual Direction in the Early Church Demacopoulos examines distinctive paradigms of leadership that emerged in the writings and careers of five formative Christian thinkers: Athanasius of Alexandria, Gregory Nazianzen, Augustine of Hippo, John Cassian, and Pope Gregory I. Each struggled with the tensions between ascetic ideals and pastoral care, especially in the context of the lay church, and posed different solutions to the challenges of spiritual direction in the post Constantinian era.

After defining the parameters of the study, Demacopoulos introduces the criteria for authority and the pastoral activities that distinguished what he classifies as the clerical and ascetic traditions of leadership. In the wake of Constantine's conversion and the legalization of Christianity, he argues, approaches to pastoral care developed along different lines and occasionally came into competition. The clerical model stressed ordination as the basis of spiritual authority, emphasized education, social class, and theological orthodoxy in the selection of leaders, and regarded doctrinal instruction and preaching as the fundamental duties of the clergy. The ascetic tradition promoted an elder/disciple paradigm of leadership that focused on the spiritual father's use of such gifts as discernment (discretio) and economia (condescensio) in spiritual direction.

Demacopoulos devotes a chapter to each of his five influential authorities in their attempts to integrate these two increasingly distinct approaches to pastoral care. The nouns in the titles of the first three chapters—ambivalence, struggle, and resistance—suggest the response of each of the bishops to the use of an ascetic model in the lay community. Athanasius emphasized both ascetic experience and doctrinal orthodoxy as criteria for spiritual authority, an ambivalence, Demacopoulos suggests, which reflects "the increasing tension between ascetic and nonascetic ideals of Christian leadership" (p. 49). Although Athanasius did not differentiate between competing models of spiritual direction, Gregory Nazianzen recognized and struggled to bridge the growing gap between charismatic and institutional notions of authority in his requirements for leadership. Despite his own ascetic past Augustine's model of spiritual authority and pastoral care was decidedly nonascetic. Particularly helpful in each of these chapters is Demacopoulos's analysis of the theological controversies that shaped the bishop's particular stance toward ascetic communities and ascetic models of spiritual direction.

Chapters 4 and 5, on John Cassian and Pope Gregory I respectively, document the gradual fusion of the two traditions. While Cassian himself was never a bishop, he wrote for ascetics who increasingly filled episcopal positions in the West and adopted his pastoral strategies. His call for balance between contemplation and action and responsibility for one's neighbor enabled future bishops to adapt an ascetic model of spiritual direction to the realities of the lay church, a synthesis ultimately reached in Gregory's Pastoral Rule. Gregory, Demacopoulos concludes, was the first Western bishop to present "a distinctively ascetic approach for the spiritual direction of the laity" (p. 163), a model that shaped the religiosity of the Middle Ages.

This nuanced comparative study combines careful analysis of Greek and Latin texts with attention to philosophical, theological, and political factors affecting five different models of pastoral care. Demacopoulos's descriptions of clerical notions of leadership sometimes seem more aristocratic than distinctively clerical, but his delineation of ascetic pastoral attributes and activities is especially perceptive. These not only throw light on an emerging tradition of leadership but also may help to explain the influential role of monks in other aspects of society and the Church. Tracing the rise of spiritual direction in the early Church as well as the gradual merger of diverse traditions, this book should...