Concerning the relationship of the Christian practice of ascesis to the task of Christian theology

The practice that Christians call theology is nothing less than a form of asceticism applied to Christian discourse. This dissertation explores the ascetical logic of the various practices that Christians call theology as a contribution to both modern Christian thought and the study of asceticism. This project engages the literature that has developed within the past twenty years or so that critically retrieves ancient Christian asceticism.; The introduction surveys this recent historical and philosophical scholarship on ancient Christian asceticism and argues that this body of literature presents a vision of asceticism as the embodiment of theology. Part one establishes ascetic practice as a significant means by which Christians teach the content of Christian faith concretely as personal appropriation. Part two argues that Christian theology as a reflective but also embodied Christian practice, participates in Christian asceticism as a type of ascetic discipline. The conclusion reviews the course of the argument, answers one possible objection to the thesis and spells out the implications of approaching the task of indigenous Christian thought as an example and part of Christian asceticism in terms of how it may influence the indigenous unfolding of Christian thought, affect the work of the individual theologian, and reframe the relationship of indigenous Christian thought to the secular academy.