Author Description

"Caner draws together traditions, episodes, and groups from across the geographical expanse of the Roman Empire (the Syrian Orient, North Africa, Constantinople), to present the wandering monk as a figure around whom the ecclesiastical battle for authority fought between bishops and ascetics took on acute articulations. By focusing on religious practices rather than doctrinal teachings, Caner is able to weave together hitherto separate discussions to reveal a larger pattern of profound change in late antique Christian culture, as different models of monasticism competed for economic and political power in urban centers. This is very important work. It makes major contributions to our understanding of early Christian asceticism, the emergence of monasticism as an institution within church and society, and church-state relations in the later Roman Empire."—Susan Ashbrook Harvey, author of Asceticism and Society in Crisis: John of Ephesus and the Lives of the Eastern Saints. "Caner has cut through to the heart of central issues in the study of early Christian asceticism: social stability, economic self-sufficiency, and the reliability of the sources at our disposal. Those who were apparently unstable and dependent, the wanderers and beggars of his title, occupy the foreground of his account; but his chief argument is that they have to be placed in a broader social and historical context that softens the edges of their idiosyncrasy, and that we have to be careful not to take at face value the exaggerated categories of mutually belligerent parties in the church.... The second half of the work begins by tackling the "Messalian" movement—asking whether it is appropriate to talk of a "movement" in so distinctive a way. The supposedly typical "Messalian" inclination—an inclination to dramatic indigence in the service of continuous prayer—seems less sui generis, when placed alongside more moderate forms of ascetic dedication. We are warned, therefore