Monasteries and the Care of Souls in Late Antique Christianity

'Paul C. Dilley provides an authoritative account of how early cenobitic monks acted on their hearts and minds to achieve virtue and thus salvation. Based on deep knowledge of the primary sources and informed by perspectives from cognitive theory, this innovative, original, and clear book will appeal to historians of the emotions as well as scholars of early Christianity, monasticism, and the history of spirituality. An impressive achievement.' David Brakke, The Ohio State University 'Monasteries and the Care of Souls in Late Antique Christianity is a brilliant study of the training of monks. It brings new insights from anthropology and cognitive science to explain how these monks set out to remake the deeply human mind. It offers a fascinating and intimate account of the process of becoming a monk that has much to teach us about the monks of period - and about religious practice today.' Tanya Marie Luhrmann, Stanford University, California 'Dilley's work serves as an excellent resources for scholars in the field of Christianity and Christian monasticism in the Late Antique Middle East, as well as for psychological historians. It is painstakingly detailed, very skillfully written, and recreates - as well as possible within its constraints - the emotional, spiritual, and cognitive process by which postulants gained a monastic theory of mind and were transformed into the monks and nuns of Late Antiquity.' Reading Religion '… Dilley's monograph makes a valuable contribution to the field of the history of emotions … The study is therefore to be highly recommended to researchers in the fields of history of emotions as it intersects with religious studies and classics.' Eduard Iricinschi, EHCS Journal