Michael W. Champion - Dorotheus of Gaza and Ascetic Education

This book had a long gestation period, conceptualized at the University of Western Australia, including on sabbatical at the University of Cambridge, and written in the Australian Catholic Universitys Institute for Religion and Critical Inquiry. UWA sabbatical funding also took me to Lund University, where I enjoyed the hospitality of Samuel Rubensons Monasticism and Classical Paideia research team at an engaging workshop. Discussions with colleagues at UWA about exemplarity, ancient education, emotions history, and late-antique and Byzantine history helped ideas to crystallize. I recall with gratitude stimulating conversations with friends and colleagues including Yasmin Haskell, John Melville-Jones, Lara OSullivan, Neil OSullivan, Kirk Essary, Andrew Lynch, Pip Maddern, and Anne Scott. Susan Broomhall invited me to present related research for UWAs Institute of Advanced Study and the Perth Medieval and Renaissance Group, an organization which models scholarly community.

The ARC Centre of Excellence for the History of Emotions funded a project on Dorotheus humanist reception and provided a vibrant research context. The ACU/Durham/Notre Dame Modes of Knowing team discussed many themes and read substantial drafts. I thank Lewis Ayres, Matt Crawford, Sarah Gador-Whyte, Michael Hanaghan, Jane Heath, Dawn LaValle Norman, Andrew Radde-Gallwitz, and Jonathan Zecher. I am especially indebted to Jonathan, whose knowledge of ascetica is exceptional. He read the whole and made numerous insightful suggestions. Jon Simons offered valuable research assistance while completing his PhD. Im fortunate to work with supportive colleagues in ACUs Biblical and Early Christian Studies team. I worked closely with David Runia in leading the Institute for Religion and Critical Inquiry, and I record my gratitude for Davids advice and friendship. Kylie Crabbes encouragement and advice has also been influential. I have benefited from feedback arising from presentations of early drafts around the world, and I warmly thank participants in these conferences and seminars. My PhD supervisor Judith Herrin asked whether Dorotheus was interested in education or in training, a question that kept worrying me as I thought about the contours of monastic pedagogy.

A recurring topic of conversation at home as I was growing up was how best to educate people. Education was placed at the heart of a range of cultural problems. My social worker mother and physics teacher father introduced me to theorists of culture and education like Jerome Bruner and Lev Vygotsky, whose ideas turned out to be fruitful in this project. They helped draw out how education can reinforce power structures and, if done well, strengthen social justice. Ideas like these are at the heart of thinking about how to conceptualize late-antique education, relate it to earlier educational practices from the classical world, and integrate it in narratives of late-antique cultural change. Family debates about education (and much else) continue, enriched too by the perspectives of my sister, a high school teacher, and my brother, a medievalist. I thank Gaye, Neil, Matthew, and Benita for their intellectual contributions and loving friendship. Other friends have offered ideas and encouragement at various stages. I thank especially Miranda, Callum, Martin, and Hilary. Samuel and Hugh have generously allowed me to hide away in the study with Dorotheus and they coped with lockdown home-schooling with independence, fortitude, and good humour. Sarah, my wife, has been a constant support and critic. She has debated, commented on, and improved the whole, and, in the difficult circumstances of the past two years, has enabled me to find the time to complete the project. I dedicate the book to her.

Melbourne

October 2021