Paradise Lost/Regained: Healing the Monastic Self in the Coenobium of Dorotheus of Gaza

Abstract

This chapter deals with the construction of Christian identity in the instructions given by Dorotheus (6th century ce) to his brothers in a monastery near Gaza. It focuses on the link between good or bad health and religious selfhood in Dorotheus’ monastic anthropology. In Dorotheus’ view, Christian identity is beset by the experience of loss because since Adam’s fall, human existence has been riddled with unnatural passions which prevent reunion with God. The only way to regain one’s own nature – that is, original identity – is habituation to a truly Christian, i.e. ascetic, life. The chapter examines Dorotheus’ rhetoric of healing against the backdrop of Stoic philosophy and ancient medical theorisation in order to show that he sets out a detailed programme of rebuilding Christian identity. Its ultimate goal is to restore, through ascetic exercises, both spiritual and physical, the integrity of the human being. It is argued that the medical conceptualisation helps Dorotheus to shape the embodied ascetic self.