The Conferences #57

Publication Data: New York, NY/Mahwah, NJ: Newman Press, 1997
Format: hardcover
Number of Pages: xvi + 886
Dimensions (l × w × h): 22.2 cm × 14.6 cm × 5.5 cm
ISBN: 0‒8091‒0484‒9

   
John Cassian
Translated and Annotated by Boniface Ramsey, O.P.

No. 57 of Ancient Christian Writers: The Works of the Fathers in Translation

“By far the longest of Cassian’s three works, The Conferences are in fact among the longest works of Christian antiquity, running to more than seven hundred pages in Petschenig’s edition. This vast treatise, composed of twenty-four separate conferences, is divided into three major parts, the first containing ten and the remaining two containing seven conferences each. These three parts purport to record conversations that were had in different locations, and at different times, in the Egyptian desert. Thus, the first ten conferences are placed in Skete, the following set of seven is placed in the vicinity of the town of Thennesus, and the final seven near of the town of Diolcos. None of these locations was very far from the great metropolis of Alexandria. [...]Within these twenty-four conferences, particularly when they are taken in tandem with their sister work, The Institutes, there are rather few significant aspects of ancient monastic practice and spirituality that do not surface. We would hardly know how comprehensive the treatise really is from reading the titles of the different conferences, which do not give a true insight into their scope. (Both these titles, incidentally, and the headings of the chapters of each conference are by a later hand than Cassian’s.)”
—“INTRODUCTION”

CONTENTS

   Abbreviations
   A List and Explanation of Some Terms Used Throughout The Conferences
   Preface
   Introduction
The First Part of The Conferences of John Cassian (I–X)
   Translator’s Note to the First Part
   Cassian’s Preface to the First Part
   First Conference: On the goal and the end of the monk
   Second Conference: On discretion
   Third Conference: On the three renunciations
   Fourth Conference: On the desire of the flesh and of the spirit
   Fifth Conference: On the eight principal vices
   Sixth Conference: On the slaughter of some holy persons
   Seventh Conference: On the changeableness of the soul and on evil spirits
   Eighth Conference: On the principalities
   Ninth Conference: On prayer, part one
   Tenth Conference: On prayer, part two
The Second Part of The Conferences of John Cassian (XI–XVII)
   Translator’s Note to the Second Part
   Cassian’s Preface to the Second Part
   Eleventh Conference: On perfection
   Twelfth Conference: On chastity
   Thirteenth Conference: On God’s protection
   Fourteenth Conference: On spiritual knowledge
   Fifteenth Conference: On divine gifts
   Sixteenth Conference: On friendship
   Seventeenth Conference: On making promises
The Third Part of The Conferences of John Cassian (XVIII–XXIV)
   Translator’s Note to the Third Part
   Cassian’s Preface to the Third Part
   Eighteenth Conference: On the three kinds of monks
   Nineteenth Conference: The end of the cenobite and of the hermit
   Twentieth Conference: On the end of repentance and on the mark of reparation
   Twenty-First Conference: On the relaxation at pentecost
   Twenty-Second Conference: On nocturnal illusions
   Twenty-Third Conference: On sinlessness
   Twenty-Fourth Conference: On mortification
Indexes
   Index of Scriptural Citations and Allusions
   Index of Nonscriptural Citations and Allusions
   Index of Nonscriptural Persons
   Index of Places