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Five Models of Spiritual Direction in the Early Church. By George E. Demacopoulos. (Notre Dame, Indiana: University of Notre Dame Press. 2007. Pp. x, 275. $30.00 paperback.)
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 postConstantinian era.
After defining the parameters of the study, Demacopoulos introduces the criteria for...